Son of Syl­ves­ter Main, Hu­bert at­tend­ed sing­ing school un­til 1854, when he went to New York Ci­ty and worked as an er­rand boy in a wall­pa­per house. In Ap­ril 1855, he be­came an er­rand boy in the Bris­tow & Morse pi­a­no com­pa­ny. That same year, he helped his fa­ther ed­it the Sun­day School Lute song­book by Isaac Wood­bu­ry. In 1867, Main was called to fill a po­si­tion in Wil­liam Brad­bu­ry’s pub­lish­ing house. Fol­low­ing Brad­bu­ry’s death in 1868, the Big­low & Main pub­lish­ers were formed as its suc­cess­or. In ad­di­tion to pub­lish­ing, Main wrote over 1,000 piec­es of mu­sic—part song, sing­ing school songs, Sun­day School mu­sic, hymns, an­thems, etc. He al­so col­lect­ed mu­sic books; in 1891, he sold his col­lect­ion of over 3,500 vol­umes to the New­ber­ry Library in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, where they were known as the Main Lib­ra­ry. Main’s works in­clude:

• Book of Praise for the Sun­day School, with George A. Bell (New York: Big­low & Main, 1875)
• Little Pil­grim Songs, with Mrs. Wil­bur F. Crafts (New York: Big­low & Main, 1884)
• Hymns of Praise, with George A. Bell (New York: Big­low & Main, 1884)
• Gems of Song for the Sun­day School, with Ira Sank­ey (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: The Big­low & Main Co., 1901)

• Hall, pp. 141-46
• Hughes, pp. 480-81
• Jones, pp. 89-90
• McCutchan, p. 299
• Hustad, p. 280
• Nutter, p. 461

1. Armor
2. Blessèd Cross of Je­sus
3. Blessèd Home­land
4. Bridgeport
5. Bright For­ev­er, The
6. Carry the Stand­ard Brave­ly
7. Colliers Wood
8. Dan
9. Ellesdie
10. Firm on the Rock I Stand
11. Hallelujah! Je­sus Saves Me
12. Happy Lit­tle Pil­grims
13. Hear, and Live!
14. Hold Thou My Hand
15. Hubert
16. I Stood Out­side the Gate
17. Jesus, Je­sus On­ly
18. Jewett
19. Let Me Lean on Thee
20. Little Friends of Je­sus
21. Mishael
22. My Ain Coun­trie
23. Noah
24. O My Sav­ior, Hear Me
25. Oh, Come To­day
26. Only Trust the Sav­ior’s Prom­ise
27. Pontmain
28. Praise the Rock of Our Sal­va­tion
29. Rally, Sol­diers, One and All
30. Rejoice, Re­joice, Be­liev­er
31. Save Me at the Cross
32. Silver Spring
33. Tell the Bless­èd News
34. There’s a Friend That Abides
35. Thy Word Is a Lamp
36. Up and Away
37. We Shall Meet, By and By
38. Webster Groves
39. Weissinger
40. We’re Trav­el­ing Home
41. What a Friend Thou Art to Me!
42. Yes, There Is Par­don for You