1855-1939
Judson Wheeler van DeVenter
Composer/Evangelist MI/FL
[Compiler’s Note: No, I cannot document the Judson Wheeler van DeVenter was named for Ann and/or Adoniram Judson but I will make the guess that he was. His father was named for the founder of Methodism, John Wesley (van DeVenter). His sister who only lived six years was named for the great hymnologist, Fanny (Crosby) L. VanDeVenter. Judson’s mother’s family name was Wheeler so I will guess that Judson Wheeler VanDeVenter carried his father’s name, his mother’s name and the legacy of Adoniram Judson.]
Let us rely on an article written by Breana Noble and published in The Hillsdale Collegian, April 13, 2017, for the story of this Judson namesake.
Judson Wheeler van DeVenter, a student in Hillsdale’s commercial and telegraph department from 1874-1876, wrote the hymn “I Surrender All” as he struggled between continuing a career in art or moving into full-time ministry.
In 1891, van DeVenter found himself arguing with God. He wanted to continue as a public high school art teacher and supervisor in Pennsylvania. Despite being an active member in his Methodist Episcopal church and participating in evangelistic meetings, van DeVenter felt God was calling him to do more. His friends encouraged him to pursue a career in ministry. But he resisted.
Van DeVenter grew up on a small farm in Dundee, Michigan. Although born in a Christian household on Dec. 5, 1855, he did not become a follower of Jesus Christ until he was 17.
He attended Hillsdale with his older brother, Virgil, who graduated in 1879 with a degree in literature, but Judson van DeVenter did not obtain a diploma. He did take art and music classes, however, and could play 13 instruments by the end of his life.
In 1880, he married and had two sons and a daughter who died at the age of 20. After his wife died in 1924, he married a pianist and music teacher in 1925.
Van DeVenter’s own musical talents would end his struggle with God after five years, as he began full-time ministry, sources said. While leading a meeting at the Ohio home of national evangelist George Sebring, he wrote the words of “I Surrender All.”
“For some time, I had struggled between developing my talents in the field of art and going into full-time evangelistic work,” van DeVenter said, according to hymnologist Kenneth Osbeck in “101 More Hymn Stories.” “At last the pivotal hour of my life came, and I surrendered all. A new day was ushered into my life. I became an evangelist and discovered down deep in my soul a talent hitherto unknown to me. God had hidden a song in my heart, and touching a tender chord, He caused me to sing.”
In 1896, evangelist song leader and vocalist Winfield S. Weeden put the words to music and the song was published in a book of hymns called “Gospel Songs of Grace and Glory.” Since then, van DeVenter’s song has appeared in hundreds of other hymnals, and its title is on Weeden’s epitaph.
Van DeVenter evangelized throughout the United States, England, and Scotland, visiting art museums along the way. He also had his own radio program called “The Gospel in Song and Story.” Van DeVenter published 60 more hymns, but “I Surrender All” remains the most well-known. His sermons to young people were often done as chalk talks. In the 1920s, van DeVenter taught as a professor of hymnology for four years at the Florida Bible Institute, now Trinity Bible College.
Evangelist Billy Graham said van DeVenter was influential on his earlier preaching and was present at the time of his death on July 17, 1939, in Tampa, Florida.
“And I’ll never forget just before he went to be with God, barely audible but we could hear it, he sang, ‘All to Jesus I surrender,’” Graham said in May 1958, according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. “He went to be with Christ with a smile on his face, looking forward to seeing Christ.”
Van DeVenter returned home for burial in Dundee’s Maple Grove Cemetery, and Graham carried on van DeVenter’s story by popularizing “I Surrender All” at his revivals.
Recorded by many artists since then, the song earned pop singer Deniece Williams a Grammy Award for Best Female Soul Gospel Performance in 1986 after she did her own rendition of it.
Country singer Faith Hill performed “I Surrender All” on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” prompting Winfrey to share how the song had brought her comfort when she believed she lost an audition to play a role in the 1985 film “The Color Purple.” After running around a track singing “I Surrender All,” she received a call from director Steven Spielberg, who told her that she had gotten the part, which earned her nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in 1986.[1]
Judson Wheeler van DeVenter died in Florida in 1939 and is buried in Dundee, MI.
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[1] Breana Noble, “How one former Hillsdale student surrendered it all,” The Hillsdale Collegian, April 13, 2027. https://hillsdalecollegian.com/2017/04/one-former-hillsdale-student-surrendered/