William True Sleeper
American clergyman, educator, and hymn-writer
William True Sleeper (February 9, 1819 - September 24, 1904) was an American Congregationalist clergyman, educator, poet, and hymn-writer.
William Sleeper was born in Danbury, New Hampshire on February 9, 1819 to Johnathan and Mary Sleeper. He attended the Phillips Exeter Academy for preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire, and then graduated from the University of Vermont in 1850 and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1858. Sleeper and his wife Emily both taught at Woodman Sanbornton Academy before his ordination.
After ordination on June 29, 1854, he did missionary work in Worcester, Massachusetts and was Chaplain of the State Reform School for Boys from 1856 to 1860. He held a number of positions around Massachusetts and Maine, and was involved in the establishment of three churches in Patten, Sherman, and Fort Fairfield, Maine. In 1876, he returned to Worcester where he preached for 30 years. Sleeper also served as supervisor of schools in Aroostook County from 1868 to 1871, president of the Aroostook Valley Railroad in 1874, and established and edited the periodicals The Voice and The North Star.
Sleeper published a book of poems in 1883, which included two which would later become hymns: "Jesus, I Come" (also known as "Out of My Bondage, Sorrow and Night") and "Ye Must Be Born Again." (also known as "A Ruler Once Came to Jesus by Night"). He published Walks and Talks: A Sunday School Book in 1860 and The Rejected King and Hymns of Jesus: A Devotional Book of Poems in 1888.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 31, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q20667577. VIAF identifies the subject as 29171930. The Library of Congress control number is no99082144. None of the 3 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1819, 1904, 1850 and 1858.
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This entry incorporates text from “William True Sleeper” 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.