Benjamin Russel Hanby

Benjamin Russel Hanby

Benjamin Russell Hanby (July 22, 1833 – March 16, 1867), also given as Benjamin Russel Hanby, was an American composer, educator, pastor, and abolitionist who wrote approximately 80 songs. The most famous are "Darling Nelly Gray" and the Christmas songs "Up on the House Top" and "Who Is He In Yonder Stall?". Hanby was born in Rushville, Ohio. He moved to Westerville, Ohio in 1849, at the age of sixteen, to enroll at Otterbein University. He was involved in the Underground Railroad with his father, Bishop William Hanby. Hanby composed the popular anti-slavery ballad Darling Nelly Gray in 1856 in what is now a national historical site, the Hanby House, located at the corner of Grove and Main Streets (in the 1830s, when Hanby was still a child his family moved to 160 West Main Street) in Westerville, adjacent to the campus of Otterbein University. The song was based on the Hanby family’s encounter with Joseph Selby, a runaway slave from Kentucky who died at the Hanby home in Rushville after relating the moving story of his escape to freedom and having to leave behind his lost love. Hanby wrote several other notable anti-slavery songs during this period including Ole Shady, The Song of the Contraband and Little Tillie's Grave. After graduation in 1858, Hanby briefly taught school and then became a minister in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. In 1860, he became principal of Seven Mile Academy in Seven Mile, Ohio. In 1864, Hanby was minister of a church in New Paris, Ohio, but by Christmas 1864, he was no longer working as a pastor, but operating a singing school in New Paris. He composed "Up On The Housetop" as a Christmas sing-along. It was originally titled Santa Claus. The following year, Chicago publisher George Frederick Root published "Up On The Housetop" and brought Hanby to Chicago to pursue other publishing ventures. At age 33, Hanby died from tuberculosis in Chicago on March 16, 1867. He is buried in Otterbein Cemetery in Westerville. Today the Hanby House is a museum managed by the Westerville Historical Society.

Birth and Death Data: Born July 22, 1833 (Rushville), Died March 16, 1867 (Chicago)

Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1901 - 1940

Roles Represented in DAHR: composer

Notes: Listed as B. R. Hanby on sheet music.

= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.

Recordings (Results 1-25 of 42 records)

Company	Matrix No.	Size	First Recording Date	Title	Primary Performer	Description	Role
Victor	[Pre-matrix A-]912	7-in.	7/17/1901	Darling Nellie Gray	American Quartet	Male vocal quartet	composer
Victor	[Pre-matrix B-]1387	10-in.	5/12/1902	Darling Nellie Gray	Haydn Quartet	Male vocal quartet	composer
Victor	[Pre-matrix A-]1387	7-in.	5/12/1902	Darling Nellie Gray	Haydn Quartet	Male vocal quartet	composer
Victor	[Pre-matrix B-]3515	10-in.	7/17/1901	Darling Nellie Gray	American Quartet	Male vocal quartet	composer
Victor	[Pre-matrix C-]31044	12-in.	either 1901 or 1902	Darling Nellie Gray	Haydn Quartet	Male vocal quartet	composer
Victor	C-600	12-in.	10/27/1903	Darling Nellie Gray	Haydn Quartet	Male vocal quartet, with orchestra	composer
Victor	B-1043	10-in.	2/18/1904	Darling Nellie Gray	Haydn Quartet	Male vocal quartet	composer
Victor	A-1043	7-in.	2/18/1904	Darling Nellie Gray	Haydn Quartet	Male vocal quartet	composer
Victor	C-1242	12-in.	3/16/1905	Darling Nellie Gray	Haydn Quartet	Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied	composer
Victor	B-1242	10-in.	4/21/1904	Darling Nellie Gray	Haydn Quartet	Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied	composer
Victor	A-1242	7-in.	4/21/1904	Darling Nellie Gray	Haydn Quartet	Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied	composer
Victor	B-3138	10-in.	2/23/1906	Darling Nellie Gray	Richard Jose	Counter-tenor vocal solo, with orchestra	composer
Victor	B-14733	10-in.	4/21/1914	Darling Nelly Gray	Lambert Murphy	Male vocal solo, with orchestra	composer
Victor	B-15705	10-in.	2/15/1915	Darling Nellie Gray	Samuel Gardner	Violin solo, with orchestra	composer
Victor	BVE-16779	10-in.	7/2/1925	Darling Nellie Gray	Peerless Quartet	Male vocal quartet, with orchestra	composer
Victor	B-16779	10-in.	11/17/1915	Darling Nellie Gray	Peerless Quartet	Male vocal quartet, with orchestra	composer
Victor	C-17855	12-in.	6/13/1916	Songs of the past, no. 15	Victor Mixed Chorus	Vocal chorus and soloists, with orchestra	composer
Victor	B-20092	10-in.	6/26/1917	Darling Nelly Gray	Alma Gluck	Soprano vocal solo, with male vocal quartet and orchestra	composer
Victor	B-22402	10-in.	10/31/1918	Darling Nellie Gray	Orpheus Quartet	Male vocal quartet, with orchestra	composer
Victor	BS-031256	10-in.	1/9/1939	Darling Nellie Gray	Les Brown Orchestra ; Miriam Shaw	Jazz/dance band, with female vocal solo	composer
Victor	CS-057603	12-in.	11/7/1940	Darling Nellie Gray	Bill Dickinson ; Tuxedo Colonels	Instrumental ensemble, with calls	composer
Columbia	4215	10-in.	approximately July 1909	Darling Nellie Gray	Carroll Clark	Male vocal solo, with orchestra	composer
Columbia	19735	10-in.	1/23/1912	Darling Nellie Gray	Alice Nielsen	Soprano vocal solo, with orchestra	composer
Columbia	46312	10-in.	1/3/1916	Darling Nellie Gray	Taylor Trio	Instrumental trio	composer
Columbia	78789	10-in.	11/3/1919	Darling Nellie Gray	Tollefsen Trio	Instrumental trio	composer

(Results 1-25 of 42 records)

Citation

Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Hanby, Benjamin Russel," accessed November 1, 2024, https://adpprod1.library.ucsb.edu/names/104386.

Hanby, Benjamin Russel. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved November 1, 2024, from https://adpprod1.library.ucsb.edu/names/104386.

"Hanby, Benjamin Russel." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 1 November 2024.