Son of a United Breth­ren min­is­ter, Han­by at­tend­ed Ot­ter­bein Un­i­ver­si­ty in Wes­ter­ville, Ohio. Up­on grad­u­a­tion, he worked for the col­lege, then served as prin­ci­pal of an acad­e­my in Sev­en Mile, Ohio. He lat­er pas­tored in Lew­is­burg and New Par­is, then went on to work for mu­sic pub­lish­ers John Church Com­pa­ny (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio) and Root and Ca­dy (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois). He wrote over five doz­en songs, ma­ny of which ap­peared in the quar­ter­ly Our Song Birds.

One of Hanby’s best known se­cu­lar songs is Dar­ling Nell­y Gray (MIDI, NWC, PDF). He wrote the song while at­tend­ing Ot­ter­bein Col­lege, in re­sponse to the plight of a run­a­way slave named Jo­seph Sel­by (or Shel­by). Han­by’s fa­ther, Bi­shop Will­iam Han­by, a Unit­ed Breth­ren min­is­ter ac­tive in the Un­der­ground Rail­road, was try­ing to raise mo­ney to free Selby’s be­loved. Han­by’s works in­clude:

• The Dove, a Col­lect­ion of Mu­sic for Day and Sun­day Schools, Ju­ve­nile Sing­ing Class­es, and the So­cial Cir­cle, with George Root (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Root & Ca­dy, 1866)

• Hustad, p. 251

1. Who Is He in Yon­der Stall?

1. Shepherds of Beth­le­hem, The