Camp Farthest Out - Kum Ba Yah

Topic: Kumbaya 1955-1961
The American Camping Association (ACA) included “Kum Ba Yah” in a songbook edited in 1958 by Walter Anderson. [1]  By then, the song already had begun seeping into summer camp repertoires through youth groups like the Girl Scouts, [2] YWCA, [3] and 4-H. [4]  It also had begun spreading through religious networks [5] and into the folk-music revival movement. [6]

By 1960, when it was included in a songbook published for the Camp Farthest Out movement, “Kumbaya” was moving into the repertoire of churches that sought personal contact with Christ.  A Presbyterian, Glenn Clark, founded the group in 1930 [7] as an alternative to what he saw as the sterile emphasis by the dominant denominations on passive lectures rather than active prayer. [8]

While most of the day in his camps was devoted to discussions, the parts he thought were the most conducive to producing meaningful religious experiences were spent in producing art and in movement as ways to “losing our self-consciousness in a sense of oneness with God.” [9]

Clark discovered the importance of music at his first camp session on Lake Koronis in Minnesota when Glen Harding began leading songs.  He wrote:

“Strange we had not thought of having a song leader present!  And Glenn was a revelation to us of what a true song leader ‘born of the spirit’ could be.  Of all the forms of spiritual and aesthetic co-ordination, this most wonderful means of all, the method of song, had been left out of the picture.” [10]

During the music hour, he noted “some songs preach and some songs teach, some songs pray.”  Clark wanted “every song period” to be “a complete religious experience in itself.” [11]

The movement expanded from 22 camps in 1950 to 40 in 1960. [12]  This was when the organization determined it needed a songbook for use in its camps.  Richard Shull became the editor.  He was raised in the Church of the Brethren, but had worked with Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists. [13]

These Brethren had their roots in Germany, and appeared in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1723 as the German Baptist Brethren.  Because they believe in full immersion, adult baptism, they were derided as Dunkards. The group held love feasts, encouraged simplicity in clothing, and healed by laying on of hands. [14]

Shull may have heard “Kumbaya” anywhere.  He credited Hymns of Universal Praise, but it was not that version.  Bliss Wiant and Carlton Young had provided four-part harmony. [15]  While most tunes in CFO Songs had such forms, “Kum Ba Yah” was one of 17 that had a single melodic line.  Wiant and Young had used three CRS verses; Shull used the four from the original CRS publication.  This was simply the copyright Lynn Rohrbough, the owner of CRS, chose to provide Shull.

The Farthest Out collection contained 225 songs plus “How Great Thou Art” as an advertisement from Manna Music.  Only 15 were secular, and, of those, four were secular songs given religious interpretations.  For instance, Shull suggested substituting “father” for “river in the Girl Scouts’ “Peace, I Ask of Thee.” [16]

The religious songs included 18 identified as Negro spirituals.  The rest reflected no particular religious tradition: a couple were old hymns like “Amazing Grace” and some, like “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” came out of the late nineteenth-century gospel music tradition.  The largest topics in the index were Aspiration, Christ, Dedication, God’s Care, and Trust.

Performers
Vocal Group: single melodic line
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
From HYMNS OF UNIVERSAL PRAISE.

Copyright 1956 by Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc.  Used by permission.

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: none
Verses: kumbaya, crying, singing, praying

Verses: those published by Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS) – kumbaya, praying, crying, singing

Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: 4-verse song
Ending: none
Unique Features: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one syllable to one note except for final Lord
Ending: none

Notes on Performance
Cover: music staff with Christmas ornaments for stars
Color Scheme: blue-green cover with black ink
Plate: general size and style of hymnal with four-part harmony for most songs

Audience Perceptions
The footnote said: “‘Kum Ba Yah’ means ‘Come by Here’.”

The topical index suggested its themes were “God’s Care” and “Social Concern.”

Notes on Audience
The songbook was printed four times between 1960 and 1965, the date of my copy

Notes on Performers
Camp Farthest Out did not sponsor residential camps.  Only one in Maryland was and is a member of the ACA. [17]  Instead, the organization offered sessions of various lengths where people could escape from the routine and spend time in prayer. [18]  In this way it may be a continuation of the Scots’ holy fairs described by Leigh Schmidt. [19]  As mentioned in the post for 8 November 2020, Schmidt believed these were the precursors to the Cane Ridge revival in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in 1801.

No direct link exists between Clark and Cane Ridge, and he may simply have reinvented a particular type of religious retreat.  He was raised in Des Moines, Iowa, and educated at Grinnell College. [20]  The Congregational school then was involved with the social gospel movement. [21]

However, one of Clark’s immigrant ancestors, Archibald W. Glenn, moved from Ireland to Nicholas County, Kentucky, sometime before he died in 1826. [22]  Nicholas was the home of Daniel Boone and lay directly northeast of Bourbon County. [23]

William Russell Shull’s immigrant ancestor, Peter Scholl, was born in Germany in 1704, [24] and his son, Frederick Scholl, was born in New Jersey in 1734.  He died in Pennsylvania, [25] where the family stayed until members began moving west in the 1830s.  Shull himself was born in Macoupin County, Illinois, [26] and spent the years after World War I serving Brethren churches in Indiana and Illinois.  At one on 22 May 1921 at the Clear Creek Church, “Catherine Forney led the song services.”  The love feast was held in August. [27]

He married Ruth Marjorie Hanson in 1922.  Sometime before 1950, they divorced [28] and he married Eva Henson, who was either the widow or ex-wife of a man named Brown. [29]  This may be the reason Shull became involved with religious denominations outside the Brethren.

