Julia Bulkley Cady Cory

Julia Bulkley Cady Cory (1882–1963) was an American Presbyterian hymn writer born in New York City. Her father, the architect Josiah Cleveland Cady, was also a Sunday school superintendent and an amateur student of hymnody, and hymnological sources credit his influence with encouraging her to write hymns from childhood. She attended the Brearley and Reynolds schools in New York and was part of the worshiping life of Brick Presbyterian Church.

Cory’s best-known hymn began when Brick Church organist Archer Gibson asked her in 1902 to provide new words for the Dutch tune later known as KREMSER. The older English text commonly sung to the melody, “We Gather Together,” carried strong historical and patriotic associations; Cory instead wrote a direct Christian hymn of thanksgiving, providence, and praise. Her new text was first sung at a Thanksgiving service at Brick Presbyterian Church while she was still about twenty years old.

She married Robert Haskell Cory in 1911 and spent her married life in Englewood, New Jersey, where she was associated with the Presbyterian church. Hymnary records several texts under her name, including the Sunday school hymn “There Is a Tender Shepherd,” and she remained connected with the Hymn Society in New York during her adult life.

Although her surviving hymn catalog is comparatively small, “We Praise Thee, O God” achieved broad denominational circulation and became a standard Thanksgiving and opening-of-worship text. Its endurance rests on a combination of clear congregational language, trust in God’s guidance, and a tune already deeply embedded in American Thanksgiving worship.