Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)

Francis Jane Crosby caught a cold when she was just 6 weeks old, she had inflamed eyes. Their usual doctor was unavailable. The stand-in doctor unwittingly prescribed a hot mustard poultice - Fanny was blinded for life. Sometime later she said she had forgiven the man and that on her death the first person she would be see would be her saviour, Jesus.

Fanny’s father died when she was 10 months old. Her mother , Mercy, remarried.
Her grandmother Eunice became Fanny’s eyes, she described to her the wonderful colours of nature and everything she was missing. She patiently taught how to memorize parts of both the O.T. and N.T. of the Bible.

At the age of 8 she wrote her a poem about her blindness (See notes)

Aged 15 she entered the New York Institute for the Blind (NYIB. She was there for 7 years as a pupil and 11 as a teacher. She learned to sing and play a number of musical instruments. She became a noted harpist.

Fanny was the first woman to speak before the Senate and the House of Representatives. Her poetry and winning personality resulted in her becoming friends with presidents and staying at the White House. her poems appeared in the Saturday Evening Post and other newspapers and magazines.

She wrote 3 volumes of poetry and 2 of autobiography.

In 1958, aged 38 she married Alexander Van Alstyne, a blind scholarly accomplished musician. He insisted she kept her maiden name; for legal documents she used her husband’s surname. The baby they had died.

20 years after her first poem she wrote Rosalie,the Prairie Flower.
George Frederick Root set it to music. It sold in 10s of 1000s and she earned $3,000 dollars in royalties - a lot of money in those days.

In 1864 William Bradbury suggested she should devote her talent to writing hymns. She never wrote another secular song. She eventually wrote between 5,500 and 9,000 hymns. using many pseudonyms -( as many as 200, according to some sources) these were employed to preserve her modesty . Her husband wrote many of the tunes to accompany her words…

In 1868 musician Doane knocked on her door - in 45 minutes he was to catch a train. He hummed a tune - the result - Safe in the arms of Jesus.

Fanny began a second career in her 40s. She worked in the Bowery distict slums of New York City.

In 1875 she visited William Doane. Enjoying the sunset the hymn *I am thine o Lord *was born.

Fanny and Alexander became estranged, apart, but stayed married.

Alexander died in 1902. Fanny died in 1915 aged 94 in Bridgeport. Near her grave is Bing Crosby’s -one of descendants.

When Fanny had a session of writing she always started with a prayer. It seemed that without a prayer the words would not flow. A hymnal without her hymns is considered incomplete.

Her blindness the good Lord, in his infinite mercy, by this means consecrated me to the work that I am permitted to do

Sources used
Christianity Today
Britannia Online Encyclopedia