Matilda T. Durham
American composer and hymn writer
Matilda T. Durham, later Hoy (January 17, 1815 – July 30, 1901) was an American composer and hymn tune writer. She is remembered for her shape note tune "Promised Land", first published in 1835.
Biography
A native of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Durham was the daughter of George Durham and Susan Hyde Durham. Her grandfather, John Durham, had settled near Switzer in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, before 1800, and he and his wife Mary were among the first members of Green Pond Baptist Church. "Grand Sir Durham", as John Durham was known, was ordained as a deacon when Durham was nine years old.
Durham married Andrew Coan Hoy (1819–1890) in 1843; the ceremony was conducted by John Gill Landrum, who like her was a contributor to William Walker's Southern Harmony. She worked as a singing teacher, and in addition produced Baptist articles and tracts; these, though serious, displayed traces of wit as well. Durham married Hoy in Cobb County, Georgia on 19 October 1843. According to some accounts the Hoys moved to Cobb County after the American Civil War. However, both were received into membership of Noonday Baptist Church in Cobb County in February 1851, and Mr.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q39585016. VIAF identifies the subject as 311778419. The Library of Congress control number is no2014150713. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1815, 1901, 1835 and 1800.
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This entry incorporates text from “Matilda T. Durham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.