William Doane, Hymn Composer

The Baptist Hymnal, 1883; editor William Doane

William Doane compiled multiple hymn books - some sources

say he edited or published or in some

way was involved in the production of

some forty hymnals, including The Little Sunbeam (1861), which was a

collection of hymns for Sunday Schools, and The Baptist Hymnal (1883). The style of the singing schools is apparent in many of

William’ compositions. Although there are those who criticize Doane’s

music for its simplicity, it would do us well to remember who he was

writing for. The Sunday Schools of the 1800s were established for street children, for the uneducated children of factory workers, in order to educate them in God’sWord and in reading and singing.

William Doane donated his time and attention to these children. At Mt. Auburn Baptist Church, he taught one of the largest Sunday Schools in Cincinnati.

Mount Auburn Baptist Church building, 2147 Mt. Auburn Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio (Photo copyright 2021 Jyoti Nepal)

In 1889, after the Paris Exposition, where his company won multiple awards,

Doane took his wife and daughters on an “eighteen-month trip through Spain, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Russia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Austria and the British Isles." Somewhere along the way, William Doane purchased the autograph scores of Mozart's Fantasia K. 475 of 1785 and Sonata K.

457 of 1784, both for the piano in C minor. After his death, his daughter donated these to the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. By November 21, 1990, the

manuscripts were being auctioned off by Sotheby’s of London. “The fourteen

page Mozart holograph sold for $1.57 million, tying the existing sales record

for a music manuscript.”

On his travels, Doane met children in other countries who knew his hymns in their language. He attended an Arabian Sunday school where the children loved to sing “Safe in the Arms of Jesus,” “PassMe Not,” and “Near the Cross.”

The main focus of William Doane’s life was to serve the Lord and His people - not only through music, but also through donations to Bible schools, Sunday Schools, missionary rest houses, and the YMCA (which at that time was still gospel-centered).

His daughters continued his generosity after his death Marguerite Doane had a desire to be a medical missionary, and even “…took a course in nursing training at Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati. However, because of a serious eye disease, she was unable to fulfill her dream except through her extensive philanthropy.” Marguerite’s sister Ida was equally ministry-minded; the sisters continued their father’s habit of donating resources, buildings libraries, and music halls to help further the gospel in America and throughout the world. The sisters were very helpful to missions organizations in the U.S. that were established to send missionaries around the world.