Back in 2013, I wrote a series of posts on Rev. George Orlia Webster for\u00a0the Essex on Lake Champlain<\/em><\/a>\u00a0community blog. I had become interested in this former Essex resident, pastor of the Fed\u00ader\u00adat\u00aded Church in Es\u00adsex, and prolific composer of liturgical music\u00a0because of his hymn, “Essex-on-Champlain.”<\/p>\n Today I’ve collected (with the able assistance of Katie Shepard) and lightly curated my earlier posts into a single feature on\u00a0George O. Webster’s life and career in the enduring hope that it may encourage a new performance (or even a recording!) of\u00a0\u201cEssex-on-Champlain.\u201d<\/p>\n If the name Reverend George Orlia Webster sounds familiar to you, it\u2019s likely because you\u2019ve heard (or read) the hymn \u201cEssex-on-Champlain\u201d which he wrote in 1929. Or because you\u2019ve read the commemorative plaque at the\u00a0Essex Community Church<\/a>\u00a0(aka the Federated Church) in\u00a0Essex, NY.<\/p>\n Son of a Bap\u00adtist min\u00adis\u00adter, Web\u00adster at\u00adtend\u00aded school at Sax\u00adon\u2019s Ri\u00adver Acad\u00ade\u00admy. His first pas\u00adtor\u00adate af\u00adter ord\u00adin\u00ada\u00adtion was in St. Johns\u00adbury, Ver\u00admont. Of his over 50 years of service as a min\u00adis\u00adter, over 30 were spent in non-de\u00adnom\u00adin\u00ada\u00adtion\u00adal set\u00adtings, oft\u00aden in com\u00adbined church\u00ades with Meth\u00adod\u00adist, Pres\u00adby\u00adter\u00adi\u00adan, and Bap\u00adtist mem\u00adbers. In later years, Web\u00adster was pas\u00adtor of the Fed\u00ader\u00adat\u00aded Church at Es\u00adsex, New York, where there is a plaque in his mem\u00ado\u00adry. (Hymnary.org<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In 2013 I received word from two great grandchildren of Rev. George Orlia Webster (1866-1942), Jane Palmer Baker of South Padre Island, Texas and her brother, Thomas Palmer of Galion, Ohio. In addition to a handsome photo of her great grandfather, Ms. Baker shared the brief biography above and the following details which will prove especially helpful to genealogists.<\/p>\n George Orlia\u00a0Webster<\/strong>\u00a0(1866-1942) Essex resident Norma Goff responded to Ms. Baker\u2019s Facebook post with a poignant personal connection to Rev. George Orlia Webster.<\/p>\n \u201cI have heard much about your great Grandfather, George Webster. I am quite sure he married my parents here in Essex in 1935, and know he was a beloved pastor in this town. I think he is also responsible for writing many hymns, among them, one about Essex!\u201d (Source: Norma Goff)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Undoubtedly many other past and present Essex residents and visitors remember George Orlia Webster as well, and I invite you to share your memories and stories so that we can share them with the community.<\/p>\n Turning to\u00a0Webster\u2019s creative legacy, \u201cEssex-on-Champlain\u201d is likely the most famous of his hymns among\u00a0Essex, NY\u00a0residents and seasonal habitues, but it represents a mere fraction of this prolific man\u2019s creative output over the years.<\/p>\n Back in 2013,\u00a0Thomas Palmer<\/a>\u00a0shared a wealth of information on his great grandfather, George O. Webster, including the following.<\/p>\n George was born in 1866 to Joseph B. and Francis Webster, his father being a minister himself as well as a Civil War veteran. When George was young, the family had a visit from a lady known as \u201cAunt Lucy,\u201d who \u201cread\u201d the bumps on heads (\u201cphrenology\u201d). She proclaimed that young George had a \u201cpoetic\u201d bump, and sure enough, he went on to author several hundred published hymns, cantatas, musicals, and other works.\u201d (Source: Thomas Palmer)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Apparently Aunt Lucy was on to something. George O. Webster became a prolific author of hymns. Included at the end of this post is a list of 229 hymns that\u00a0George O. Webster is known to have composed. \u201cEssex-on-Champlain\u201d does not appear on the list, an indication that there may be other hymns likewise overlooked.<\/p>\n I also have scrapbook of his correspondence with well-known hymn writers he knew and\/or collaborated with, such as Charles H. Gabriel (who wrote hymns such as \u201cHis Eye is on the Sparrow,\u201d \u201cWill the Circle be Unbroken,\u201d etc.) and many others.<\/p>\n Great Grandpa\u2019s best-known hymn is probably \u201cI Need Jesus,\u201d although there are many more that were well-known in their day. That hymn is almost always played or sung at family funerals and important events \u2013 it was played at my own wedding. (Source: Thomas Palmer)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Palmer augmented George O. Webster\u2019s biography and provided a manuscript from a newspaper article written by Billy Burger for \u201cThe Adirondacker\u201d column in\u00a0The Record-Post,<\/em>\u00a0Au Sable Forks, NY, on Thursday, October 2, 1941. The following excerpts helps illustrate why George O. Webster was considered \u201cone of the most amazing Adirondack personalities\u201d by Record-Post columnist, Billy Burger.<\/p>\n A family story relays that Rev. Joseph Webster baptized George as a young man by carving a hole in an icy river in the middle of winter. George received his education at Saxon\u2019s River Academy in Vermont (which is still in operation and known as Vermont Academy). Shortly after graduation, he was ordained as a minister, and his first pastorate was of a Baptist church in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont.