1847–1909

Introduction

portrait

Born: No­vem­ber 7, 1847, East Li­ver­pool, Ohio.

Died: Sep­tem­ber 20, 1909, Pres­by­ter­ian Hos­pi­tal, New York Ci­ty.

Buried: Ri­ver­view Ce­me­te­ry, East Li­ver­pool, Ohio.

Biography

Will was the son of Jo­si­ah Thomp­son, a suc­cess­ful bu­si­ness­man and state le­gis­lat­or for two terms, and hus­band of Eli­za­beth John­son (mar­ried 1891).

Rebuffed in ear­ly at­tempts to sell his songs to com­mer­cial pub­lish­ers, he start­ed his own pub­lish­ing com­pa­ny. He lat­er op­ened a store to sell pi­anos, or­gans and sheet mu­sic.

A ly­ri­cist and com­pos­er, he en­sured he would al­ways re­mem­ber words or tunes that came to him at odd times:

No mat­ter where I am, at home or ho­tel, at the store or tra­vel­ing, if an idea or theme comes to me that I deem wor­thy of a song, I jot it down in verse. In this way I ne­ver lose it.

Thompson took ill dur­ing a tour of Eur­ope, and his fa­mi­ly cut short its tra­vels to re­turn home. He died a few weeks lat­er.

Works

Sources

Lyrics

  1. Beautiful Les­sons of Life, The
  2. Christ Is Ris­en
  3. Christian, The
  4. Earnestly for You He’s Call­ing
  5. Entirely Thine
  6. Eternity
  7. Give the Flow­ers to the Liv­ing
  8. God Save Our Na­tive Land
  9. God Save Our Un­ion
  10. Golden Rule, The
  11. Harvest Time Is Pass­ing By, The
  12. Have I Done Any Good?
  13. He Saves Me
  14. How Will it Be with You and Me?
  15. I Need Thy Par­don, Lord
  16. I Long to Be There
  17. If God Be My Fa­ther
  18. If You Want a Lov­ing Sav­ior
  19. Jesus Bids You Come
  20. Jesus Is All the World to Me
  21. I Won­der if There’s Room for Me
  22. Lead Me Gent­ly Home, Fa­ther
  23. Look to the Com­fort­er
  24. Men Are March­ing On to God
  25. O Sav­ior, Keep Me Near­er
  26. Oh, to Be More Like Je­sus
  27. Promised Land, The
  28. Put Your Shoul­der to the Wheel
  29. Sinner and the Song, The
  30. Softly and Ten­der­ly Je­sus Is Call­ing
  31. Softly and Ten­der­ly Je­sus Is Near
  32. Speed the King­dom
  33. Spirit and Bride Say, Come, The
  34. Still Small Voice, The
  35. Sweetest Place on Earth to Me, The
  36. Tell Me More of Je­sus
  37. There’ll Be Mu­sic in Hea­ven
  38. There’s a Great Day Com­ing
  39. There’s Some­one in Hea­ven Think­ing of Me
  40. They Say There’s a Land
  41. Thousand Years, A
  42. ’Tis Sweet to Know
  43. ’Tis Time to Say Good-Night
  44. Turn on the Light
  45. We Shall Meet All the Lit­tle Ones There
  46. When I Lie On My Pil­low To­night

Music

  1. Acton
  2. While Here
  3. Whither Are You Go­ing?