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

Lyrics

1. Christ of the Cross, The (© 1924)
2. Here Before Thee Savior (© 1934)
3. It Pays to Serve Je­sus
4. Keep on Believing
5. We Shall Gather Round the Throne
6. When the Children All Get Home
7. Wonderful Savior
8. Wonderful Land of Tomorrow
9. Word of God Shall Stand, The