Converse at­tend­ed the acad­e­my at El­mi­ra, New York. In 1855, he went to Ger­ma­ny to stu­dy mu­sic un­der Plai­dy, Rich­ter, and Haupt­man, and en­joyed the friend­ships of Franz Liszt and Lou­is Spohr. He re­ceived his law de­gree in 1861 from Al­ba­ny Un­i­ver­si­ty and in 1895, his LLD from Ruth­er­ford Coll­ege. He worked as an at­tor­ney in Er­ie, Penn­syl­van­ia. He wrote a num­ber of piec­es of mu­sic, in­clud­ing tunes for Ira Sank­ey and Wil­liam Brad­bu­ry. His works in­clude:

• Silver Wings
• Spring Holiday (can­ta­ta)
• Music Bouquet and Ins­ti­tute Choir
• The Church Singer
• Voice of Praise (with Eb­e­ne­zer T. Baird), 1872
• The Standard Hymn­al (Funk and Wag­nalls Com­pa­ny: 1896)

Sources

Music

1. Erie