Son of Syl­ves­ter Main, Hu­bert at­tend­ed sing­ing school un­til 1854, when he went to New York Ci­ty and worked as an er­rand boy in a wall­pa­per house. In Ap­ril 1855, he be­came an er­rand boy in the Bris­tow & Morse pi­a­no com­pa­ny. That same year, he helped his fa­ther ed­it the Sun­day School Lute song­book by Isaac Wood­bu­ry. In 1867, Main was called to fill a po­si­tion in Wil­liam Brad­bu­ry’s pub­lish­ing house. Fol­low­ing Brad­bu­ry’s death in 1868, the Big­low & Main pub­lish­ers were formed as its suc­cess­or. In ad­di­tion to pub­lish­ing, Main wrote over 1,000 piec­es of mu­sic—part song, sing­ing school songs, Sun­day School mu­sic, hymns, an­thems, etc. He al­so col­lect­ed mu­sic books; in 1891, he sold his col­lect­ion of over 3,500 vol­umes to the New­ber­ry Library in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, where they were known as the “Main Lib­ra­ry.” Main’s works in­clude:

• Book of Praise for the Sun­day School, with George A. Bell (New York: Big­low & Main, 1875)
• Little Pil­grim Songs, with Mrs. Wil­bur F. Crafts (New York: Big­low & Main, 1884)
• Hymns of Praise, with George A. Bell (New York: Big­low & Main, 1884)
• Gems of Song for the Sun­day School, with Ira Sank­ey (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: The Big­low & Main Co., 1901)

Sources

Music

1. Armor
2. Blessèd Cross of Je­sus
3. Blessèd Home­land
4. Bright For­ev­er, The
5. Carry the Stand­ard Brave­ly
6. Ellesdie
7. Firm on the Rock I Stand
8. Happy Lit­tle Pil­grims
9. Hear, and Live!
10. Hold Thou My Hand
11. Hubert
12. Jesus, Je­sus On­ly
13. Jewett
14. Let Me Lean on Thee
15. Little Friends of Je­sus
16. My Ain Coun­trie
17. Noah
18. O My Savior, Hear Me
19. Only Trust the Sav­ior’s Prom­ise
20. Praise the Rock of Our Salva­tion
21. Rally, Soldiers, One and All
22. Rejoice, Re­joice, Be­liev­er
23. Save Me at the Cross
24. Silver Spring
25. Tell the Blessed News
26. There’s a Friend That Abides
27. Thy Word Is a Lamp
28. Up and Away
29. Webster Groves
30. We’re Trav­el­ing Home
31. What a Friend Thou Art to Me!
32. Yes, There Is Par­don for You