Philip P. Bliss

BLISS, Philip Paul. b. Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, 9 July 1838; d. Ashtabula, Ohio, 29 December 1876. Bliss left home as a young boy to work on farms and in lumber camps, while trying to continue his schooling. He was converted at a revival meeting at the age of twelve, and received some musical training from John G. Towner and William Batchelder Bradbury*. Bliss became an itinerant music teacher in 1860, making house calls on horseback during the winter, and attending the Normal Academy of Music in Geneseo, NewYork, during several summers. He worked for the Chicago publisher Root and Cady for four years, as a composer and editor of various gospel song-books, and then as a freelance...