George Bennard, author of “The Old Rugged Cross,” had a rugged start in life. Born in 1873, his early years were spent in coal-mining towns in Ohio and Iowa where his father worked. He came to Christ as a youth through the ministry of the Salvation Army. But Bennard's father died when he was sixteen, and he had to return to the mines to support his mother and four sisters. Later, in his early twenties, he became a part of the Salvation Army. Carrying his Bible and guitar, he traveled the Midwest conducting revivals. He also married a fellow Salvationist, Arminta, orphaned when her mother died and her father committed suicide. The couple rented an apartment from a college professor in Albion. Michigan. In its little kitchen, he began working on a hymn about the cross. In these early years, too, he was ordained as a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In early 1913 he went on a revival preaching tour some three hundred miles across Lake Michigan at Sturgeon Bay, leaving his pregnant wife behind for two weeks of services. Whenever he had a spare moment, Bennard kept working on that hymn. He struggled with lyrics, wanting them to truly reflect the seriousness of the cross. That concern reportedly came from a deeply trying time he'd experienced in his ministry. One possibility was when youths heckled him at an earlier revival where he preached. As Bennard focused on the apostle Paul's words of entering into the fellowship of Christ's sufferings (Galatians 6:14), he realized the cross went beyond being a symbol to being the very heart of the Gospel.
Before the revivals ended, Bennard showed the hymn to his hosts. They gathered around a small organ to sing it for the first time, then sang it again for the final meeting of the revival. When the service ended with an altar call, 140 people went forward to accept Christ as Savior. Soon after, he traveled to Pokagon, Mich., for another revival meeting. There, the hymn was again sung. Then it was sung at a large convention and its popularity grew. Even evangelist Billy Sunday used it in his ministry. In 1938, a national radio network declared it to be the nation's most favorite hymn.
For forty more years Bennard participated in evangelistic ministries. He would write about 300 more Gospel songs. Toward the end of his life, he relocated to southern California for his wife's health. After her death, he remarried and returned to Michigan to live out his final years. He died in 1958—exchanging his cross from a crown--at age eighty-five.
Several cities now have memorial markers for their connection to the hymn. At Albion, Mich., near the home site where he first started writing the song in 1912, there's a historical marker. Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., has a garden with a cross for the hymn's first singing at the Friends Community Church. Pokagon, Michigan, honors its connection to the completed hymn (sung in revival services) at the now-restored church, which had fallen into disrepair in years it was used for a livestock barn and drying hops. Besides being a museum, it's used for weddings and receptions, and houses a twice-monthly “hymn sing” that closes with Bennard's hymn.
A few miles outside of Reed City, Mich., where Bennard spent his final years, there's a twelve-foot cross with the words, “The Old Rugged Cross—Home of George Bennard, composer of this beloved hymn.” The town also has a museum about his life. Near the end of his life, Bennard was interviewed about his hymn. He said writing it wasn't his greatest fulfillment. “Saving souls was my greatest thrill,” he said. “That hymn's just runner-up.”
Many country Western singers perform this hymn. Here is one from YouTube:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=%22George+Bennard%22&ru=%2fvideos%2fsearch%3fq%3d%2522George%2bBennard%2522%26%26FORM%3dVDVVXX&view=detail&mid=9F4E32B3367F4D621E789F4E32B3367F4D621E78&rvsmid=C5C6759A19DB30876693C5C6759A19DB30876693&FORM=VDRVRV
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