Introduction

Biography

Hugh was the son of Jo­seph Mc­Gra­na­han and Mar­ga­ret Mc­Mi­chael, hus­band of Grace McKinl­ey, and neph­ew of hym­nist James Mc­Gra­na­han (and some­times con­fused with his un­cle of the same name, who lived 1825–99).

He stu­died mu­sic un­der George Root and Ho­ra­tio Pal­mer, and at the New Eng­land Con­ser­va­to­ry of Mu­sic, Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts.

His ca­reer start­ed by di­rect­ing mu­sic­al in­sti­tute con­ven­tions. He lat­er had charge of church cho­ral un­ions in New York and Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia, and led the Mu­sic De­part­ment at Moo­dy Bi­ble In­sti­tute, Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, for five years.

After leav­ing the mu­sic field for health rea­sons, he en­tered the in­sur­ance field in Pitts­burgh, Penn­syl­van­ia, where he di­rect­ed mu­sic in the edu­ca­tion­al de­part­ment of the Belle­field Pres­by­ter­ian Church.

As of 1880, he was teach­ing mu­sic in South Shen­an­go, Pen­nsyl­van­ia. By 1914, he had moved back to his home town of James­town.