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Biography Augustus Dameron Fillmore, 1823-1870

Image: Cover and title page of The Concordia
Cover and title page from The Concordia, compiled by Augustus Dameron Fillmore (Cincinnati, 1865). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress.

Fillmore first came to Cincinnati to study medicine, but turned to the ministry of the Christian Disciple Church. His talents as a singer and composer served him well in his evangelistic vocation. He published his first book, The Christian Psalmist, in 1847 at the age of 24. This hymnal was enormously popular, going through 18 editions and selling more than 500,000 copies. Toward the end of his relatively short career he published numerous collections of sacred and temperance music and method books, including pieces of his own composition. He and frequent collaborator Silas White Leonard were considered to be preeminent leaders of the singing school movement in their day. After Fillmore's death his son, James Henry Fillmore founded the Fillmore Brothers Music House in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1874.