O’Kane re­ceived his AB de­gree from Ohio Wes­ley­an Un­i­ver­si­ty in 1852, and his AM de­gree in 1855. Im­me­di­ate­ly up­on grad­u­a­tion, he ac­cept­ed a po­si­tion there as Tu­tor of Ma­the­ma­tics. Even though he was on­ly a tu­tor, the stu­dents al­ways re­ferred to him as “Pro­fess­or.” In addition, in re­cog­ni­tion of his mu­sic­al abil­i­ties, O’Kane was for years the mu­sic­al pre­cen­tor in the dai­ly cha­pel de­vo­tions. He al­so or­gan­ized and ran a chor­al so­ci­e­ty at the school, and was the first mu­sic­al in­struct­or in the Ohio Wes­ley­an Fe­male Coll­ege.

In 1857, O’Kane be­came a school prin­ci­pal in Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio. In 1864, he went to work for the Phil­lip Phil­lips pi­a­no com­pa­ny. He stayed with the com­pa­ny un­til it moved to New York in 1867, at which time he moved to Del­a­ware, Ohio, and be­came a tra­vel­ing sales­man for the Smith Amer­i­can Or­gan Com­pa­ny of Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts. Dur­ing that time he vi­sit­ed con­fer­enc­es and Sun­day school con­ven­tions, and be­came well known through­out the area.

O’Kane’s works in­clude:

• Fresh Leaves, 1868
• Dew Drops of Sac­red Song
• Songs of Wor­ship
• Every Sabbath
• Jasper and Gold (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: Hitch­cock & Wal­den, 1877)
• Dew of Hermon
• Forward Songs and Hymns
• Redeemer’s Praise
• Glorious Things
• Morn­ing Stars
• Selected An­thems (co-au­thor with his son, Ed­ward)
• Joy to the World, 1878
• Songs of Re­deem­ing Love No. 2 (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1887) (with C. C. McCabe, John Sweney & William Kirkpatrick)

Sources

Hymns

1. Sure Foundation, The
   • Firm Stands the Rock
2. Washed in the Blood of the Lamb

Music

1. Glorious Fountain
2. Go Work in My Vineyard
3. Hallowed Spot, The
4. Home Over There, The
5. Is It for Me?
6. Mighty Rock, Whose Towering Form
7. Opening Hymn
8. Say, Are You Ready?