Katharine Elinda Nash Purvis (May 19, 1842 – October 23, 1907) was an educator, political activist, orator, and hymn lyricist in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is best known as the lyricist for ''When the Saints Are Marching In'' and ''Walk Beside Me'', which were reproduced more than five million times during the publication of seventy-five hymnals by the early 1900s.

Early life

Born in

Towanda, Pennsylvania Towanda is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in, and the county seat of, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, Bradford County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania and is located northwest of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylv ...

on May 19, 1842, Katharine E. Nash was a daughter of the Rev. Charles Nash, a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

minister. She was an 1860 seminary graduate.

Career

She began her professional life as a music teacher at the seminary of a

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself nationally. In 1939, th ...

Williamsport, Pennsylvania Williamsport is a city in and the county seat of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 27,754. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a populati ...

. In 1896, the hymn ''When the Saints Are Marching In'' was published, with music by James Milton Black. Later, the song was altered somewhat and published in 1927 as the well known ''

When The Saints Go Marching In "When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as simply "The Saints", is a traditional black spiritual. It originated as a Christian hymn, but is often played by jazz bands. One of the most famous jazz recordings of "The Saints" was made o ...

''. On March 20, 1898, Purvis was one of the featured speakers at a gathering of members of the

Woman's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far ...

(WCTU) and the Prohibition Club at the Williamsport Courthouse in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. On June 15 of that same year, Purvis delivered an address at the semi-centennial reunion of the Belles Lettres, Gamma Epsilon and the Tripatite literary societies as part of the semi-centennial jubilee celebration of the Williamsport Dickinson Seminary (now

Lycoming College Lycoming College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1812, Lycoming College is affiliated with the United Methodist Church but operates as an ind ...

) in Williamsport. An active member of the WCTU, she served on the organization's Resolutions Committee in 1898.

Death

Purvis died at the age of sixty-five in Williamsport on October 23, 1907.Wrote Popular Hymns
" Danville, Pennsylvania: ''The Danville News'', November 12, 1907, p. 1 (subscription required).

References

External links

The Cyber Hymnal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Purvis, Katharine 1842 births 1907 deaths American lyricists People from Williamsport, Pennsylvania 19th-century American writers 19th-century American women writers Writers from Pennsylvania Songwriters from Pennsylvania