Harris, William. The Cumberland Presbyterian Hymn Book; designed for the use of the pious of all Denominations; containing Hymns and Spiritual Songs, selected from the most approved Authors. Russellville, [Kentucky]: Charles Rhea, Printer, 1824. First Edition. [10073]
Full calf, cuts and scratches to the binding, top of spine chipped, 2 x 3 cm hole in center of backstrip, joints good. 12.3 x 7.5 cm (4 7/8 x 3 inches). Lacks all free end papers (blanks). DEFECTIVE: [1]-182, 185-194, 289-408. Index leaves tattered with loss of text to one leaf. Poor.
Scarce, with three locations at WorldCat; two in Kentucky, and AAS. The first hymn book of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (McDonnold, History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (1888), p 92.
William Harris (1772-1845), the son of a Revolutionary War soldier, converted during the great revival of 1800 at an inn in Russellville, Kentucky. He became a catechist in 1804, was licensed 1811, and ordained 1812. He was the first minister of his denomination to preach in Indiana (ca. 1811), and was one of the ministers who constituted the presbytery of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio in 1832, traveling by horseback to Pennsylvania from Kentucky. He became a beloved leader of his denomination, and was remembered as a good, effective, energetic, and prayerful minister of Christ.
"Nearly one-fourth of every year of his life, from the commencement of his ministry, was literally spent encamped in the woods, at camp-meetings. The writer has heard him avow it as his belief, from the pulpit, that a camp-meeting was the best place on this side of heaven. It was not unusual for him to preach once or twice going to, and returning from, those meetings." - Rev. David Lowry, Brief Memoir and Funeral Sermon, as found at cumberlanddotorg online.
With a signed provenance card from the music collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.