Biography

Three of Barn­hart’s songs ap­peared in Gos­pel Songs and Hymns No. 1, ed­it­ed by George B. Hol­sing­er of the Church of the Breth­ren (Bridge­wa­ter, Vir­gin­ia: George B. Hol­sing­er, 1898).

It seems like­ly he is Jo­seph Ol­iv­er Barn­hart (1865–1941), who is bur­ied in Cer­ro Gor­do, Il­linois:

• The Unit­ed States Lib­ra­ry of Con­gress Co­py­right Ca­ta­log, Vol­ume 23, 1926, p. 461 has an en­try giv­ing Jo­seph’s full name.
• The lib­ra­ry of Man­ches­ter Uni­ver­si­ty, North Man­ches­ter, In­di­ana (orig­in­al­ly a Church of the Breth­ren school), file folder #19, con­tains Jo­seph Ol­iv­er Barn­hart ma­te­ri­als.
• The 1926 book The De­serted Cha­pel and Oth­er Poe­ms, in­cludes sheet mu­sic by Jo­seph Ol­iv­er Barn­hart, es­tab­lish­ing that he was both a po­et and a com­pos­er.