Philip P. Bliss, 1870
A Pennsylvania farm boy, Philip P. Bliss had little musical training, leaving home at age 11 to make his own living. From early in life showed an interest in and an aptitude for music. At age 21 he heard that the Normal Academy of Music in Geneseo, New York, was holding a six week music course in the area, but, having no money (living on $13 a month as a farmhand) he "...cried for disappointment. I thought everything had come to an end; that my life must be passed as a farm hand and country schoolmaster, and all bright hopes for the future must be given up." His grandmother, noticing his sadness, pulled out a sock in which she had been saving coins for several years and, counting out the money, found she had enough, and made him a gift of tuition. This started Bliss on his musical career.
He began as a traveling music teacher and over the next few years began to see success both as a musician and song writer, culminating in his becoming a part of D. L. Moody’s evangelistic team 1874 where he served until 1876 when he and his wife perished in the Ashtabula, Ohio, train disaster in which a trestle collapsed sending the cars plunging 70 feet to the river below.in
Bliss wrote over 100 hymns, many of which remain popular today, including "Almost Persuaded," "Dare to Be a Daniel," "Jesus Loves Even Me,""Let the Lower Lights Be Burning," "Wonderful Words of Life," and many more. He also wrote the music for "It Is Well With My Soul."
The phrase "Hold the Fort" was inspired by an incident in the American civil war when General Sherman signaled the words to the few surviving defenders of a besieged fort near Atlanta Georgia.