Hugh Stowell, a minister in the Church of England, was born in 1799. He graduated from Oxford in 1822, and took holy orders the following year. He held various offices in his Church and published several ecclesial volumes. He also edited a book of hymns: A Selection of Psalms and Hymns Suited to the Services of the Church of England, 1831. He died in 1865.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the daughter of the famous preacher Lyman Beecher, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1812. Her father became President of Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1832; and in 1833 she was married to Calvin E. Stowe, a professor in the seminary. Her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was first published in 1852 as a serial in the National Era magazine and later in book form, is one of the most widely known and historic volumes in the entire range of American literature.
Samuel John Stone, a clergyman in the Church of England, was born in Staffordshire, England in 1839. He was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1862. He served various Churches until he succeeded his father at St. Paul’s, Haggerstown in 1874. He was the author of many original hymns and translations, which were collected and published in 1886. He died in 1900.
Samuel Stennett, an English Baptist minister, was born in Exeter in 1727. In 1758 he succeeded his father as pastor of the Wild Street Church in London where he remained for 37 years. He died in 1795. Stennett was the author of some prose writings and of 38 hymns.
Karl Johann Philipp Spitta, a German theologian and poet, was born in Hanover in 1801. He was apprenticed to a watchmaker as a young man. While learning this trade he began the study of languages and, in 1821, entered the University of Gottingen to study theology.
Horatio G. Spafford was a wealthy Chicago businessman who lost his fortune during the Chicago fire. Despite this, he and his wife, Anna, devoted countless hours to helping the survivors. Later he sent Anna and his four daughters to England for a rest. While crossing the Atlantic their ship sank in a collision. Anna survived and sent him the heartbreaking telegram, “Saved Alone.” Several weeks later, as Spafford’s own ship passed near the spot where his daughters died, he wrote the hymn “It Is Well With My Soul.”
Samuel Francis Smith, a Baptist minister, was born in Boston in 1808. He attended the Boston Latin School and entered Harvard College in 1825. After leaving Harvard in 1829 he entered Andover Theological Seminary, graduating in 1832. His first pastorate was at Waterville, Maine where he remained eight years.
Robert Seagrave was an English clergyman who was born in 1693 and graduated from Cambridge in 1718. He defended the Calvinistic Methodists and wrote and published pamphlets and sermons designed to reform the clergy and Church of England.
Joseph Scriven was born in Dublin in 1820 and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. He moved to Canada in 1845 where he led a humble life until his death in 1886. Ira D. Sankey, in his Story of the Gospel Hymns, wrote that “the young lady to whom Scriven was to be married was accidentally drowned on the eve of their wedding day. This sad event led him to consecrate his life and property to the service of Christ.