1879-1975

Oc­to­ber 31, 1879, Tex­as.

May 13, 1975, Park Place Nurs­ing Home, Mart, Tex­as.

Faulk­en­ber­ry Cem­e­te­ry, Groes­beck, Tex­as.

Ferrill grew up on a farm at Davis Prair­ie (near Thorn­ton), Tex­as. At about age 15, he be­gan stu­dy­ing mu­sic un­der John E. Thom­as and Frankl­in Ei­land. Af­ter grad­u­at­ing with a teach­er’s de­gree from North Texas Nor­mal Coll­ege in Denton, he be­gan con­ducti­ng sing­ing schools; his first was at For­ace Cha­pel, near Gros­beck, in 1901. Con­tin­ui­ng to teach sing­ing schools re­gular­ly through 1932, Fer­rell some­times ran up to 15 schools a year. He even­tu­al­ly went to work for the Trio Music Com­pa­ny of Wa­co, Tex­as, and for a while sold their mu­sic books in Lou­i­si­a­na. While at­tendi­ng a con­ven­tion in 1904 at Ti­ger Prair­ie, he en­coun­tered John Thom­as, his form­er teache­r and the own­er of the Quar­tet Mus­ic Com­pany. With Thom­as’ en­courage­ment, Ferr­ell be­came a stock­hold­er and di­rect­or in the Quar­tet Mu­sic Com­pa­ny, stay­ing with them three de­cades. In 1905, he took a music course with the An­al­yti­cal New Light Nor­mal School of Mu­sic in Waco; his song Soul Win­ner for Je­sus grew out of a class as­sign­ment there. In 1932, Fer­rill and his fam­i­ly re­turned to Davis Prair­ie to live on the farm his mo­ther left him.

Ferrill pub­lished around 40 hymns in his life­time. His works in­clude:

  1. Christ Je­sus for Our Sins Atoned
  2. Have You Heard the Story of the Blesse­d Sav­ior?
  3. I Am Now Seek­ing That Won­derf­ul Trea­sure
  4. If You Want to Live at Peace with God
  5. I’m So Glad That Jes­us Came, Lift­ing the World
  6. I’m Tra­vel­ing to a Hap­py Place
  7. I’m Walk­ing by Faith
  8. I’ve a Love­ly Man­sion Built in Hea­ven
  9. I’ve a Man­sion Built in Hea­ven ’Mid the Joys
  10. I’ve Al­ways Been Told
  11. Keep Tell­ing the Sto­ry of Jes­us
  12. Let Me Tell the World of My Sav­ior’s Love
  13. Let Your Light Be Shin­ing Ev­ery Day
  14. Look Back, Dear Friends, to Cal­va­ry
  15. O Father Do Not Ask Me Why
  16. O Let Us Look Be­yond This Life
  17. O Some Day Be­yond the Great Di­vide
  18. O the Gos­pel Is the Pow­er of God to Save
  19. Our School Days Are O’er
  20. Proclaim the Gos­pel Mes­sage Now
  21. Soul Win­ner for Je­sus, A
  22. Sow the Seed of Truth To­day
  23. The Great­est Love That Ev­er Was Known
  24. There Is Peace With­in My Soul
  25. There’s a Won­derf­ul Place We Call Home
  26. There’s a Won­der­ful Time Await­ing
  27. We Are on the Gos­pel Road
  28. We’re Here, Dear Lord, to Wor­ship Thee
  29. What a Won­derf­ul World
  30. When Je­sus Shall Come with His Mighty Host
  31. Wonderful Ci­ty of God