Some people might think this simple children’s hymn is an unlikely one to be the basis for a big band song, but it is one we often perform, featuring a saxophone solo.
Susan and Anna Warner were the daughters of attorney Henry Whiting Warner. Susan Bogert Warner was born July 11, 1819 in New York, New York and died March 17, 1887 in Highland Falls, New York. Anna Bartlett Warner was born August 31, 1827, also in New York City and died January 22, 1915 in Highland Falls as well.
Susan and Anna likely inherited their writing abilities from their attorney father, Henry, who was the author of “An Inquiry Into the Oral and Religious Character of the American Government” and other works. The daughters each became authors of books they wrote individually and also collaborated on other publications. Anna never married and published under her own name as well as the pseudonym “Amy Lathrop.” Susan was married and used the pseudonym “Ellen Wetherill.”
The family is said to have suffered with the economic downturn of 1837 which forced them to leave New York City and move to a small, poorly outfitted residence on Constitution Island, located across the Hudson River and due north of the Military Academy at West Point. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers notes:
A wood-frame barrack was built on the site in 1782 and occupied until the end of the war in 1783. The U.S. Army intended to dismantle it and sell it for scrap but couldn’t find a buyer. A resident of the island appears to have occupied the barrack and, at some point between 1801-08, reduced it to one wing of the former barrack. This portion likely represents the ‘Colonial section’ of the present-day Warner House.
In one of the sisters’ collaborative projects, a novel geared for young people was published in 1860 entitled “Say and Seal.” In the novel, a character named Johnny Fox is seriously ill. His Sunday School teacher sings or recites a poem to comfort him. The poem begins with the words “Jesus loves me, this I know.”
One year later, a composer by the name of William Batchelder Bradbury (1816 – 1868) read their book and focused on the poem. Bradbury was already the publisher of dozens of children’s song books and numerous hymns. He decided to set the poem to music, keeping the melody simple enough that it could be learned by a child. The result was the simple song which since became one of the most widely sung children’s hymns in history. A few years later, Bradbury died at around 50 years of age from complications of tuberculosis and was buried in a family plot in what is now Bloomfield, New Jersey.
The Fargo Forum, Fargo, North Dakota, May 12, 1957.
The sisters continued to live on Constitution Island until their deaths. In recognition of their love for the cadets at West Point and their service teaching Bible classes for forty years, they are the only two civilian women buried in the West Point Cemetery. Their residence is now part of the West Point property.
“To God be the Glory.”
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