Where He Leads I'll Follow -- William Augustine Ogden

From Ohio to Indiana, as a soldier through a bitter war, as a music student, and then back in his birth-state where he had a number of successful publishing efforts, this composer had reached a point in his life at which he wanted to make a pledge. William Augustine Ogden was a 44-year old success story when he wrote “Where He Leads I’ll Follow” in 1885, but of what was he thinking, the past or what was still to come? He’d seen enough by then, really, to probably be in a reflective mood, perhaps drawing upon one or more episodes that caused him to express his loyalty to the One who’d brought him to that point.  

William Ogden must have discovered something musically as a youngster that stuck with him through thick and thin for the next several decades. After his family left Ohio for Indiana when he was six, Willy Ogden found his musical ear and voice, and was growing this part of his being by the time he was eight. Reading music in the church by age 10 and writing lines of music from memory a little thereafter, the young Ogden was, not surprisingly, an active choral member at the church by the time he was 18. What happened over the next several years might have discouraged other budding musical minds, but not William Ogden’s. Although he volunteered for the Indiana infantry at the outset of the American Civil War, this life-challenging event did not divert William’s musical growth. Instead, he organized a choir of his fellow soldiers, which became renowned throughout the Army of the Cumberland. Music during the Civil War was in fact quite important, as a tool for morale, both in camps and on the battlefields.  Thus, it’s quite likely that it served as a further catalyst for Ogden’s music development, imbuing him with an appreciation for the power of this medium, of what it could impart to the human spirit in this decisive period.  It probably was therefore no surprise that at the war’s conclusion, Ogden pursued his musical career more ardently, studying with several mentors. Although he’d already put together one song collection in 1861, his 1870 songbook The Silver Song was very successful (half a million sold), and the rest, as someone has said, is history. He went on to publish many more collections, compose, and teach over the next two to three decades, including as the superintendant of music at schools in Toledo, Ohio (see its flag here).

Was William Ogden thinking about what had been, or what was still to come as he composed a song about following Jesus in 1885? He might as easily have vocalized ‘Where He’s (Already) Lead Me’, especially as he thought about surviving the war experience two decades earlier. Or, he might have been thinking of something in his present tense in 1885, perhaps his latest success in publishing, Notes of Victory, another accomplishment on his already healthy resume. He was still relatively young, and no doubt looked forward to doing more. But, he may also have realized that life could be unexpectedly cut short. His third verse of ‘Where He Leads…’ shows he appreciated that a burdened life could find ultimate relief only in God. He also wrote that Jesus’ message and love-example far outshone anything in his experience (verses 1 and 2). He sounds like a teacher, yearning to coax others to learn what he’d grown to trust. No, not what, but Who. As Ogden might have said, the ‘where’ is important, but the ‘who’ is really the key on this trip.    

   

See following link for biographic information on the composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/o/g/d/ogden_wa.htm

Hear all three verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/w/h/l/whlifoll.htm

 

See this site for description of Civil War music: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_American_Civil_War