William Howard Doane Mus. Doctor was born on 2 February 1832 at Preston, CT.. He was the son of
Joseph H. Doane and
Frances Treat. William Howard Doane Mus. Doctor married
Frances Mary Treat, daughter of
James Stanton Treat and
Frances A. Witter, on 2 November 1858 at Norwich, CT. William Howard Doane Mus. Doctor lived in 1891 at Cincinnati, OH. Mount Auburn. Dr. Doane was graduated from Woodstock Academy in 1848. For about three years he was in the counting-room of his father's cotton mill, and for three years was in the cotton mills of his uncle, James S. Treat, at Voluntown.
About 1854 he went to Norwich, Conn., and became cashier for J. A. Fay & Co., manufacturers of wood-working machinery. In 1860 he became a partner in the business, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and is now president and general manager of the company, their entire plant being in Cincinnati. In connection with his business Dr. Doane was elected a member of the American Societies of Mechanical and Mining Engineers, also of the American Geographical Society and American Society of Science.
He was a chevalier in the Legion of Honor of France, and was knighted by the government of France, by special act of its Congress.
Dr. Doane is a prominent Baptist. For nineteen years he was superintendent ofthe Mt. Auburn Baptist Sunday Schoo. He is a trustee of Dennison University, of the Baptist Minsters' Aid Society and Home at Fenton, Michigan and of the Cincinnati Y.M.C.A. He was chairman of the executive committee of the Baptist May Anniversaries held in Cincinnati in 1891.
Beyond all these honors, however,Dr. Doane will be longest remembered as a musical composer. In 1875 Dennison University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Music. He has composed more than 600 Sunday school songs, at least 150 church and prayer-meeting hymns, and 250 other songs and bvallads, besides anthems, cantatas, etc. Some of his best-known compositions are those begignning "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," "Rescue the PERsihing," "More Like Jesus Would I Be," "Near the Cross, a Termbling Soul," "Pass Me Not ,O Gentle Saviour," "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross," "More Love to Thee O Christ," "Tell Me the Old Old Story".
