The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-04-12
WOMEN HYMN WRITERS
Annie Sherwood Hawks of Benning
ton, One of World Famous Trio.


Writers of World. Wide Fame" The
the three women whose life work con-
stituted the subject OF the article,
We're Fannie Crosby who died re-
Gently in Bridgeport, Conn, Alice
Holmes who passed away more thar
a year ago in Jersey City and Annie
Sherwood Hawks of Bennington, y
portion OF the article follows:
Who can measure the far reaching
effects OF hymn?
No influence has been more potent
in religious life than that exerted by
the hymns OF successive ages. And
as no one has had larger share in
keeping the lamp OF religion brightly
burning than women it is especially
fitting that they should have a high
place in the list of hymn writer's
that their words Should have been
carried to the ends of the earth to
turn the hearts OF men to God, snoulo
. have been sung in the great revival
meetings where men and women are
moved to cast away the base tuirss
Of earth and turn to a Higher Power
for help, should find a place i'll The
| services that from week to week com
fort and uplift men and women who
meet for praise, petition and thanl.
giving.
This part women have played well,
many OF the most familiar compost
tons in hymnology being due to them.
although comparatively few who hear
| or sing them know the authorship.
Within little more than year two
venerable women hymn writer's, both
of them blind, have passed away, Miss
Fanny Crosby, who died a few weeks
ago, and Miss Holmes of Jersey city,
| who preceded her 10 the world oe-
| yond by about a year
There is still living in Bennington,
VT, the author OF many hymns. one of
| them, q Need Thee Every Hour,
| said to have been translated into
more foreign languages than any
other modern hymn Mrs. Annie
Sherwood Hawks will be eighty years
old May rs, end owing to her advanc-
ed age and feeble condition she sell
dom leaves the house, but she cal
ries on an extensive correspondence
with friends in all parts of the coun-
try and receives many visitors,
Mrs. Hawks belongs to New York
state, having been born i'll Hoosick
and educated in the public schools
and in Troy Seminary! Her ancestry
was Dutch on her mothers side and
English on the paternal In 1859 she
was married to Charles HAL Hav Is,
OF Hoosick. man of much culture
and very sympathetic with his wifes
literary work
In January, 1865. Mr.. and Mrs.
Hawks removed to Brooklyn. Mr.
Hawks being connected with a New
York banking firm, where they liy"d
until his death in 1883, when Mrs.
Hawks went to live with her son IN
law, one-time Surgeon General War.
rem e Putnam, and Mrs. Putnam, her
only daughter For the last twenty.
TWO years she has lived with then. III
Bennington, VT.
She was always passionately fond of
books, and from childhood her read
ing took wide range In her four
teenth year she began TO write verses.
her first poem being published in
Troy newspaper 1t attracted i'm
mediate attention and soon was fcl-
lowed by others, which was published
in other newspapers and periodicals.
In 1868, at the request of her pas
tor, the Rev Robert Lowry, d. D., she
turned her attention to hymn writ
ing. Among others she wrote "The
Cross for Jesus, Good Night and
Why Weepest Thou DR.. Lowry
setting all of her words to music. ~
though she is known most widely for
her hymns she has written many
poems.
OF her most famous hymn, Il Need
Thee Every Hour she says:
Whenever my attention is caleI
to it am conscious of great satisfac.
ton in the thought that | was permit
ted to write the hymn I Need Thee
Every Hour and that it was waited
out to the world on the wings Of love
and JOY, rather than under the stress
of great personal sorrow, with |
which it has been so often associat- |
ed in the minds of those who sing it |
Il remember we'll the morning. /
many years ago, when in the mids.
Of the daily cares of my home, then |
in a distant city, was so filled with
a sense of nearness to the Master
that wondering how one could 1--we
Him either in JOY or pain.
these words. I need Thee every nour
we're ashed into my mind, the thought !,
ii once taking full possession OF mo
Seating myself by the open Win
low in the balmy air of the Orieht
Tune day, caught my pencil, AID til,
words We're soon committed to paper.
Utmost as they are being sung now.
1T was only By accident, as it
you'd seem. that they were set to
music a few months later and sung.
or the first time, at a Sunday school
held in one of the large
Western cities Fromthere they were !
aiken further west and sung by thous-
nds Of voices before the echo came
Jack to me. thrilling my heart with