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God of Our Fathers

There have been many patriotic songs and hymns written over the last two centuries that have come and gone, but there is one that endures and from the first words and notes still stirs the soul. It is “God of our Fathers.”

Daniel Crane Roberts was born the son of a devoted minister in New York City. Later, he attended college in Ohio and from there volunteered as a soldier in the Union Army. After the War, Daniel was ordained an episcopal priest in 1866 and served for nearly thirty years in New Hampshire and Vermont.

In 1876, Daniel Roberts, then a 35-year-old rector in St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Brandon, Vermont wanted a new hymn for his congregation to celebrate the centennial of the United States of America. He wrote “God of Our Fathers” for that occasion and it was sung to a borrowed tune.

In 1892, a convention was appointed to revise the Episcopal hymnal. Roberts sent in his hymn and modestly withheld his name. If the hymn was approved, he would give his identity then. Not only was the hymn accepted but it was chosen as the hymn to commemorate the centennial of the Constitution of the United States. George W. Warren, organist of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City wrote the now-familiar and stirring music, including the dramatic trumpet fanfare at the opening. George W. Warren passed away four years after writing this piece. Significantly, “no music was played at his funeral, attended by thousands, as the mourners believed they could find no finer organist.”

And Daniel Crane Roberts…

Just a few years before his death in 1907, he is reported to have said , “I remain a country parson, known only within my own small world.” And in reference to his one lasting literary contribution, he said, “My little hymn has thus had a very flattering official recognition. But that which would really gladden my heart– popular recognition–it has not received.”

Today, thank the Lord, both the man and the hymn are known and loved.

Source: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L8PP-3P7

https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-god-of-the-ages