W. T. Giffe

William Thomas Giffe, 1848-1926

Born: June 28, 1848, Port­land, In­di­a­na.
Died: Ju­ly 13, 1926, Se­at­tle, Wash­ing­ton.
Buried: Mount Hope Cem­e­te­ry, Lo­gans­port, In­di­a­na.

Giffe grew up in Coll­ege Cor­ners, In­di­a­na (near Port­land), and served in the Army dur­ing the clos­ing days of the Amer­i­can ci­vil war. Af­ter the war, he at­tend­ed Li­ber Coll­ege, and stu­died law for two years. While in col­lege, he was a mem­ber of the col­lege glee club, and took les­sons in the col­lege sing­ing school. Lat­er, he stu­died with teach­ers such as J. W. Suff­ern, George Root, Lu­ther Em­er­son, Ho­ra­tio Pal­mer, and Hen­ry Perk­ins.

Giffe had a fine bar­i­tone voice, and was in de­mand as a con­cert sing­er. He soon be­came pop­u­lar as a chor­us di­rect­or and con­ven­tion con­duct­or. His first book for sing­ing schools was New Fa­vo­rite, which sold thou­sands of co­pies. The Ol­iv­er Dit­son Com­pa­ny of Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts, pub­lished ma­ny of his ear­ly works, but Giffe went on to form his own pub­lish­ing house, the Home Mu­sic Com­pa­ny, in Lo­gans­port, In­di­a­na. He al­so ed­it­ed the Home Mu­sic Jour­nal for sev­er­al years. Lat­er, Giffe be­came su­per­vis­or of mu­sic in the pub­lic schools in his home town. And he was one of three men se­lect­ed to de­liv­er an ad­dress in Lo­gans­port, In­di­a­na, at the me­mor­i­al ser­vic­es for as­sas­sin­at­ed pre­si­dent Will­iam Mc­Kin­ley.

Giffe and his wife Nan­cy had no child­ren. His works in­clude:
The Bril­liant, 1874
Crown of Gold, with Frank Da­vis (Lo­gans­port, In­di­a­na: Home Mu­sic Com­pa­ny, 1892)
The New Deal, with Lou­is Eich­horn (Lo­gans­port, In­di­a­na: Home Mu­sic Com­pa­ny, 1898)
A Prac­ti­cal Course in Har­mo­ny and Mu­sic­al Com­po­si­tion

Sources--
Hall, pp. 267-8
Jones, p. 62

Lyrics-
All the Bells of Heav’n Go Ring­ing
Are Your Lamps All Bright­ly Burn­ing?
By and by the Mists Shall All Be Cleared
Cheer Up, Wea­ry Heart
Christian, Thy Night May Be Long
Come, Let Us Sing of Fount and Spring
Come, Ye Bless­ed of My Fa­ther
Do We Follow Je­sus Tru­y?
Father, I Come to Thee, in My Hu­mil­i­ty
Hark! Hear the Christ­mas Bells!
Ho, Ev­ery­one That Thirst­eth
I Am Look­ing To­night at the Stars So Bright
I Do Be­lieve That Je­sus Hears
I Know That My Re­deem­er Lives
I Love the Name of Je­sus
I Would Bathe in the Fount­ain of the Love of Je­sus
I’ll Not Give Up the Bi­ble
In Hea­ven Above, in That Land of Love

In Peace I Lay Me Down and Sleep
In the Lamb’s Book of Life That Is Kept
In the Lov­ing Care of Je­sus
Jesus Will Help You the Vic­t’ry to Win
Jesus, Wilt Thou Guard the Slum­ber?
Like a Shep­herd, His Flock He’ll Feed
Lord of Life and Glor­y Knocks, The
Nearer the Crys­tal Sea, Near­er Eter­ni­ty
Nearing the Crys­tal Sea
New Pearls of Song for Je­sus We Bring
Night Has Let Her Sa­ble Curt­ain Fall
O Spir­it of Song, Go Forth
O Won­der­ful Place Where Je­sus Prayed
O Won­der­ful Prayer That Je­sus Prayed
Oh, I Love to Hear the Sto­ry
Oh, the Com­ing of the King
Onward and Up­ward
Over Hill, Over Dale
Ring, Glad Bells! Oh, Ring Your Joy­ful Lay!
Send a Shout Along the Line
Send Out the Life-Boat Across the Dark Wave
She Is Wait­ing by the Ri­ver
Slowly Where the Winds Are Swell­ing
Tell the Joy­ful Tid­ings Far and Wide
There Is a Place I Love to Go
There’s Sun­shine and Love in My Soul To­day
They Tell Me of a Man of Old
Tho’ We’re Tossed on Life’s Rough Ocean
Under the Sha­dow of His Wing
Up Above the Stars
Way of the Lord Is Best, The
We Are Al­most Home
We Are Child­ren of a King
We Are March­ing Home to Zi­on
We’ll Ga­ther from the East
We’ll Shout Aloud Through All the Land
When the Last Fare­well Is Spok­en
When the Last Gos­pel Mes­sage Is Told
With a Song on Our Lips and a Praye­r

--www.hymntime.com/tch