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John Wyeth

Birth: March 31, 1770, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Death: January 23, 1858, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

John Wyeth was born in Massachusetts in 1770. After apprenticing with a printer, he became manager of a printing company in Santo Domingo at the age of 21. He barely escaped the insurrection there with his life. In 1792, he returned to America, where he again became involved in publishing. He co-owned a newspaper in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1793, President George Washington appointed him postmaster, but five years later President John Adams declared the position to be incompatible with his involvement in newspapers.

Wyeth compiled two works, Repository of Sacred Music, 1810 and Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813. These volumes were highly successful, selling over 150,000 copies. In the preface to his work, Wyeth claimed three qualifications as a compiler of sacred music, years of attention to the charms of church music, acquaintance with the taste of eminent teachers, and the possession of more than a thousand pages of music to use. The first of these books was prepared for the moderate evangelicals. At least 79 of the 122 texts are from Isaac Watts, 53 of which are psalm paraphrases. The book had a wide variety of evangelical themes but stayed away from sectarian or controversial doctrine. The second book was geared toward revival and camp-meetings, containing more revivalistic texts and less Isaac Watts, including melodies taken from folk hymns, such as NETTLETON, to which we sing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".