Tullar was named af­ter the Amer­i­can Pre­si­dent and Vice-Pre­si­dent, Ulys­ses S. Grant & Schuy­ler Col­fax. His fa­ther was un­a­ble to work, hav­ing been wound­ed in the Amer­i­can ci­vil war Bat­tle of An­tie­tam. So, af­ter Tul­lar’s mo­ther died when he was two years old, the fam­i­ly split up. Grant had no set­tled home af­ter that day un­til he be­came an adult.

As a child, he worked in a wool­en mill and as a shoe clerk, and re­ceived vir­tu­al­ly no ed­u­ca­tion or re­li­gious train­ing. He came to Christ at age 19 at a camp meet­ing near Wa­ter­bury, Con­nec­ti­cut. He then at­tend­ed the Hack­etts­town Acad­e­my in New Jersey. Or­dained a Meth­od­ist min­is­ter, he pas­tored for a short time in Dover, Del­a­ware, then be­came a full time evan­gel­ist. In 1893, he and Isaac Mer­e­dith found­ed the Tul­lar-Mer­e­dith mu­sic pub­lis­hing house in New York. His works in­clude:

• Sun­day School Hymns No. 1 (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Tull­ar-Mer­e­dith Co., 1903)
• The Bi­ble School Hymn­al, with Isaac Mer­e­dith (New York: Tull­ar-Mer­e­dith Co., 1907)

Sources

Lyrics

1. Angels’ Sweet Refrain, The
2. Beauty for Ashes (© 1948)
3. First Christmas Song, The
4. I’ve Heard the King (© 1953)
5. Joy Dispels Our Sorrow
6. O Ho­ly Bi­ble
7. People That in Dark­ness Walked, The
8. Resurrection Morn So Fair
9. Ring On, Ye Bells
10. Smile and Sing
11. Wake, Sweet­est Strain
12. We Will Follow Jesus

Music

1. All the World for Jesus
2. Conqueror, The
3. Face to Face with Christ, My Sav­ior
4. Forward!
5. He Did Not Die in Vain
6. Keep Your Heart in Love with Jesus (© 1932)
7. Life Is a Friendly Road (© 1928)
8. Lord of the Harvest, The
9. Manger-Babe, The
10. Nailed to the Cross
11. Our Best
12. Over Bethl’em’s Hill­side
13. Raise the Song
14. Ring On, Ye Bells
    • O Sing His Praise
15. Skies Will Soon Be Blue (© 1928)
16. There’s a Beautiful City (© 1935)
17. Waking Out of Si­lence