Katharine Elinda Nash Purvis (May 19, 1842 – October 23, 1907) was an educator, political activist, orator, and hymn lyricist in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is best known as the lyricist for When the Saints Are Marching In and Walk Beside Me, which were reproduced more than five million times during the publication of seventy-five hymnals by the early 1900s.Fuld, James J. The Book of World Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk, 1966."Mrs. Katharine E. Purvis" (obituary), in "State Topics." Altoona, Pennsylvania: Altoona Tribune, November 11, 1907, p. 8 (subscription required).
Early life Born in Towanda, Pennsylvania on May 19, 1842, Katharine E. Nash was a daughter of the Rev. Charles Nash, a Methodist minister. She was an 1860 seminary graduate.Fuld, James J. The Book of World Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk, 1966.
Career She began her professional life as a music teacher at the seminary of a Methodist Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.Fuld, James J. The Book of World Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk, 1966.
In 1896, the hymn When the Saints Are Marching In was published, with music by James Milton Black. Later, the song was altered somewhat and published in 1927 as the well known When The Saints Go Marching In.Fuld, James J. The Book of World Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk, 1966.
On March 20, 1898, Purvis was one of the featured speakers at a gathering of members of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Prohibition Club at the Williamsport Courthouse in Williamsport, Pennsylvania."In Memory of Noted Temperance Workers." Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Philadelphia Times, March 21, 1898, p. 3 (subscription required). On June 15 of that same year, Purvis delivered an address at the semi-centennial reunion of the Belles Lettres, Gamma Epsilon and the Tripatite literary societies as part of the semi-centennial jubilee celebration of the Williamsport Dickinson Seminary (now Lycoming College) in Williamsport."Dickinson Seminary." Altoona, Pennsylvania: Altoona Tribune, May 26, 1898, p. 4 (subscription required). An active member of the WCTU, she served on the organization's Resolutions Committee in 1898."Convention of W.C.T.U. Ends Today." Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Times, October 18, 1898, pp. 1, 4 (subscription required).
Death Purvis died at the age of sixty-five in Williamsport on October 23, 1907."Mrs. Katharine E. Purvis" (obituary), in "State Topics," Altoona Tribune, November 11, 1907, p. 8."Wrote Popular Hymns." Danville, Pennsylvania: The Danville News, November 12, 1907, p. 1 (subscription required).
References
External links The Cyber Hymnal