Introduction

Biography

Ida was the daugh­ter of John F. Briggs and Ar­vil­la I. Bi­ge­low, and wife of James Har­vey Budd (mar­ried Ja­nu­ary 7, 1880).

Mrs. Ida M. Budd first op­ened her eyes in a log ca­bin, in Sa­gi­naw Co[un­ty], Mi­chi­gan, in 1859.

When she was three years of age, her par­ents moved to Mil­ford, Mich., where from ear­li­est re­Col­lect­ion she drank deep­ly of the na­tur­al beau­ties in which the place and its vi­ci­ni­ty abound­ed; made friends of the trees and their fea­thered de­ni­zens; of the hills, the Hur­on ri­ver and the small creek which flowed past her home to join it; traced pic­tures in the drift­ing clouds and be­came, in­deed, a child of na­ture.

Coordinate with her love of na­ture, be­came her love of books. From the time I had my first know­ledge of an in­sti­tu­tion called school, she writes, I felt an ar­dent long­ing to be part of it.

In her fifth year she was per­mit­ted to be a vi­sit­or at school, and dur­ing that won­der­ful morn­ing, at that ear­ly age, the an­swer to the per­plex­ing ques­tion con­cern­ing her life-oc­cu­pa­tion was charm­ing­ly un­fold­ed to her—she would be a school teach­er.

At ten years she be­gan her stu­dies. At fif­teen, al­though ham­pered by ill health, she re­ceived her first teach­er’s cer­ti­fi­cate.

Her fa­ther’s re­turn from the [Am­eri­can ci­vil] war in 1865, bring­ing with him his co­py of The Ar­my and Na­vy Hymn Book awak­ened her first in­ter­est in hym­no­lo­gy and she spee­di­ly ob­tained men­tal pos­sess­ion of such trea­sures as Je­sus, Lov­er of My Soul, Rock of Ag­es, etc. sin­gu­lar men­tal food for a child of six years, at which time she first at­tend­ed Sun­day school and be­came the own­er of a song book, Hap­py Voic­es, all her ve­ry own.

As a child she scrib­bled vers­es, but as years passed she be­came fa­mil­iar with the mas­ter­piec­es of Am­eri­can po­ets, such as Ev­an­gel­ine, Hia­wa­tha, Bit­ter Sweet, and oth­ers, which con­vinced her that the mys­tic spir­it which pro­duced them re­sid­ed, in some de­gree, in her own be­ing.

Her first po­em was print­ed in 1881; her se­cond in 1890, in the De­troit Free Press un­der a nom de plume.

As a writ­er of verse for child­ren she has few eq­uals, and no su­per­ior, and it gives me plea­sure to know that I com­posed the mu­sic for her first and ma­ny sub­se­quent po­ems of child­hood, some of which have been re­print­ed in for­eign lands.

Her best known hymn, per­haps, is Leav­ing All to Follow Je­sus. John G. Whit­ti­er, with his sim­ple, trust­ing faith in the Ete­rnal Good­ness, has fur­nished much of the in­spi­ra­tion for her work, and since her first ac­quaint­ance with his writ­ings he has been her fa­vor­ite poet.

The Youth’s Com­pan­ion paid her $20.00 for her po­em Re­sur­gam, print­ed in the East­er num­ber for 1904. Her wri­tings in­clude a num­ber of short sto­ries, sketch­es, and mis­cel­la­ne­ous ar­ti­cles.

These waifs of mine, she writes, have brought me ma­ny de­light­ful friend­ships and a big ac­count in the bank of hap­py me­mo­ries, and I am led thank­ful­ly to be­lieve that they have al­so, in some in­stanc­es at least, been help­ful to oth­ers.

Charles H. Gab­ri­el
The Sing­ers and Their Songs, 1916