Sources edit
@Beleg Tâl: It looks to me to be William Ernest Blandy b. 1848/9 London, left England 1884 with wife (Eliza Amelia S. B. Eade, m. 1878, Whitechapel). NOting 1849 first quarter registration, so it could be either 48 or 49.
- 1848 (Dec) born in England (1900 US Census)
- 1851 (Ernest), 1861, 1871 (Ernest William), 1881 census in London (child and menial jobs)
- 1878 married Eliza (1900 US Census, married 22 years with no children as of 1900)
- 1894 Rev. living at 247 W. 68th, New York, New York (city directory)
- 1900 census in New York (minister living on Centerville Ave, District 0672, Queens Ward 4, Queens, NY)
- 1902 pastor of The Methodist Protestant Church at Aqueduct (October 18, 1902, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York, p. 7)
- 1903-1905 superintendent City Mission at 128 Washington, Binghamton, NY (city directory)
- 1906 removed to Union Center (Binghamton city directory)
- 1910 US census (Methodist preacher, Waverly Pa.)
- 1912-1913 Binghamton, New York, superintendent City Mission (city directories)
- 1915 lived at 496 Waverly St, Barton, NY (NY census)
- 1915 (18 Aug) died at Waverly, NY (from The Christian Advocate, Vol 90, T. Carlton & J. Porter, 1915 - Methodist Church, p. 1396 available from Google Books and New York State Department of Health Death Index)
- 1923 NY directory shows Eliza Blandy (widow Wm E) in Buffalo, NY
Find a death record in NY in that period will be problematic from official sources, all we could ever manage is hope of a transcription of newspaper or grave. — billinghurst sDrewth 14:34, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
- Nicely found. The only source I had been able to find was Wordwise Hymns blog: "Note: Relatively little is known of Mr. Blandy, except what is related below. (He is, in fact, identified as Mr. Blandly in some earlier publications of the song.) [...] Ernest William Blandy was a Salvation Army officer who lived a century ago. We know little about him, but he wrote a simple song in 1890 about following the Lord. [...] He was offered a comfortable ministry in an established church, but turned it down, taking instead an assignment in New York City, in a slum area called Hell’s Kitchen." —Beleg Tâl (talk) 18:14, 4 February 2017 (UTC)