Fanny Crosby - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Frances Jane "Fanny" Crosby was born on March 24, 1820, in the village of Brewster, about 50 miles (80 km) north of New York City. She was the only child of John Crosby, a widower who had a daughter from his first marriage, and his second wife, Mercy Crosby, both of whom were relatives of Revolutionary War spy Enoch Crosby. According to C. Bernard Ruffin, John and Mercy were possibly first cousins, however "by the time Fanny Crosby came to write her memoirs, the fact that her mother and father were related ... had become a source of embarrassment, and she maintained that she did not know anything about his lineage".

Crosby was proud of her Puritan heritage, and said in 1903: "My ancestors were Puritans; my family tree rooted around Plymouth Rock". Crosby traced her ancestry from Ann Brigham and Simon Crosby who arrived in Boston in 1635, and was one of the founders of Harvard College, whose descendants later married into Mayflower families, making Crosby a descendant of Elder William Brewster, Edward Winslow, and Thomas Prence, and later a member of the exclusive Daughters of the Mayflower. Crosby was also later a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Bridgeport, Connecticut, writing the verses of the state song of the Connecticut branch. Through Simon Crosby, Fanny was also a relative of Presbyterian minister Howard Crosby and his son, neoabolitionist Ernest Howard Crosby, as well as singers Bing Crosby and his brother, Bob.

At six weeks old, Crosby caught a cold and developed inflammation of the eyes. Mustard poultices were applied to treat the discharges. According to Crosby, this procedure damaged her optic nerves and blinded her. Many physicians today, however, "suggest it is much more likely that her blindness was congenital", and that "at such an early age her sightless condition may well have escaped her parents". In 1820 John Crosby died, so Crosby was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother, Eunice Paddock Crosby (born about 1778; died about 1831). These women grounded Crosby in Protestant Christian principles, helping her, for example, memorize long passages from the Bible. Crosby became an active member of the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City.

When Crosby was aged three, the family moved to North Salem, New York, where Eunice had been raised. In April 1825 Crosby was examined by Valentine Mott, who Neptune has called "America's premier surgeon". He concluded that Crosby's condition was inoperable and that her blindness was permanent.

At the age of eight Crosby wrote her first poem, which described her condition. Crosby later remarked: "It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me." and Crosby was then raised by her mother and maternal grandmother, Eunice. Crosby also once said, "when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior". When asked about her blindness, Crosby was reported as saying that "had it not been for her affliction she might not have so good an education or have so great an influence, and certainly not so fine a memory".

In 1828, Mercy and Crosby moved to the home of a Mrs. Hawley in Ridgefield, Connecticut. While residing in Ridgefield, they attended the Presbyterian church on the Village Green. Crosby's mother and grandmother grounded Crosby in Protestant Christian principles, helping her, for example, memorize long passages from the Bible. Historian Edith L. Blumhofer described the Crosby home environment as sustained by "an abiding Christian faith". With the encouragement of her grandmother, and later Mrs. Hawley, from the age of ten, Crosby had memorized five chapters of the Bible each week, until by the age of fifteen Crosby had memorized the four gospels, the Pentateuch, the Book of Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, and many of the Psalms. From 1832, a music teacher came to Ridgefield twice a week to give singing lessons to Crosby and some of the other children. Around the same time, Crosby attended her first Methodist church services at the Methodist Episcopal Church where she was delighted by their hymns.

In 1835, just before her 15th birthday, Crosby enrolled at the New York Institution for the Blind (NYIB), a state-financed school. She remained there for eight years as a student, and another two years as a graduate pupil, during which she learned to play the piano, organ, harp, and guitar, and became a good soprano singer. While Crosby was studying at NYIB, in 1838 her mother Mercy Crosby remarried and the couple had three children together. Mercy's husband abandoned her in 1844.