1794 - 1888 Person Name: Mrs. Gilman Hymnal Number: 70 Author of "Is there a lone and dreary hour" in The Springfield Collection of Hymns for Sacred Worship Mrs. Caroline Gilman was born in Boston, in 1794. She married the Rev. Samuel Gilman, a Unitarian minister, in 1819. Soon after, they removed to Charleston, South Carolina. Mrs. Gilman has written considerable prose and some poetry.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872.
==================
Gilman, Caroline, née Howard, daughter of Samuel Howard, and wife of Dr. S. Gilman (q.v.), was b. at Boston, U. S., in 1794, and married to Dr. Gilman in 1819. After Dr. Gilman's death in 1858, she resided for a time at Cambridge, U. S., and subsequently at Tiverton, Long Island. Mrs. Gilman is the author of several tales, ballads, and poems, and of the following hymns:—
1. Is there a lone and dreary hour? Providence. Contributed to Sewall's Unitarian Collection, N. York, 1820, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, In 1867 Mrs. Gilman added a stanza thereto for the Charlestown Services & Hymns. The original hymn is in extensive use amongst the Unitarians in Great Britain and America.
2. We bless Thee for this sacred day. Sunday. Also contributed to Sewall's Collection, 1820, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, to which another was added by Mrs, Gilman, for the Charlestown Services & Hymns, 1867. In extensive use. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
=================
Gilman, Caroline (Howard). (Boston, Massachusetts, October 8, 1794--September 18, 1888, Washington, D.C.) Unitarian. She married Rev. Samuel Gilman on October 14, 1819, and after his death in 1858 lived for a time in Cambridge, Mass., and later in Tiverton, Long Island, New York. She began to write stories and poems at an early age, many of which were published in The Rosebud, later called The Southern Rose, a juvenile weekly paper published in Charleston, South Carolina, which she edited for several years, beginning in 1832. Her book entitled Verses of a Lifetime was published in 1854, as were a number of other books which gave her a considerable reputation as an author. Five of her poems are included in Putnam's Singers and Songs, etc.
--Henry Wilder Foote, DNAH Archives
Caroline Gilman