The Old Rugged Cross: A Song History

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“The Old Rugged Cross” is the work of George Bennard (1873–1958), who wrote both its words and its tune across 1912 and 1913.[1] Several places claim a share of its birth, and the accounts do not fully agree. In Albion, Michigan, a state historic marker holds that Bennard began the hymn there in 1912, setting down the first verse and refrain in a rented apartment.[2][3] A Friends church in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, maintains that he worked on it during revival meetings held there over the turn of 1913.[2] A Michigan marker at Pokagon, erected in 2000, says he completed it in that village for a January 1913 revival led by the Reverend Leroy O. Bostwick, that the local Methodist choir gave its first public performance, and that the Bostwicks paid for its first printing.[4] Still another account places its premiere at a convention at the Chicago Evangelistic Institute.[2] Weighing the evidence, the Hymnology Archive concludes that Bennard worked on the song in several places and fixed a version for print at Pokagon.[2]

Etched landscape with a plain wooden cross standing by a footbridge, trees and a river

Caspar David Friedrich, Footbridge with Cross before Trees at a River, etching, c. 1803. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).

The song was registered for copyright in February 1913, and its earliest confirmed hymnal appearance is Heart and Life Songs (1915), a collection Bennard helped edit.[2] Its wide fame came through the evangelist song leader Homer Rodeheaver,[1] who promoted it alongside the evangelist Billy Sunday.[3] Around 1920 Rodeheaver’s publishing company bought Bennard’s copyright, and that year Rodeheaver recorded the hymn for Victor as a duet with Virginia Asher; further recordings on other labels followed through the 1920s.[2] Popularity did not bring universal approval: some hymnologists objected to its focus on the cross as an object, and many major hymnals held off until the 1950s, partly because of the fees charged by the copyright owner.[1][2]

Now in the public domain, the hymn appears in hundreds of hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org, sung to Bennard’s tune OLD RUGGED CROSS, whose refrain has the lower voices echoing the melody.[1] The Pokagon church, built as a hops barn in 1862 and later used for storage, has been restored as a historic site and museum marking the song’s 1913 debut.[4][5] For mountain dulcimer players, the hymn is included in Stephen Seifert’s DAD-tuning collection Join the Jam: Gospel Edition.[6]

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Sources

  1. Hymnary.org: "The Old Rugged Cross" (text).
  2. Hymnology Archive: "The Old Rugged Cross".
  3. Albion Michigan Community Guide (Frank Passic): "The Old Rugged Cross Written in Albion".
  4. Historical Marker Database: "Methodist Episcopal Church / The Old Rugged Cross".
  5. The Old Rugged Cross Historic Site (Pokagon, Michigan): "The Original Old Rugged Cross Church".
  6. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam Gospel Edition".