William Charles Poole

William Charles Poole (1875–1949) was an American Methodist minister and prolific gospel-song writer. Born near Easton, Maryland, he was raised in a Methodist family and studied at Washington College in Chestertown. He entered the Methodist ministry around the turn of the twentieth century and served churches in the Wilmington Conference, including McCabe Memorial and Richardson Park. Hymnological biographical sources also record that he became superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of Delaware in 1913.

Poole wrote gospel texts alongside his pastoral work, describing hymn writing as a form of recreation and service. Contemporary biographical material credited him with roughly five hundred hymns and gospel songs. Among titles associated with him are “Just When I Need Him Most,” “The Church by the Side of the Road,” “Have You Prayed It Through?,” and “Sunrise.” His texts typically use direct devotional language and memorable gospel-song imagery suited to congregational and evangelistic settings. Poole died in Lewes, Delaware, in 1949. His work belongs to the broad stream of American Methodist and interdenominational gospel hymnody that flourished through revival meetings, Sunday schools, and commercial songbook publishing.