Sweney, John Robson

Composer

SWENEY, John Robson, b West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA 1837, d Chester, PA 1899. By the age of 22 he was teaching music in Dover, Delaware. After serving as a Delaware regimental band conductor in the civil war, he was for the next 25 years the Prof of Music at the Pennsylvania Military Academy. He was also Director of Music at Bethany Presbyterian Ch in Philadelphia. Seeing himself as called to be an evangelistic song-leader, he wrote over 1000 hymn tunes and co-edited at least 30 (some say 60) collections of gospel songs, anthems and Sunday School music. A popular music-leader at summer assemblies and conventions, he frequently worked with fellow-composer Wm J Kirkpatrick, qv. No.733.