<\/p>\n Rev. Webster spent the remainder of his life as a minister and farmer, and had pastorates in Warrensburg, Utica, and Franfort, New York. His last post was as pastor of the Federated Church in Essex, which I believed he considered the culmination of his career as a minister. I know he lived there for many, many years. He lived there with his last wife, Winifred (my own great grandmother had passed away at the age of 26, just a month after my grandmother was born). His two youngest daughters were there a lot as well, Marilla and Agnes.<\/p>\n I know for certain that he had a deep love for the Adirondacks in general and Essex in particular. (Source: Thomas Palmer)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Record-Post columnist Billy Burger profiled George O. Webster in \u201cSky Pilot<\/a>\u201d on October 2, 1941, amplifying the portrait offered by Palmer.<\/p>\n After his mother\u2019s death, which occurred soon after Aunt Lucy\u2019s visit, Mr. Webster went to a charge in Vermont and George ran wild. But not for long. Presently a famous lecturer and humorist, \u201cBob\u201d Burdette, preached a couple of summers in the North River church. He got a grip on George, and this resulted in George\u2019s conversion\u2026 George now turned definitely to the Baptist ministry, in which he has served almost fifty years. Significantly enough, although he says he can never be anything but, a Baptist at heart, thirty of the fifty years have been spent in undenominational work. His Federated church at Essex contains Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian groups and he is also Methodist minister at Whallonsburg.<\/p>\n Because of ill health of the present Mrs. Webster, he was forced to spend\u00a0twelve years on a farm near Glens Falls. But the old farm just couldn\u2019t keep George out of the pulpit. Before he realized what he was doing he was conducting, with Mrs. Webster\u2019s help, four services a Sunday. The farm chores sandwiched in between. (Billy Burger, \u201cSky Pilot<\/a>,\u201d The Adirondacker.\u00a0The Record-Post<\/em>, Au Sable Forks, N. Y., October 2, 1941)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As pastor, farmer and hymn composer, George O. Webster appears to have been a veritable renaissance man.<\/p>\n I’ve wished time and again that there will one day be an opportunity for an \u201cEssex-on-Champlain\u201d sing-a-long, but so far the hymn’s music exists only in my imagination.<\/p>\n If you have not had the opportunity to sing, hear or even read Rev. George O. Webster\u2019s \u201cEssex-on-Champlain\u201d we’ve transcribed the hymn\u2019s lyrics for you below. Although I was made aware that a recording of the hymn was made at one point (and that some of our readers have even listened to the recording), so far I\u2019ve been unsuccessful at locating a copy of the recording. If you can help out, please let me know.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a wonderland of beauty, All who know her sing the praises Summer skies or wint\u2019ry weather So we sing a song for Essex,![\"Reverend](\"https:\/\/abdul2.rosslynredux.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/ggw1-600x397.jpg\")
Reverend George Orlia Webster<\/h2>\n
![\"Reverend](\"https:\/\/abdul2.rosslynredux.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/130201-george-o-webster.jpg\")
\nBorn:<\/strong>\u00a0April 25, 1866, Fort Ann, New York.
\nDied:<\/strong>\u00a0October 1, 1942, Es\u00adsex, New York.
\nBuried:<\/strong>\u00a0Bol\u00adton Land\u00ading, New York.
\n(Source: Jane Palmer Baker)<\/p><\/blockquote>\nPOETIC DESTINY<\/h2>\n
![\"Essex](\"https:\/\/abdul2.rosslynredux.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Community-Church-225x300.jpeg\")
THE SKY PILOT\u2019S PULPIT<\/h2>\n
![\"Essex-on-Champlain,](\"https:\/\/abdul2.rosslynredux.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/essex-on-champlain-small.jpg\")
ESSEX-ON-CHAMPLAIN, BY GEORGE O. WEBSTER<\/h2>\n
ESSEX-ON-CHAMPLAIN<\/h3>\n
\nOne that has ten thousand charms,
\nAt Essex, old Essex-on-Champlain;
\nIts attractions grip and hold you
\nLike some giant lover\u2019s arms,
\nDear Essex, dear Essex-on-Champlain.
\nThen here\u2019s three cheers for Essex,
\nThe fairest spot on the Champlain shore,
\nWhere the moonlight plays like fountains
\nO\u2019er the crystal lake and mountains,
\nDear, dear old Essex, Essex-on-Champlain.<\/p>\n
\nOf our village by the lake,
\nOf Essex, old Essex-on-Champlain;
\nAnd, with each returning season,
\nHere their thirst for beauty slake,
\nAt Essex, dear Essex-on-Champlain.
\nThen here\u2019s three cheers for Essex,
\nThe fairest spot on the Champlain shore,
\nWhere the moonlight plays like fountains
\nO\u2019er the crystal lake and mountains,
\nDear, dear old Essex, Essex-on-Champlain.<\/p>\n
\nHave their charms for those who care
\nFor Essex, old Essex-on-Champlain;
\nAnd her friends are now a legion
\nYou can find them everywhere,
\nDear Essex, dear Essex-on-Champlain.
\nThen here\u2019s three cheers for Essex,
\nThe fairest spot on the Champlain shore,
\nWhere the moonlight plays like fountains
\nO\u2019er the crystal lake and mountains,
\nDear, dear old Essex, Essex-on-Champlain.<\/p>\n
\n\u2018Tis a song from out the heart
\nFor Essex, old Essex-on-Champlain;
\nWheresoe\u2019er her name is spoken
\nFondest mem\u2019ries always start,
\nOf Essex, dear Essex-on-Champlain.
\nThen here\u2019s three cheers for Essex,
\nThe fairest spot on the Champlain shore,
\nWhere the moonlight plays like fountains
\nO\u2019er the crystal lake and mountains,
\nDear, dear old Essex, Essex-on-Champlain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n