[Nearer the cross of Jesus] (Hall)

Composer: J. H. Hall

Jacob Henry Hall, 1855-1941 Born: Jan­u­a­ry 2, 1855, near Har­ris­on­burg, Vir­gin­ia. Died: De­cem­ber 22, 1941. Buried: Day­ton, Vir­gin­ia. Son of farm­er George G. Hall and Eliz­a­beth Thom­as Hall, Ja­cob at­tend­ed sing­ing schools taught by Tim­o­thy Funk when he was a boy. As his love of mu­sic pro­gressed, he earned mo­ney by trap­ping quail and bought a Ger­man ac­cor­di­on; he soon learned to play one part while sing­ing an­o­ther. Af­ter he and his bro­ther joint­ly pur­chased an or­gan, he taught him­self to play hymn tunes, Gos­pel songs, and an­thems. He went on to stu­dy mu­sic the­ory, har­mo­ny, and com­po­si­tion in Har­ris­on­burg and else­where, and in 1877… Go to person page >