March 24: Birthday of Fanny Crosby (1820)
Prayer Idea
Thank God for hymnwriters of the past. Pray for people who are writing new hymns today.
History Note
Frances Jane Crosby was born in Putnam County, New York, in 1820. Though she became blind at six weeks of age, she became a teacher, a poet, and a hymn writer. Fanny Crosby wrote over 8,000 hymns, including some of the most beloved hymns ever written.
Soon after the New York Institution for the Blind was founded, Fanny traveled there by steamboat to go to school. She was 14 years old. Braille had not yet become a popular way for blind people to learn. Teachers gave lectures and read to the children. Following her own studies at the school, Fanny became a teacher there. She taught grammar, rhetoric, ancient history, and modern history.
During her work at the school, Fanny crossed paths with many prominent people. In 1844 Fanny and others from the school went to Washington, D.C., to help people be aware of blind people. Fanny gave a poetic address to a joint session of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. In the audience were two future presidents: James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson. While in Washington, she met and received a hand clasp from former president John Quincy Adams. He was in his mid-70s. She heard him give a speech about the Smithsonian Institution.
Fanny also met presidents John Tyler and James K. Polk and newspaper editor Horace Greeley. She encouraged a young man who worked at the school named Grover Cleveland after the death of his father. Grover and Fanny remained friends even after he became the 22nd president of the United States.
At the school, Fanny met her future husband, Alexander Van Alstyne. Like Fanny, he was first a student and later a teacher. Fanny and Van married in 1858, when she was 37 years old. Fanny left her life at the school where she had spent so many years as a student and teacher. Fanny’s husband was one of the best organists in New York City. He was a composer, he played cornet, and he taught music. The couple were married for 44 years. They had one daughter, who died as a baby.
Over the next several decades, Fanny wrote thousands of hymns. Though Fanny herself played guitar, harp, piano, and other instruments, she rarely wrote the melodies for her songs.
Once American hymn composer William Doane came to see Fanny. He asked her to put words to a tune he had written. He was in a hurry because he had to catch a train in 40 minutes. He played the tune for her. She told him that his music said, “Safe in the Arms of Jesus.” She scribbled out some words and told him to read it on the train. That hymn became one of Fanny’s most famous and was one of her personal favorites.
When Fanny wrote her autobiography at age 83, she was traveling around the country visiting churches, speaking, and reciting her poems to audiences. She believed herself still in the prime of life and believed that hymn writing was her true life’s work. She wrote, “I seem to have been led, little by little, toward my life-work,” and “My work grows sweeter and grander to me each day.”
Fanny J. Crosby died just before her 95th birthday. Her tombstone says simply, “Aunt Fanny” and “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.”
Fanny Crosby (1906). Photo by W. J. Searle, courtesy the Library of Congress.
Learn More
Watch a video on the life and impact of Fanny Crosby.
Listen to songs written by Fanny Crosby and watch more videos at Homeschool History.
