Songs of the Saints: Tullius C. O’Kane
by Wayne S. Walker
A name which may be a little more familiar, or at least recognized, than Skene but still not as well-known as Campbell or Stone is Tullius Clinton O'Kane, who was born in Fairfield County, in the vicinity of Lancaster, Ohio, on March 10, 1830, and educated at the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, with a bachelor's degree in 1852 and a master's in 1855. After serving at his alma mater as a tutor in mathematics for a couple of years, he became a public school principal at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1857. In 1864, he became associated with the piano firm of Philip Phillips and Company, remaining with them for three years. Then, in 1867, he returned to Delaware and, for the next six years, travelled the state of Ohio as a representative of the Smith American Organ Company of Boston, Massachusets.
During this time, O'Kane attended county and state Sunday School conventions regularly and soon started publishing his own Sunday school song collections, for which he produced many tunes. The first of these publications was Fresh Leaves in 1868. Later that year, he published Additional Fresh Leaves, a Supplement to Fresh Leaves, which contained one of his best-known tunes with the hymn, "O Think of the Home Over There," written by DeWitt Clinton Huntingdon (1830-1912). A later edition of Fresh Leaves, printed around 1870, included a tune often accompanied with a chorus beginning, "We shall stand the storm," by O'Kane, or perhaps a traditional melody arranged by him, that has been used with several different hymns, including Isaac Watts's "When I Can Read My Title Clear" and "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?"
One of O'Kane's tunes that has become very popular among churches of Christ was composed for "Is It For Me, Dear Savior?" written by Frances R. Havergal (1836-1879). Miss Havergal's poem was published in her 1874 Under the Surface, but it must have been written earlier because the date usually given for the first publication of the song is 1871. The following year, O'Kane provided a melody and added a refrain for an anonymous poem beginning, "There Stands a Rock," which first appeared in the Sunday School Journal of 1871 (sometimes erroneously ascribed to a non-existent author S. S. Journal) and is also much used among brethren. These may have been first published in his 1873 Dew Drops of Sacred Song, Songs of Worship.
O'Kane's next work, Jasper and Gold, published in 1877, contained what is probably his most famous melody, "Evergreen Shore," used with the old hymn "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand," which had been written in 1787 by Samuel Stennett (1717-1795). Again, O'Kane added the chorus, which begins, "We will rest in the fair and happy land by and by." Also, at some time or another, he arranged a traditional air for use with the hymn, "There Is A Spot" written by William Hunter (1811-1877), which may have first been published in Joy to the World, which O'Kane co-edited in 1878 with C. C. McCabe and John R. Sweney. Also, he assisted with the compilation of Songs of Redeeming Love No. 1 in 1882 and No. 2 in 1887 with McCabe, Sweney, and William J. Kirkpatrick.
The preceding paragraphs identify almost all of O'Kane's tunes, at least those that I am aware of, which have been included in books published for use among churches of Christ. Max D. Wheeler, in his 1992 booklet Reflections on Our Hymns, a compilation of articles he had written for the Christian Journal, affirmed that O'Kane "was a member of the Church of Christ." It seems to me that I have also read this statement made in some other book as well, although I cannot remember or find where just now. I have not been able to confirm the truthfulness of this claim, but neither do I know of any evidence to doubt it. This may explain why so many of O'Kane's melodies remain in our books but not in most denominational books. While searching through several hymnbooks from different sources, I found one other tune he composed for a text, "Church of God Whose Conquering Banners," by Mrs. Emily Bugbee, but I have no further information about it. O'Kane died in Delaware, Ohio, on February 10, 1912.
