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John Robson Sweney

1837-1899

Born: De­cem­ber 31, 1837, West Ches­ter, Penn­syl­van­ia. Died: Ap­ril 10, 1899, Ches­ter, Penn­syl­van­ia. Buried: Ches­ter Rur­al Cem­e­tery, Ches­ter, Penn­syl­van­ia. Sweney’s mu­sic­al gift showed it­self at an ear­ly age. While still a boy, he be­gan to teach mu­sic in the pub­lic schools and lead Sun­day school per­form­ances. At age 19, he start­ed stu­dy­ing mu­sic in ear­nest un­der Pro­fess­or Bau­er, a cel­e­brat­ed Ger­man teach­er. He took vi­o­lin and pi­a­no les­sons, and about this time be­came a choir lead­er. He was al­so in con­stant de­mand for child­ren’s con­certs and for con­duct­ing glee clubs. At age 22, Swe­ney was called to teach in Do­ver, Del­a­ware. When the Amer­i­can civ­il war broke out, he took charge of the band of the Third Del­a­ware Reg­i­ment. Af­ter the war, Swe­ney be­came Pro­fess­or of Mu­sic at the Penn­syl­van­ia Mil­i­tary Acad­e­my in West Ches­ter, Penn­syl­van­ia. He worked there over 25 years, and re­ceived the de­grees of Bach­e­lor of Mu­sic (1876) and Doc­tor of Mu­sic (1886). Sweney com­posed mu­sic for more than 1,000 Gos­pel songs, and col­lab­o­rat­ed on a num­ber of col­lect­ions.

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