William Clark Martin

William Clark Martin was an American Baptist minister and gospel-hymn writer. Born in Hightstown, New Jersey, on December 25, 1864, he graduated from Peddie Institute in 1884 and from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1891. His pastoral ministry took him through Baptist congregations in New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Florida; his final pastorate was First Baptist Church in Fort Myers. He died in Florida in 1914.

Martin wrote extensively for the gospel-song culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hymnary's authority index associates hundreds of texts with him, ranging from evangelistic and devotional songs to hymns of trust, discipleship, and Christian assurance. Among his better-documented works are I Remember Calvary, dated 1900; The Name of Jesus, dated 1901; and My Father Watches Over Me, dated 1910. His texts were repeatedly paired with leading gospel-song composers and circulated through Sunday-school, revival, evangelistic, and denominational collections. The surviving record presents him primarily as a pastor-poet whose direct, personal language suited congregational testimony and devotional singing rather than as a literary hymnist working in older formal hymn traditions.