1819–1875

Introduction

portrait

Born: Feb­ru­ary 18, 1819, Man­ches­ter, New Hamp­shire.

Died: Jan­ua­ry 18, 1875, Elk­horn, Wis­con­sin.

Buried: Ha­zel Ridge Ce­me­te­ry, Elk­horn, Wis­con­sin.

Biography

Joseph was the son of Amos Web­ster and Be­thia De­Cos­ta, and hus­band of Jo­an­na Web­ster, the adopt­ed daugh­ter of Jo­seph’s bro­ther, John Goffe Web­ster and Ma­ry Hu­ser.

Webster com­posed and per­formed po­pu­lar mu­sic. He stu­died with Low­ell Ma­son and was ac­tive mu­sic­al­ly in New York, New Jer­sey and Con­nec­ti­cut, and di­rect­ed a quar­tet com­pa­ny called the Eu­ter­pe­ans.

In 1851, he moved to Ma­di­son, In­di­ana, fol­lowed by Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois (1855); Ra­cine, Wis­con­sin (1856); and fi­nal­ly Elk­horn, Wis­con­sin (1857).

Works

Webster wrote over a thou­sand bal­lads and ma­ny hymns. His most fa­mous se­cu­lar song was his 1857 Lo­re­na (words by Hen­ry D. L. Web­ster). In its day, it was said to have been se­cond in po­pu­lar­ity on­ly to Ste­phen Fos­ter’s Su­wan­nee Ri­ver. Thou­sands of sol­diers sang it on both sides of the Am­eri­can ci­vil war.

An in­stru­ment­al ver­sion ap­pears in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, when Scar­lett O’Ha­ra is man­ning the stall at the cha­ri­ty dance in her mourn­ing out­fit.

The tune al­so made an ap­pear­ance in two John Ford films: The Search­ers, 1956, ar­ranged by Max Stein­er, and The Horse Sol­diers, 1959, ar­ranged by Da­vid But­tolph.

Webster’s oth­er works in­clude:

Music

  1. Birds Sing Prais­es, The
  2. Blessed An­gel Bands Are Watch­ing
  3. Child Amid the Sun­shine
  4. Children, Do You Love the Sav­ior?
  5. Children in Hea­ven, The
  6. Christ’s Lit­tle Lambs
  7. Come, Ho­ly Spir­it
  8. Consolation
  9. Enschede
  10. Evening Pray­er
  11. Feed Us with the Bread of Hea­ven
  12. Gather Gent­ly Round the Bier
  13. Gentleness
  14. Give Me Strength
  15. God Loves the Child­ren
  16. Going to Sleep
  17. Gone, but Not Lost
  18. Happy Land
  19. Have You Heard the Sweet Sto­ry?
  20. How Pre­cious the Bi­ble
  21. How Sweet to Sing Thy Praise
  22. I Will Be Good
  23. In the Sweet By and By
  24. Incense of Pray­er
  25. Jesus’ Heart Is Full of Mer­cy
  26. Jesus Is My Sav­ior
  27. Keep Your Light Burn­ing
  28. Lead Me, Sav­ior
  29. Lead the Lit­tle Ones to Je­sus
  30. Life Is Fleet­ing
  31. Minnetonka
  32. Morning
  33. National Hymn
  34. Nature’s Wor­ship
  35. Never Tell a Lie
  36. None of Us Too Young
  37. O Give Me a Place in the Man­sions Above
  38. On Jor­dan’s Strand We’re Wait­ing
  39. On the Fur­ther Shore
  40. Our Fa­ther in Hea­ven Has Made
  41. Remember Thy Cre­at­or
  42. Return
  43. Sabbath Morn­ing
  44. Seek the Shep­herd
  45. Show Me the Way
  46. Softly Breaks the Light of Morn­ing
  47. St. Gall­en
  48. Stand by the Sab­bath School
  49. Sweetly Ring the Sab­bath Bells
  50. Thank God for the Beau­ti­ful
  51. Thank God for the Sun­shine
  52. That Land Where There’s No Pain
  53. There Is Rest in Je­sus
  54. ’Tis Best to Do Right
  55. To God Be­long the Child­ren
  56. Trust God
  57. We Are but Young
  58. We Sing the Song of Je­sus
  59. We Shall Sing the Songs of Hea­ven
  60. We Shall Wear the Crown
  61. Weary Not in Do­ing Good
  62. We’ve a Home Up Yon­der
  63. What Sound of Lofty Praise
  64. When the Morn­ing Sky Is Glow­ing
  65. Why Sing the Birds So Mer­ri­ly?
  66. With Hum­ble, Hap­py Heart
  67. Work Away

Sources