Nehemiah Shumway

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Nehemiah Shumway (1761-1843) was an American composer of fuguing tunes. He is remembered today for two such hymns, Schenectady and Ballstown. He is also believed by some to have been the composer of the hymn New Jordan.

Shumway was a native of Massachusetts. He attended Brown University, from which he graduated in 1790, and served as the principal of the Freedhold Academy in New Jersey for a time. He is known to have farmed in Schenectady, Albany, and Jefferson County, New York, and to have compiled a hymnal, The American Harmony, which was first published in Philadelphia in 1793. Nothing further is known of his life.