Julian Hilary “Sharp” McNiel was born in Rusk County, Texas, November 13, 1873, the son of George Thomas McNiel and Susan Frances Wallace. He married Nettie Lee Irby (1875-1958) in 1896 and they were the parents six children.
He studied music at an early age under his brother, Larkin McNiel, followed by J. B. Martin and Miss Margarite Wood.[i] In 1898 he attended the Southern Normal Musical Institute (S.N.M.I.) at Mansfield, Texas, which was conducted by A. J. Showalter and Edwin Moore. He received a diploma from S.N.M.I. in 1901 at Childress. He taught singing schools and conducted normals in Texas and Oklahoma (and perhaps other places). He directed music for gospel meetings, and composed music. In his songbooks, he often signed his name with the musical sharp symbol – “# McNiel.”[ii] With Bernard N. Richards, he formed the McNiel-Richards Music Company by 1908. They published at least two songbooks – Soul Songs and Sonnets: A superior collection of Songs and Hymns for the Church, Revival, Sunday-school, Prayer Service and Convention and Sunbeam Songs: A superior collection of New and Old Songs for the Church, Sunday-school, Revival, Young People’s Societies, Prohibition, and Convention Work. In addition, McNiel copyrighted one book before the partnership was formed: McNiel’s Loyal Melodies: a Choice Collection of New Songs for the Church, Revival, Convention and all Christian Endeavor Work (by Sharp McNiel, with special contributors, copyrighted in April of 1908). Both the Trio Music Company of Waco and A. J. Showalter published his songs before he formed the McNiel-Richards Company, and other publishers printed some of his songs after his death.
In a 1905 mail survey conducted by A. J. Showalter, among the “ten gospel songs of other composers [i.e., other than Showalter] receiving the greatest number of votes thus far are: ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus,’ by C. C. Converse, 420; ‘Blessed Home,’ by J. E. Bigby, 336; ‘Glory Over Yonder,’ by Sharp McNeil (sic), 252; ‘God Be With You Till We Meet Again,’ by W. G. Tomer, 231…”[iii]
From The Best Gospel Songs and Their Composers, 1904
Sharp McNiel was apparently affiliated with the Church of Christ. His brother Richard Hubbard McNiel was a fairly well known Church of Christ evangelist in the early 1900s.
McNiel named one of his daughters Jennie Wilson McNiel. In all likelihood, he named her after the popular hymn writer Jennie Bain Wilson (author of “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand”). The respect in which McNiel was held can be seen in a singing class called the Sharp McNiel class nearly forty years after his death (See Tyler Morning Telegraph, Thursday, Septemeber 17, 1949, page 7).
McNiel died at the young age of 37 after an attack of appendicitis. On Wednesday the 19th of April in 1911, he was taken to the sanitarium in Nacogdoches, Texas, where they performed an operation. He died the following Sunday. McNiel is buried at the Gould Cemetery in Rusk County, north of the Sulphur Springs community.
“My only desire, while laboring through this life is to be successful in teaching the young men and women of our land and country, the noble science and power in sacred song: Thus enabling them to praise the most holy and righteous Saviour, by singing the sweet songs of Zion.” – Sharp McNiel, in a footnote under song No. 18 in Soul Songs and Sonnets.
[ii] At least in the one I have, Soul Songs and Sonnets.
[iii] The Arkansas Gazette, Sunday, May 7, 1905, Part II, page 10.
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