Born: Sep­tem­ber 27, 1872, Spring Hill, Penn­syl­van­ia. He was bro­ther to Al­fred Ack­ley.

Died: Septem­ber 3, 1958, Wi­no­na Lake, In­di­a­na.

Buried: Oak­wood Cem­e­te­ry, War­saw, In­di­a­na. Ho­mer Ro­de­hea­ver lies near­by.

Ackley showed mu­sic­al tal­ent ear­ly, learn­ing the me­lo­de­on, pi­ano, cor­o­net, clar­i­net and pic­co­lo as a boy. Af­ter mov­ing to New York Ci­ty in 1888, he be­gan play­ing the or­gan in sev­er­al church­es. In 1907, he joined the Billy Sun­day-Hom­er Rod­e­heav­er evan­gel­ism team as sec­re­tary-pi­an­ist, and tra­veled with them for eight years. As a com­pos­er and ed­i­tor with the Ro­de­heav­er Com­pa­ny, he wrote over 3,000 Gos­pel tunes. His works in­clude:

Sources

Music

  1. Ackley
  2. Behold, He Com­eth
  3. Blessèd News
  4. By and By
  5. Coming Home
  6. Faith Will Bring the Bless­ing
  7. Good News
  8. Hark! I Hear My Name
  9. Have You Prayed It Through?
  10. He Is Knock­ing
  11. He Rose Tri­umph­ant­ly (© 1944)
  12. He Will Not Let Me Fall
  13. How You Will Love Him!
  14. I Am Com­ing Home
  15. I Love Je­sus
  16. I Shall Dwell For­ev­er There
  17. I Shall See the King
  18. I Walk with the King
  19. I Want Je­sus (© 1933)
  20. If Thou Shalt Con­fess
  21. I Would Be Like Je­sus
  22. If Your Heart Keeps Right
  23. In the Ser­vice of the King
  24. Love Opened Wide the Door
  25. Meet Your Trou­bles with a Smile (© 1933)
  26. More Than These
  27. Mother’s Pray­ers Have Fol­lowed Me
  28. Once My Way Was Dark and Dreary
  29. Pardoning Grace
  30. Promise
  31. Repent! ’Tis the Voice of Je­sus
  32. Room for You
  33. Satisfied
  34. Shout and Sing
  35. Since the Full­ness of His Love Came In
  36. Somebody Else Needs a Bless­ing
  37. Somebody Knows
  38. Speak to Me On­ly of Je­sus
  39. Sunrise
  40. There Is Joy in Serv­ing Je­sus (1931)
  41. There’s a Rain­bow Shin­ing Some­where (© 1939)
  42. There Will I Fol­low Thee
  43. This My Plea
  44. Transformed
  45. Wealth of All Hea­ven Is Mine, The (© 1928)
  46. What Can I Ask Be­side?
  47. Where the Cross Is Lead­ing
  48. Who Will Open Mer­cy’s Door?