Henry Clay Work
Musician · 1832–1884
Henry Clay Work was a printer by trade and a self-taught composer who became one of the most popular American songwriters of the Civil War era. His Union war songs — particularly “Marching Through Georgia” (1865) — defined the period’s patriotic music, and his 1876 sentimental ballad "Grandfather's Clock" sold over 800,000 copies of sheet music and entered the bluegrass and old-time repertoire as a standard parlor song.
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- Born October 1, 1832, in Middletown, Connecticut, the son of Alanson Work, an abolitionist.
- The Work family moved to Quincy, Illinois when Henry was three; their home became a station on the Underground Railroad. Alanson was later imprisoned for helping fugitive slaves escape.
- Trained as a printer and worked in the trade his entire life; lacked formal musical training but began writing poems and song lyrics for newspapers as a teenager.
- Joined the Root & Cady music publishing house in Chicago and published his first song in 1853.
- Wrote a string of Civil War-era hits including “Marching Through Georgia” (1865), “Kingdom Coming” (1862), and “Wake Nicodemus” (1864) — all reflecting his abolitionist convictions.
- “Grandfather’s Clock,” published in 1876, sold over 800,000 copies of sheet music and earned $4,000 in royalties — a substantial sum for the era. The song became a permanent fixture of the parlor repertoire and survives today as a bluegrass and old-time standard.
- Other enduring titles: “Come Home, Father” (an 1864 temperance ballad).
- Died of a heart attack on June 8, 1884, in Hartford, Connecticut, at age 51.
