Hymn Writers of the Church

Doane, George Washington, a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was born in Trenton, N. J., May 27, 1799; graduated at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., in 1818; entered the ministry in 1821, and served as an assistant minister at Trinity Church, New York, until 1824, when he was called to a chair in Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he remained until 1828, when he became rector of Trinity Church, Boston, being in this position when he was elected in 1832 to the bishopric of New Jersey. St. Mary's Hall, Burlington, was founded by him in 1837, and Burlington College in 1846. A man of great energy and force of character, of rare warmth of heart, and of exceptional learning, he was regarded as one of the most able and influential prelates of the Episcopal Church in America. He had not only warm friends and ardent admirers, but bitter enemies and numerous controversies. He died April 27, 1859. His Songs by the Way, 1824, published when he was only twenty-five years old, gave evidence of unusual gifts as a poet and hymn writer. Just after his death his son published his Works, in four volumes, and an enlarged edition of 405 his Sangs by the Way. There are some who claim that his hymn beginning "Thou art the Way" is the greatest hymn that America has yet produced.