Son of Thomas M. and Mary Harris Huston, Frank at­tend­ed school in Fayette Coun­ty, and lat­er the Moody Bi­ble In­sti­tute, Chi­ca­go, Il­linois. For one year he taught school, and then be­came an evan­gel­is­tic singer, a vo­ca­tion he fol­lowed for 19 years in ma­ny states. He was al­so an or­dained min­is­ter of the Church of Christ, and for a num­ber of years pa­stored in towns and dis­tricts around In­di­an­a­po­lis. He was al­so pas­tor of the Oak­lan­don, In­di­a­na, con­gre­ga­tion near Indian­a­po­lis. He was com­mand­er of Ben Har­ri­son Camp 356, In­di­an­a­po­lis, Mar­i­on, In­di­a­na in 1919, and In­di­a­na Di­vi­sion Com­mand­er in 1925-1926.

In 1899, evan­gel­ist Charles Reign Sco­ville en­gaged Huston as his singer. He served in 180 evan­gel­istic cam­paigns from No­va Sco­tia to Flor­i­da. Hu­ston was or­dained a Di­sci­ples of Christ min­is­ter in 1915 in In­di­an­a­po­lis. He lived in In­di­an­a­po­lis 1909-1941, then moved to Jack­son­ville, Flor­i­da.

While still in the ministry, he found­ed the Frank C. Huston pub­lish­ing house. This bus­iness pro­duced some of the most pop­u­lar pa­tri­o­tic songs of World War I, with. Hu­ston him­self writ­ing the words and mu­sic of ma­ny of them, in­clud­ing My Indiana Home, Sing Again Those Old-Time Mel­o­dies, For the Honor of Old Pur­due, When Our Boys Come March­ing Home Again, and scores of others writ­ten even be­fore war was de­clared. Hus­ton al­so pub­lished a col­lect­ion of 100 hymns and Gos­pel songs, in­clud­ing 84 he wrote.

Dur­ing World War I, Gov­er­nor Good­rich of In­di­a­na ap­point­ed Hus­ton chap­lain of the 150th Field Ar­til­lery, Rain­bow Di­vi­sion, but through some mis­take he was ne­ver called to join the re­gi­ment be­fore the war end­ed. His serv­ic­es, how­ever, were in great de­mand in his home state and city, and he be­came wide­ly known as the “Sing­ing Chap­lain.” In World War II, Huston vol­un­teered his serv­ic­es to the Coast Guard Aux­il­i­ary. He was made a boat­swain’s mate when he was 74 and giv­en duty as a re­cruit­er. He was dis­charged as an en­sign. His works in­clude:

• Selected Sac­red Songs (Jack­son­ville, Flor­i­da: Frank C. Hus­ton, 1937)

Sources

Hymns

1. Christ of the Cross, The
2. It Pays to Serve Je­sus
3. Keep on Believing
4. We Shall Gather Round the Throne
5. Wonderful Savior
6. Wonderful Land of Tomorrow
7. Word of God Shall Stand, The