1860–1919

Introduction

portrait

Born: De­cem­ber 19, 1860, Ta­ma­qua, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Died: Ju­ly 29, 1919, Ocean Grove, New Jer­sey.

Buried: Ri­ver­side Ce­me­te­ry, Nor­ris­town, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Biography

Frank was the son of Sam­uel B. Graeff and Ma­til­da Mer­kle Ze­rbey, and husband of Ma­ry Lou­rene Mau­ger (mar­ried 1894).

Reared and edu­cat­ed in Penn­syl­van­ia Dutch coun­try, he sensed a call to the min­is­try ear­ly in life. He be­came a Me­tho­dist min­is­ter and served some of the lead­ing church­es in and around Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia.

He was known as the Sun­shine Min­is­ter for his op­ti­mis­tic at­ti­tude. His sun­ny dis­po­si­tion and sim­ple faith made him a spe­cial friend of child­ren, but he was an en­cour­age­ment to ev­ery­one who knew him.

He wrote about 200 hymn texts and a no­vel.

Sources

Lyrics

  1. Before a Cross Up­lift­ed High
  2. Come to Me, O, Pre­cious Mes­sage
  3. Does Je­sus Care?
  4. Hallelujah! Hal­le­lu­jah!
  5. Heart That I Brought, The
  6. Heavens with Joy Are Ring­ing, The
  7. I Am Glad
  8. I Am Hold­ing on to Je­sus Though My Faith
  9. I Am Safe in the Hol­low of His Hand
  10. I Am Sing­ing a Song That Is Full of Trust
  11. I Can Tell It All to Him
  12. I Hear a Song of Ju­bi­lee
  13. I Love the Name of Je­sus
  14. I Shall See Him By and By
  15. I Want to Live Near Je­sus
  16. Loud the Tem­pest Roared With­out
  17. Love, Migh­ty and Won­der­ful
  18. Message of the Bells, The
  19. On the Bat­tle­field of Life
  20. On the Cross of Cal­va­ry Dy­ing
  21. See Where the Star in Splen­dor
  22. There Is One Who Loved Me Tru­ly
  23. There’s a Bless­ed Old Sto­ry
  24. There’s a Hand Reach­ing Down
  25. There’s a Sweet and Pre­cious Sto­ry
  26. Thine, Ev­er Un­chang­ing
  27. Weary Wan­der­er in the Dark­ness
  28. When My Heart with Its Trou­bles Is Bur­dened
  29. When the Bless­ed Gold­en