Johannes Alfred Hultman

Johannes Alfred Hultman (July 6, 1861 – August 7, 1942) was a Swedish evangelist, singer, musician, composer and publisher. In 1885 he was one of the founding members of the Evangelical Mission Covenant Church.

Biography J. A. Hultman was born in 1861 on a farm in Jönköping County in the province of Småland, Sweden. His family emigrated to America in 1869 and settled on a farm near Essex, Iowa.

His religious faith and interest in music began at early age. As a young man he studied for two years at the Chicago Athenaeum while leading a choir at the present-day Douglass Park Covenant Church. He later served as pastor at Covenant churches in Nebraska and Massachusetts.

Typically, a third of the proceeds from his concerts went to the sponsoring church while another third went to charity. Hultman was quite generous with the third that he received. The 1925 construction of Caroline Hall at North Park University, for instance, was partially funded by his concert earnings. His connection to the school went back to the years 1896–1897, when he had served on the music faculty there. Jubelklangen (The Sound of Jubilation) and Solskenssånger (Sunshine Songs). He also contributed to Sions Basun (Zion's Trumpet), the first official hymnal of the Covenant Church.

He composed the music for countless hymns, including Tack min Gud, för vad som varit (Thanks my God for all that has been), which in one English version begins:

Thanks my God for all that has been, Thanks for all that you bestow. Thanks for all the years that have been, Thanks for minutes as they flow. Thanks for spring days, warm with sunshine, Thanks for fall days, dark and drear. Thanks for tears, forgotten oft time, Thanks for peace, my heart to cheer.

Selected melodies Hultman was among the composers who set these lyrics to music: Hultman also made some acoustically-recorded 10" 78 RPM "Personal Records" on the Columbia Graphophone label sometime after 1908:

Columbia 33079/33174 "Han är likadan i dag" & "När hela jorden sover"

Columbia 33157/33161 "Det Brister en Sträng" & "Sag har du i dag ej en blomma"

Columbia 33164/33165 "O, Sköna Vår" & "O, Att Jag Kunde"

Columbia 61878/61885 "Mitt Barndomshem" & "Glom Aldrig Bort de Kära"

Columbia 61882/61887 "Sa Älskade Gud Världen" & "Härliga Dag"

Columbia 91031 "Var ar ditt hem?" & "Ett Hem om an sa Ringa"

All these records also read "Komponerad och sjungen av J. A. Hultman" and "J. A. Hultman & Sons Co. Worcester, Mass."