Bibliography: Samuel Francis Smith & John Pond Ordway

Samuel Francis Smith

Samuel Francis Smith was born on October 21,1808 in Boston, Massachusetts and died in 1895. His education included five years at the Boston Latin school between 1820 and 1825 and then in 1829 he graduated from Harvard. He received a Doctorate of D. D. from Waterville College in 1854. In 1832 he attended the Andover theological seminary. Smith was also ordained to the ministry of the Baptist church at Waterville, Maine, in 1834. After being ordained he occupied pastorates at Waterville and Newton, Massachusetts between 1834 and 1842. Samuel Francis Smith was also the professor of modern languages from 1842 to 1854 at Waterville college, which is now Colby University. He produced many literary works, mostly hymnologies. His most famous hymn was, “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” He wrote the hymn as a theological student studying abroad in Germany in the year 1832. Dr. Smith’s inspiration for the song was the school children in Germany who began easch day by reciting a hymn. He wrote the song with the idea for American childen to do the same thing. The tune of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” was taken from the British anthem “God Save the King” he heard playing while composing the lyrics. The sung was sung for the first time on July 4, 1832 at a children’s celebration in the Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts.

John Pond Ordway

An other American musican in the nineteeth century is John Pond Ordway. He is most well know for composing the song Twinkling Stars Are Laughing, Love. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts on August 1,1824 and died in April 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts. Not only was he a composer, but he was also a doctor, a music entrepreneur, and a politician. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1859 and he was ont of the first ever surgeons to volunteer at the beginning of the Civil War. Ordway severed in the sixth Regiment, which was called the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. John Pond Ordway was one of the few union surgeons sent to help heal the wounded after the Battle of Gettysburg. He also owned his own music shop in Boston. His most well known song Twinkling Stars Are Laughing, Love was recorded by the Hayden Quartet between 1902 and 1904. Around 1845 he organized Ordway’s Aeolians, a blackface minstrel troup which performed at Ordway Hall in Boston moreover nationally to promote Ordway's publishing business. Future bandleader and composer, Patrick Gimore, worked in Ordway's store and appeared with the Aeolians. James Lord Pierpont’s first major composition "The Returned Californian" in 1852 was written expressly for Ordway and his troupe. A number of nineteenth century songs were written for the Aeolians and/or dedicated to Ordway, including Jingle Bells.

Worked Cited:

"Songwriters Hall of Fame - Samuel Francis Smith Exhibit Home." Songwriters Hall of Fame - Virtual Museum Home. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. <http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C200>.

"John P. Ordway -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 07 Dec. 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Ordway>.

websites:

http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/acknowledgements/C200

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Ordway