Mary Jane "Jennie" Bain Wilson (November 13, 1856 – September 3, 1913) was an American hymn writer.

Early life

Mary Jane "Jennie" Bain Wilson was born on a farm in Cleveland, Indiana in 1856, the younger daughter of Robert Wilson and Mary Frances Russell Wilson. She survived

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

as a little girl, but her spine was damaged by the bacterial infection ("typhoid spine" was first described in the medical literature many years later). She used a

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

from childhood and she was educated at home."Hold to God's Unchanging Hand"
''Hymnstudiesblog'' (May 21, 2014).

Career

Wilson wrote thousands and published hundreds of Christian hymns; she was known as the "

Fanny Crosby Frances Jane van Alstyne (née Crosby; March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915), more commonly known as Fanny J. Crosby, was an American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer. She was a prolific hymnist, writing more than 8,000 hymns ...

of the West". She also wrote poetry and spoke at Bible conferences in Indiana. Her hymn "Hold to God's Unchanging Hand" (1905) was especially popular in the 1910s and 1920s. Wilson was also the author of the slogan of

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

, "Fort Wayne with Might and Main", taking the $50 prize in the city's slogan contest, out of 25,000 submissions.

Personal life

After 1902 Wilson lived with her married older sister. She sought some surgical treatment of her paralysis in Indianapolis, and "improved somewhat". Wilson died in 1913, aged 57 years, from kidney disease, in

South Whitley, Indiana South Whitley is a town in Cleveland Township, Whitley County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 1,751 at the 2010 census. South Whitley is a town in the Midwestern tradition of red brick buildings and tree-lined streets. History ...

References

External links

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Jennie Bain Wilson
at

Hymnary A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook (or hymn book). Hymnals are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts (normal for most hymnals for most centuries of Chri ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Jennie Bain 1856 births 1913 deaths Hymnwriters People from South Whitley, Indiana American women writers American writers with disabilities