In later years, she would never speak about that loss except to say in her oral biography, “God gave us a tender babe and soon the angels came down and took our infant up to God and His throne.” Shortly after the marriage, a child was born to them but soon died. She insisted, however, that she use her married name on all legal documents. He was also blind and took pride in his wife’s genius and insisted that she retain her maiden name. In 1858, at the age of 38, Fanny Crosby married Alexander Van Alstyne, a scholarly, accomplished musician and pupil at the New York school. Many of her first poems were published in the Saturday Evening Post and other prominent newspapers and magazines of the time. She would later become a friend to several presidents and would stay in the White House at times. She spoke about educating the blind, moving many to tears with her poems and winning personality. with others and became the first woman to speak before the Senate and later before a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives. There, she learned to sing and mastered the guitar, the piano, the organ, and became a noted harpist.ĭuring that time, she went to Washington D. She was a student for seven years and taught for another eleven. When Fanny was fifteen, she entered the New York Institute for the Blind, fighting her urge to stay under the protection of the family. She finally retained the first five books of the Old Testament, then the first four of the New Testament, then Proverbs and many of the psalms. The little girl was soon memorizing chapters, then books. She patiently taught her the Bible, first one verse, then another. She taught the little girl about the wonderful colors in nature and everything she was missing. When her grandmother Eunice heard that her little granddaughter was blind and that nothing could be done about it, she said, “Then I will be her eyes.” Valentine Mott, a noted surgeon, but he only stated, “Poor little blind girl.” She would remember that statement for the rest of her life. When she was five, sympathetic neighbors contributed money to send Fanny to New York to a Dr. Mercy remarried not long afterward to Thomas Morris and to that marriage was born two girls, Julia and Caroline. When it became known throughout the small town, the man left and no one ever heard from him again.Ĭoncerning this tragedy, Fanny Crosby later wrote, “In more than eighty-five years, I have not for a moment felt a spark of resentment against him, for I have always believed from my youth up that the good Lord, in His infinite mercy, by this means consecrated me to the work that I am still permitted to do.” Her father died when she was just ten months old, leaving Mercy to tend to Fanny and the other child from the previous marriage. When she started crying, the doctor said something to the effect that it was working and they should leave it on for the prescribed time. When she was six weeks old, she caught a cold but their town doctor was unavailable, so they sought the advice from a nearby country doctor who unwittingly prescribed a hot mustard poultice for her inflamed eyes. She was the only child of John Crosby, a widower who had a daughter from a previous marriage, and his second wife, Mercy Crosby. Crosby (Ma– February 12, 1915)įrances Jane Crosby was born on March 24, 1820, in the small village of Brewster, about 50 miles north of New York City.
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