#212 Far, Far Away on Judea’s Plains
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-History: (Source: Wikipedia)
Written By: John Menzies Macfarlane
Music By: John Menzies Macfarlane
John Menzies Macfarlane (October 11, 1833 – June 4, 1892)[1][2] was a Scottish Latter-day Saint hymnwriter, choir director and civic leader.
Macfarlane was born in Stirling, Scotland. He came to Utah Territory in the early 1850s and settled in Cedar City in 1853.[3] In 1852, Macfarlane married Ann Chatterley. Multiple sources identified him as one of the many Iron County Militia men involved in the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre.[4]
Macfarlane served as superintendent of schools from 1866–68 for Iron County, Utah[3] and the leader of the choir in Cedar City which he took to St. George. Erastus Snow urged Macfarlane to move to St. George and start a choir there, which he did.
Besides leading the choir Macfarlane served as a district judge and worked as a surveyor and a builder. In St. George, he was involved in founding an academy in 1888 that was the predecessor to Dixie State College of Utah.[5]
Among Macfarlane’s hymns are “Far, Far, Away on Judea’s Plains” and the music to “Dearest Children, God is near you”.
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