1848–1916

Introduction

illustration

Born: Ju­ly 16, 1848, Johns­burgh, New York.

Died: Oc­to­ber 18, 1916, Green Bay, Wis­con­sin, of ty­phoid fe­ver.

Buried: Bo­vi­na Ce­me­te­ry, Shi­oc­ton, Wis­con­sin.

portrait

Biography

Eben was the son of Ja­bez Bur­rows Rex­ford and Re­bec­ca Wil­cox, and hus­band of Har­ri­et Bau­man Marsh (Hat­tie) (mar­ried De­cem­ber 1890).

His fa­mi­ly moved to Wis­con­sin in 1855, set­tling in the town of El­ling­ton.

He re­ceived his ear­ly edu­ca­tion in the coun­ty schools and at Law­rence Col­lege, Ap­ple­ton, Wis­con­sin, which lat­er award­ed him a Ba­che­lor of Li­te­ra­ture de­gree.

He served as town clerk of Bo­vi­na, Wis­consin, for ma­ny years, and dur­ing the first ad­min­is­tra­tion of Am­eri­can pre­sident Gro­ver Cleve­land, he was post­mas­ter of Shi­oc­ton, Wis­con­sin.

Works

Rexford’s li­ter­ary gifts be­came evi­dent ear­ly in life, and his first vers­es were pub­lished in the New York Ledg­er when he was 14 years old.

He com­posed ma­ny hymns, in­clud­ing ones used by Ira San­key, Ed­win Ex­cell, Charles Ga­bri­el, and Bil­ly Sun­day.

Sources

Lyrics