Samuel Francis Smith, clergyman, born in Boston, Massachusetts,
October 21, 1808. Attended the Boston Latin School in 1820-5, and was
graduated at Harvard in 1829 and at Andover Theological Seminary in
1832. Was ordained to the ministry of the Baptist Church at
Waterville, Maine, in 1834, where he occupied pastorates from 1834
until 1842, and at Newton, Massachusetts, 1842 to 1854. Was professor
of languages in Waterville College while residing in that city, and
there he also received the degree of D.D. in 1854.
He has done a large amount of literary work, mainly in the line of
hymnology, his most popular composition being our national hymn, _My
Country, 'Tis of Thee_, which was written while he was a theological
student, and first sung at a children's celebration in the Park Street
Church, Boston, July 4, 1832. _The Morning Light is Breaking_, was
also written at the same place and time. His classmate, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, in his reunion poem entitled _The Boys_, thus refers to him:
"And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith;
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith!
But he chanted a song for the brave and the free--
Just read on his medal, 'My Country, of Thee!'"
The following poem was written expressly for the exercises
held on the Nineteenth Anniversary of President Lincoln's
death, at his tomb, Springfield, Illinois, April 15, 1884.