Born: 1881, Mor­ga­ntown, Ken­tucky.

Died: 1973, possibly in Uvalde, Texas.

In 1890, Taylor’s fam­i­ly moved to Sher­man, Tex­as, where he stu­died mu­sic. He first taught in a sing­ing school at age 18, and pub­lished his first song­book in 1905. Taylor was ac­tive as a song lead­er for Church­es of Christ in the south and south­west Unit­ed States, wrote 200 songs, pub­lished two doz­en of his own song books, and worked as an ed­it­or for the Firm Found­a­tion Com­pa­ny in Au­stin, Tex­as. He al­so served at the Tex­as Nor­mal Sing­ing School in Sa­bin­al for 27 years, and ret­ired in 1972. His works in­clude:

• The Gospel Messenger, 1905
• New Songs of Victory, 1911

Lyrics

1. Closer to Thee
2. Do All in the Name of the Lord
3. Home on the Banks of the River