William Howard Doane

William Howard Doane was an American Baptist church musician, gospel-song composer, editor, manufacturer, inventor, and philanthropist. Born in Preston, Connecticut, in 1832, he showed musical ability early and was leading the choir at Woodstock Academy by his mid-teens. He entered the Baptist church while still young. His professional life developed along a very different line: after working in manufacturing, he joined J. A. Fay & Company, a woodworking-machinery firm, and eventually became its president in Cincinnati.

Music nevertheless remained a major part of his life. Doane directed church and Sunday school music, edited numerous song collections, and composed roughly 2,300 sacred and secular pieces according to a near-contemporary biography. He was active at Mount Auburn Baptist Church in Cincinnati and served for years as superintendent of its Sunday school. Among his enduring tunes are settings associated with “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” “Near the Cross,” “Rescue the Perishing,” and “I Am Thine, O Lord.”

Doane collaborated extensively with Fanny J. Crosby after meeting her in New York in 1867. “To God Be the Glory” belongs to that partnership; authoritative hymnological sources place the text and Doane’s tune together in “Songs of Devotion” in 1870. Beyond music, he was a major benefactor of Denison University, where he served as a trustee from 1874 until his death.