By And By"
J. P. Webster was born in 1819 in Manchester, NH. In 1857, he and his wife and family settled in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. He was a musician and composed hundreds of war time songs. He was a friend of Samuel Fillimore Bennett, who operated an Elkhorn drugstore while he studied medicine.
On one occasion Bennett noticed that Webster was in one of his melancholy and depressed moods. Bennett asked him what was the matter, and received a curt reply, “it would be all right by and by.”
Bennett turned to his friend and said, “Wouldn`t this make a great hymn?”. Within just a few minutes the words to the song was finished. The words stirred Webster so much that he took his violin and composed the music that night. Very quickly Webster`s depression left and before the night was over they were singing the words to “Sweet By and By.”
Webster died on January 18, 1875, at the age of 56. He is buried at the Hazel Ridge Cemetery in Elkhorn. A bronze plate attached to the large granite boulder marking his grave reads, "Joseph P. Webster. In the Sweet By and By We Shall Meet."
Dr. Smauel F. Bennett Died in 1898.
And by faith we can see it a-far;
For the Father waits over the way,
To prepare us a dwelling place there.
We shall sing on that beautiful shore
The melodious songs of the blest,
And our spirits shall sorrow no more,
Not a sigh for the blessing of rest.
To our bountiful Father above,
We will offer the tribute of praise,
For the glorious gift of His love,
And the blessings that hallow our days.
In the sweet by and by
We shall meet on that beautiful shore;
In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore.