1851–1933

Introduction

illustration
Tindley Temple
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Born: Ju­ly 7, 1851, Ber­lin, Ma­ry­land.

Died: Ju­ly 26, 1933, Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Buried: Ed­en Ce­me­te­ry, Col­ling­dale, Penn­syl­van­ia.

portrait

Biography

Charles was the son of Charles Tind­ley and Es­ther Mill­er. He mar­ried twice, to Da­isy Hen­ry (1868) and Jen­ny Cot­ten (1927).

He is con­sid­ered one of the found­ing fa­thers of Am­eri­can Gos­pel mu­sic. The son of slaves, he taught him­self to read and write at age 17. He was a driv­en young man, work­ing as a ja­ni­tor while at­tend­ing night school, and earn­ing his di­vi­ni­ty de­gree by cor­res­pon­dence course.

In 1902, Tind­ley be­came pas­tor of the Cal­va­ry Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal Church in Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia, the church where he had ear­li­er been the ja­ni­tor. At the time of Tind­ley’s death, his church had 12,500 mem­bers. The Tind­ley Tem­ple Unit­ed Me­tho­dist Church in Phi­la­del­phia was named af­ter him.

His I’ll Ov­er­come Some Day was the ba­sis for the Am­eri­can civ­il rights an­them We Shall Ov­er­come, po­pu­la­rized in the 1960’s.

Sources

Lyrics

  1. After a While
  2. Better Day Is Com­ing By and By, A
  3. Better Home, A
  4. Christ Is the Way
  5. Come Ev­eryone That Loves the Lord
  6. Come, Saints and Sin­ners
  7. Come, Who­so­ev­er Feels the Need
  8. Consolation
  9. From Youth to Old Age
  10. Go Talk with Je­sus about It
  11. Go Wash in the Beau­ti­ful Stream
  12. Goal Be­yond, The
  13. God Will Pro­vide for Me
  14. Have You Crossed the Line?
  15. Here Am I, Send Me
  16. He’ll Take You Through
  17. Heavenly Un­ion, The
  18. Heaven’s Christ­mas Tree
  19. Home of the Soul, The
  20. I Am Free from Con­dem­na­tion
  21. I Am Think­ing of the Dan­ger
  22. I Be­lieve It
  23. I Can See Down Yon­der
  24. I Have Found at Last a Sav­ior
  25. I Have Found the Peace of Hea­ven
  26. I Hear of a Ci­ty
  27. I Know the Lord Will Make a Way
  28. I Will Go, if My Fa­ther Holds My Hand
  29. If the Sav­ior Wants Some­bo­dy
  30. I’ll Be Sa­tis­fied
  31. I’ll Ov­er­come Some Day
  32. I’m Go­ing to Die with My Staff in My Hand
  33. I’m Go­ing There
  34. In Me
  35. It May Be a Bro­ther
  36. It May Be the Best for Me
  37. I’ve Wan­dered in the Dark­ness
  38. Joyous An­ti­ci­pa­tion
  39. Just To­day
  40. Leave It There
  41. Let Je­sus Fix It for You
  42. Lifetime Is Like a Sin­gle Day
  43. Like the Act­ion of the Ground
  44. Lord, I’ve Tried
  45. Lord Will Make the Way, The
  46. Mountain Top Dwell­ing
  47. My Life, as a Year
  48. My Sec­ret of Joy
  49. Nothing Be­tween
  50. One Day, a Way­ward Boy
  51. Our Suf­fer­ing Je­sus
  52. Pilgrim of Sor­row, A
  53. Pilgrim’s Song, The
  54. Saved and Sa­tis­fied
  55. Since I Be­gan to Serve the Lord
  56. Some Day
  57. Someone Is Wait­ing for Me
  58. Spiritual Spring Time
  59. Stand by Me
  60. Storm Is Pass­ing Ov­er, The
  61. Stranger Cut the Rope, A
  62. There Is a Land That Is Free from Tears
  63. There Was Naa­man the Le­per
  64. Today
  65. We’ll Un­der­stand It Bet­ter By and By
  66. What Are They Do­ing in Hea­ven?
  67. When the Path­way of Du­ty
  68. Will You Be There?
  69. World of Forms and Changes
  70. Ye Pil­grims Through This Vale of Tears
  71. You Have Wait­ed Too Long
  72. Your Faith Has Saved You