Nehemiah Shumway

Nehemiah Shumway (August 26, 1761-July, 1843) was an American composer of sacred music. He is best remembered today for two fuguing tunes, "Schenectady" and "Ballstown," though others, including "Pennsylvania," "Westminster" and "Judgment," are still found in shape note books in print as of 2009. He is also believed by some to have been the composer of the tune "New Jordan".

Shumway was born in Oxford, Massachusetts, the youngest of seven children of Amos Shumway and Ruth Parker.^[1] He graduated from the College of Rhode Island in 1790, and became principal of the Freehold Academy in New Jersey. He is known to have farmed in Schenectady, Albany, and Jefferson counties, New York. His sacred tunebook The American Harmony was published in Philadelphia in 1793 (2nd ed. 1801). (Note: There were several publications of this name in the same period.)

Shumway married Sarah/Sara Tice/Tyse^[2] on December 10, 1795. She was baptised in Freehold on July 4, 1773, and died in Lyme, New York, in 1831. They had four children together, but apparently no further descendants. Shumway died in Freehold Township, New Jersey in 1843.

See also

• Schenectady
• Ballstown

Footnotes

1. ^ Genealogy of the Shumway Family in the United States by Asahel Adams Shumway (New York, Tobias A. Wright, 1909)
2. ^ A Genealogy of the Warne Family in America by Rev. George Warne Labaw (New York, Frank Allaben Genealogical Company, 1911)

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Name	Shumway, Nehemiah
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Date of birth	August 26, 1761
Place of birth
Date of death	1843
Place of death