Ward, Samuel Augustus

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Ward, Samuel Augustus

Ward, Samuel Augustus, American composer and dealer in musical instruments; b. Newark, N.J., Dec. 28, 1848; d. there, Sept. 28, 1903. He was the author of the famous hymn Materna, first publ. in the Parish Choir (Boston, 1888) to the words of “O Mother dear, Jerusalem” Eventually, his hymn tune was combined with the words of the poem America, the Beautiful, written by Katherine Lee Bates in 1893, and became one of the most widely sung patriotic American anthems. —NS/LK/DM

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire