Jennie Bain Wilson
A white woman with dark hair, wearing black, seated in a wheelchair with a high back. Her hands are clasped in her lap. The photograph is in an oval frame decorated with holly leaves and berries.
A 1907 Christmas card featuring hymn writer Jennie Bain Wilson.
Born
Mary Jane Bain Wilson

November 13, 1856
Cleveland, Indiana
DiedSeptember 3, 1913
South Whitley, Indiana
NationalityAmerican
Other namesJennie Wilson
Occupation(s)hymn writer, poet, church worker
Years active1880s-1913

Mary Jane "Jennie" Bain Wilson (November 13, 1856 – September 3, 1913) was an American hymn writer.

Early life

Mary Jane "Jennie" Bain Wilson was born on a farm in Cleveland, Indiana in 1856,[1] the younger daughter of Robert Wilson and Mary Frances Russell Wilson.[2] She survived typhoid fever as a little girl, but her spine was damaged by the bacterial infection ("typhoid spine" was first described in the medical literature many years later).[3] She used a wheelchair from childhood[4] and she was educated at home.[5]

Career

Wilson wrote thousands and published hundreds of Christian hymns;[6] she was known as the "Fanny Crosby of the West".[2] She also wrote poetry and spoke at Bible conferences in Indiana.[5] Her hymn "Hold to God's Unchanging Hand" (1905)[7] was especially popular in the 1910s and 1920s.[8]

Wilson was also the author of the slogan of Fort Wayne, Indiana, "Fort Wayne with Might and Main", taking the $50 prize in the city's slogan contest, out of 25,000 submissions.[9][10][11]

Personal life

After 1902 Wilson lived with her married older sister. She sought some surgical treatment of her paralysis in Indianapolis, and "improved somewhat".[10] Wilson died in 1913, aged 57 years, from kidney disease, in South Whitley, Indiana.[1][4]

References

  1. 1 2 "South Whitley Poetess Dead". Fort Wayne Daily News. September 4, 1913. p. 2. Retrieved October 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 Adams, Richard W. "Jennie Bain Wilson". Hymntime. Retrieved 2019-10-13.
  3. ↑ Benedek, T. G. (2011-04-19). "The conflict of Osler's concept of "typhoid spine"". Canadian Medical Association Journal. 183 (7): 773–775. doi:10.1503/cmaj.101891. ISSN 0820-3946. PMC 3080522. PMID 21502363.
  4. 1 2 "Indiana Poetess Dead at South Whitley Home". The Huntington Herald. September 4, 1913. p. 8. Retrieved October 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 "Hold to God's Unchanging Hand" Hymnstudiesblog (May 21, 2014).
  6. ↑ Cottrill, Robert (2018-05-21). "Happy in the Love of Jesus". Wordwise Hymns. Retrieved 2019-10-13.
  7. ↑ Erbsen, Wayne (2017-10-05). Old Time Gospel Songbook. Mel Bay Publications. p. 31. ISBN 9781610650328.
  8. ↑ Clay, Leslie (2013-12-16). Sisters In Song; Women Hymn Writers. Compass Flower Press. ISBN 9781936688760.
  9. ↑ "Fort Wayne with Might and Main". The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. June 2, 1909. p. 1. Retrieved October 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. 1 2 "Woman Who Suggested Slogan". Fort Wayne Weekly Journal-Gazette. June 3, 1909. p. 1. Retrieved October 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Fort Wayne with Might and Main". Medical Art and Indianapolis Medical Journal. 12: 402. September 15, 1909.
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