Frances jane crosby, the daughter of John and Mercy Crosby, was born in South East, Putnam County, New York, March 24, 1820. Her home was in a little valley, through which ran a branch of the Croton River. The murmur of the ?owing water was the music of her earliest childhood. Her fancy reveled in the silvery tones that rose incessantly from the hum ble brook. They spoke to her in a language which she could understand, and she learned to translate them into her own vernacular. The dancing measures of the little stream still linger sweetly in her memory.