Emma F. R. Campbell

Emma Frances Riggs Campbell (November 16, 1830 – February 25, 1919) was an American hymnwriter and author. She is best known for her hymn "Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By".[1]

Emma F. R. Campbell
Born(1830-11-16)November 16, 1830
Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedFebruary 25, 1919(1919-02-25) (aged 88)
Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation(s)Hymnwriter, author

Emma F. R. Campbell was born on November 16, 1830 in Newark, New Jersey, one of eleven children of Abner Campbell, owner of a looking-glass and picture-framing business, and Deborah Conger. Her sister Catherine Smith Campbell married future Florida governor Ossian Bingley Hart.[1][2]

Campbell graduated from the Packer Institute for Girls in Brooklyn, New York in 1959. She and a sister opened a school in Morristown, New Jersey in the 1860s. Campbell also taught Sunday school for 37 years at the First Presbyterian Church in Morristown.[1]

"Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By" was inspired by an 1864 religious revival in Newark held by the Rev. Edward Payson Hammond, specifically a sermon mentioning Luke 18:37 and the story of Jesus healing the blind Bartimaeus. Campbell's hymn was first published using the Greek letter Eta as a pseudonym, which has led to Campbell being misidentified as Eta or Etta Campbell. The hymn was anthologized numerous times and was frequently performed by the gospel singer Ira D. Sankey.[1][3]

Campbell published several other hymns, a collection of verse, several children's novels, and a short biography of her brother-in-law Ossian Hart.[1][2]

Emma F. R. Campbell died on 25 February 1919 in Morristown.[4]

Bibliography
  • Paul Preston; or, Who is the Hero? (1864)
  • Green Pastures (1866)
  • Better than Rubies; or, Mabel's Treasure (1869)
  • Toward the Mark (1875)
  • Biographical Sketch of Honorable Ossian B. Hart, Late Governor of Florida, 1873 (1901)
  • The Hymn "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by" and Its History, and Other Verses (1909)

References
  1. Claghorn, Charles Eugene (1984). Women composers and hymnists : a concise biographical dictionary. Internet Archive. Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-8108-1680-0.
  2. Brown, Canter, Jr. (1997). Ossian Bingley Hart : Florida's loyalist Reconstruction governor. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. p. 44. ISBN 0-585-34095-1. OCLC 47010135.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Campbell, Emma F. R. (1909). "Introduction". The Hymn "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by": its history and other verses. Princeton Theological Seminary Library. New York : M.E. Munson. pp. v–xi.
  4. "Miss Emma F.R. Campbell, Writer". The New York Times. 1919-02-27. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
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