Grant Colfax Tullar

Songwriter Grant Colfax Tullar was named af­ter the Amer­i­can Pre­si­dent Ulys­ses S. Grant and Vice-Pre­si­dent (and Colfax Avenue namesake) Schuy­ler Col­fax. His fa­ther was un­a­ble to work, hav­ing been wound­ed in the Amer­i­can Ci­vil War Bat­tle of An­tie­tam. Af­ter Tul­lar’s mo­ther died when he was two years old, the fam­i­ly split up. Grant had no set­tled home af­ter that day un­til he be­came an adult.

As a child, he worked in a wool­en mill and as a shoe clerk, and re­ceived vir­tu­al­ly no ed­u­ca­tion or re­li­gious train­ing. He came to Christ at age 19 at a camp meet­ing near Wa­ter­bury, Con­nec­ti­cut. He then at­tend­ed the Hack­etts­town Acad­e­my in New Jersey. Or­dained a Meth­od­ist min­is­ter, he pas­tored for a short time in Dover, Del­a­ware, then be­came a full time evan­gel­ist. In 1893, he and Isaac Mer­e­dith found­ed the Tul­lar-Mer­e­dith mu­sic pub­lis­hing house in New York. His works in­clude:

• The Bi­ble School Hymn­al (with Isaac Mer­e­dith) (New York: Tull­ar-Mer­e­dith Co., 1907)
• Sun­day School Hymns No. 1 (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Tull­ar-Mer­e­dith Co., 1903)

Hymns:

1. Angels’ Sweet Refrain, The
2. First Christmas Song, The
3. I’ve Heard the King (© 1953)
4. Joy Dispels Our Sorrow
5. O Ho­ly Bi­ble
6. People That in Darkness Walked, The
7. Resurrection Morn So Fair
8. Ring On, Ye Bells
9. Smile and Sing
10. Wake, Sweetest Strain
11. We Will Follow Jesus

Music:

1. All the World for Jesus
2. The Conqueror
3. Face to Face with Christ, My Savior
4. Forward!
5. He Did Not Die in Vain
6. Keep Your Heart in Love with Jesus
7. Life Is a Friendly Road
8. Lord of the Harvest, The
9. Manger-Babe, The
10. Nailed to the Cross
11. Our Best
12. Over Bethl’em’s Hillside
13. Raise the Song
14. Ring On, Ye Bells/O Sing His Praise
15. Skies Will Soon Be Blue
16. There’s a Beautiful City
17. Waking Out of Silence