Daniel Webster Crist (1857-1929)

Class of 2026 – Business

Daniel Webster Crist was a prominent music composer and publisher as well as an educator, banker, and statesman.

One of ten children of Robert and Mary (Ruff) Crist, he was born on November 28, 1857 in New Chambersburg in Columbiana County, and was reared on the homestead farm.

He graduated from Ohio Northern University in 1882. That was the same year that he married Mary A. Reed (1864-1931), of Columbiana County. They had three children, Myrtie M., wife of Charles G. Miller; James R., connected with manufacturing industry in Canton and Arthur Dillon, a prominent businessman of Alliance.

One of the pioneer singing teachers of his day, as a young man Daniel Webster Crist began composing songs and later instrumental music, and gradually his efforts were directed to broader fields. His first publication, a collection of Sunday school music of his own composition, was published under the title of “Gospel Gleanings” in 1886. This was so successful that it proved the cornerstone of his business as a music publisher, producing  Sunday school song books, day school song books, music folios, sheet music, band music, instruction books. He was also the author of eighteen song books, besides some eighteen volumes of musical collections and over 200 special compositions.

Crist was com­pos­ing at least through 1910, when he scored the “Flow­er Girl Waltz.” His other prominent works included “The Ev­er­green Waltz;” “Joy and Praise for Sun­day Schools,” with R.A. Glenn (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: H. L. Ben­ham, 1886); “Gospel Glean­ings,” 1886; and “Victory of Song.” (Moul­trie, Ohio: D. W. Crist, 1892.

For many years his business as a music publisher was conducted at Moultrie, in Columbiana County, before moving his plant to Alliance in May 1915. The company published largely the compositions and collections of Crist.

Soon after his relocation, he became one of the organizers of the Peoples Bank of Alliance and also served on the school board.

While working for 30 years as a suc­cess­ful mu­sic pub­lish­er, he al­so taught, farmed, and in New Al­ex­an­der, served as a church mu­sic di­rect­or and Sun­day school su­per­in­ten­dent.

Crist also had a career in politics. In 1901, he was elected a member of the state legislature on the Republican ticket, was reelected in 1903, and in 1905 was elected to the state senate where he advocated ideas and principles that subsequently became the ground work of the state tax commission of Ohio.

A member of the Christian Church, he was a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and Shriner, a member of Al Koran Temple, at Cleveland.

Crist died in 1929 and is buried in Moultrie Chapel Cemetery.