Silas Jones Vail

Silas Jones Vail was an American businessman, songbook compiler, and composer born on Long Island, New York, in 1818. He learned the hatter's trade in Danbury, Connecticut, worked in William H. Beebe's New York hat business, and later operated his own business at 118 Fulton Street. A family history reports that after business failure around 1869 or 1870, he devoted his full attention to music.

Vail prepared music for churches, Sunday schools, prayer meetings, and family devotion. His collections included The Athenaeum Collection (1863) and Chapel Melodies (1868). With William F. Sherwin he edited Songs of Grace and Glory (1874), the volume in which CLOSE TO THEE appeared with Crosby's text. Other tunes associated with him include settings for The Gate Ajar for Me, Nothing but Leaves, and Scatter Seeds of Kindness. Crosby wrote a number of texts expressly for melodies by Vail.

Two early twentieth-century accounts agree that Vail composed the melody of CLOSE TO THEE before Crosby supplied the words. The original 1874 score credits Crosby for the text and S. J. Vail for the music. Vail died in Brooklyn on May 20, 1883; some later authority files incorrectly give 1884. His denominational affiliation is not firmly established in the principal sources consulted.