Eva taught math at Hyde Park High School in Chicago [30] until she retired in 1968. [31]  She and Shull moved to Timbercrest, a retirement community run by the Brethren in North Manchester, Indiana.  After she died in 1971, Russell published Letters to Eva in Heaven. [32]

Shull married Mildred Morgan in 1972, and she survived him when he died in 1985.  Before she moved to Timbercrest, she had taught chemistry in Ottawa Township, Illinois.  Her family requested memorial contributions be made to the church’s Heifer Project, [33] which Rohrbough had supported in the 1950s. [34]

Shull had two daughters with his first wife.  One happened to be living twenty miles from my hometown when she died in 2019.  Her obituary said she “loved music and encouraged her children in their musical pursuits.” [35]

Availability
Songbook: “Kum Ba Yah.”  163 in CFO Songs, edit by Eva and Russell Shull.  Chicago, Illinois: Camp and Retreat Songs, 1960.

End Notes
1.  For more on the ACA songbook, see the post for 4 June 2023.

2.  For more on the Girl Scouts, see the posts for 27 November 2022 and 4 December 2022.

3.  For more on the YWCA, see the post for 11 December 2022.
4.  For more on 4-H, see the post for 18 December 2022.

5.  For more on the spread of “Kumbaya” in my part of Michigan, see the post for 13 August 2023.

6.  For more the folk revival movement, see the posts on Tony Saletan for 23 March 2023 and Pete Seeger for 20 August 2023.

7.  “History of CFO.”  Page on CFO of North American website.

8.  Glenn Clark.  “The Camp Farthest Out.”  197-208 in A Man’s Reach.  New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949.  197.

9.  Ruth Raymond.  Quoted by Clark.  200.
10.  Clark.  204.
11.  Clark.  207.
12.  “History of CFO.”

13.  Entry on Amazon website for William Russell Shull.  The Universe Still Sings: With Notes on Creative Writing.  Durham, North Carolina: Religion and Health Press, 1957.

14.  “Church of the Brethren.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 27 August 2023.
15.  Hymns of Universal Praise is discussed in the post for 2 October 2022.

16.  CFO Songs.  215.  “Peace of the River” was written by Glendora Gosling and Viola Wood at a Girl Scout training session held on a Kentucky river boat [36].  Janet Tobitt published it in Sing Me Your Song O in 1941.  CRS included it in Songs of Many Nations in 1944.

17.  Entry for Farthest Out, Inc.  98 in National Directory of Accredited Camps for Boys and Girls.  Martinsville, Indiana: American Camping Association, 14th edition, 1974.

“Camp Farthest Out Inc.”  ACA Camps website.  It is a day camp.

18.  Mark Hicks.  “Camps Farthest Out/Journey Farthest Out.”  Hicks’ Truth Unity website, 23 April 2023.

19.  Leigh Eric Schmidt.  Holy Fairs.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
20.  “Founder | Glenn Clark.” CFO International website.
21.  “Grinnell College.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 27 August 2023.

22.  Brenda Goldy.  “Pvt Archibald W. Glenn Sr.”  Find a Grave website, 12 April 2008; last updated by Andree Swanson.  He was the father of the wife of Glen’s great-grandfather.

23.  “Nicholas County, Kentucky.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 27 August 2023.
24.  “Peter Scholl.”  Geni website; last updated 25 November 2014.

25.  Charles Sheldon Simcox, Jr.  “Frederick Scholl.”  Geni website; last updated 14 December 2014.

26.  Gibson ‘Gibby’ Brack.  “William Russell Schull (Shull).”  Geni website; last updated 13 July 2022.

27.  Items in The Gospel Messenger.  Elgin, Illinois: Brethren Publishing House, volume 70, 1921.

28.  “Ruth Marjorie Hanson.”  Mormon’s Family Search website.  Ruth died in 1987.

29.  “Mabel Irene Brown SEAMAN (born HENSON), 1897 - 1962.”  My Heritage website.

30.  Aitchpe yearbook, Hyde Park High School, Chicago, Illinois, 1951.  23.

31.  “Mrs. William Shull.”  Chicago Tribune 28 April 1971.  Reprinted by Bonnie Dagen.  “SHULL Obituaries from Chicago area.”  Genealogy website, 1 June 2004.

32.  William Russell Shull.  Letters to Eva in Heaven.  Saint Paul, Minnesota: Macalester Park Publishing Company, 1972.

33.  OPPSheryl.  “Mildred Morgan Shull.”  Find a Grave website, 16 February 2010.
34.  For more on Rohbough and the Brethren project, see the post for 395.

35.  “Iris Zieger, 1924 - 2019.”  Jackson Citizen Patriot, Jackson, Michigan, 7 October 2019.

36.  Eleanor L. Thomas.  Girl Scout Pocket Songbook.  New York: Girls Scouts of the U.S.A., 1956.  7.  The opening line is “Peace I ask of thee of river.”