The Lovejoys

Topic: CRS Version
Cooperative Recreation Service of Delaware, Ohio, first published the common version of “Kumbaya” in a songbook for a Columbus, Ohio, Methodist family Camp in 1955.  Lynn Rohrbough, owner of CRS, gave it wide exposure in January 1956 when he included it in a Song Sampler that he distributed free to promote his business. [1]

Mrs. Claire M. Lennon wrote Warren Chappell in November 1956 to suggest she was the source for the CRS version of “Kumbaya.” [2]  The letter was forwarded to Rohrbough, [3] who wrote her:

“There has been so much interest in this song that I would like to print a paragraph from your letter in one of our bulletins.  Would you want to tell us what county in Georgia you heard the song as a child?  Should we credit it to your mother or to your two grandmothers?” [4]

She immediately replied:

“I cannot rightfully say who to credit it to, inasmuch as both my grandmothers and mother sang it, and so did everyone else around.

“One grandmother lived in Merriweather Co. Ga, where I was born and lived summers until the age of 16, so I knew it then in and around Greenville, Warm Springs and Manchester.  The other grandmother lived in Monroe Co. - where 1 spent all my grammar school days (winters) in and around Forsyth.  I was in high school in Cordele (Crisp Co.), and from 16 on in Troup Co. - in and around Lagrange, and “Come By Here” was generally sung all around, and mostly among the rural folk.” [5]

Claire Marguerite Lovejoy was born in Bullochville, Georgia, in 1902, [6] so she learned “Come by Here” just before or after 1918.  This is the earliest report, so far, of the song’s existence.

Most of the places she mentioned are in the western Piedmont of Georgia.  The geographic province lies between the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the fall line that drops to the sedimentary soils of the coastal plain.  Its streams cut narrow beds through acidic hard rock deposited by erosion from the mountains. [7]

Members of the Creek Confederacy ceded lands east of the Oconee tributary to the Altamaha in 1783. [8]  It’s the area in the top right corner of the map to the right of Oconee County.  Edward Lovejoy moved to Jackson County from the South Carolina Piedmont [9] sometime after 1792. [10]

Land in the Piedmont varied in quality.  The soils nearer the dark fall line on the map “were a little richer, and the topography was less rugged” than those nearer the Blue Ridge. [11]  One of Edward’s sons [12] claimed land in Jasper County, east of Monroe County, [13] after land between the Altamaha tributaries was taken from the Creek in 1802. [14]

Another of Edward’s son moved to Clark County, [15] where James Lankford Lovejoy was born. [16]  They then migrated to land in Henry County.  It was in the 1821 Creek cession of lands between the Oculmulgee and Flint Rivers. [17]

When settlers arrived, the land was covered with oak forest, and subsistence agriculture prevailed. [18]  The fall line was the end of navigation on rivers that drained to the Atlantic at Darien, Georgia. [19]  On the Piedmont, rivers were too narrow for freight craft and some contained rapids. [20]

That began to change when the state built a railroad from Macon to Savannah in 1843 to compete with a South Carolina line that was diverting cotton shipments to Charleston.  A second road was constructed from Macon to Forsyth in Monroe County to portage the falls and tap cargoes that could be transported down the upper Oculmulgee.  A third rail link was completed to Atlanta in 1845. [21]

The Macon and Western passed near Lovejoy’s land, but he had sold out in 1835 to Thomas Crawford, [22] and moved to southern Georgia. [23]  The 1864 map below shows the general topography of the area, which the cartographers said was more wooded. [24]  Although they identified the location as Crawford, it was known locally as Lovejoy Plantation. [25]

Lovejoy Station was opened in 1850, [26] a few years before Clayton County was separated from Henry County in 1858. [27]

The opening of the rail line encouraged the growth of cotton as a cash crop.  The completion of a tunnel under Chetoogeta Mountain to Chattanooga in 1850 [28] made it possible to import food from Tennessee.  By the Civil War, “nearly all land devoted to grain crops” in Henry County “was put into cotton as well as any newly cleared land; commercial fertilizers became necessary to stimulate the production; and foodstuffs and stock feed as well as animal products, which heretofore had been produced in sufficient quantities for local needs, had to be purchased outside the counties.” [28]

When Georgia acquired Creek lands between 1805 and 1833, it platted them into lots of 202.5 acres and distributed them by lottery [30]  With the development of cotton as a commercial crop, some consolidation occurred.  By 1860, Crawford possessed a thousand acres, [31] the lots of five men.  He owned 32 slaves in 1850. [32]  The number grew to 46 in 1860. [33]

Crawford ranked eleventh in slave ownership in 1850, when men with 11 to 56 slaves represented just over 20% of the slave holders in the Henry County.  They possessed 57% of the 4,883 slaves.  Just under 60% of the slave owners had 1 to 5, the equivalent of a couple hired hands or a family.  The remaining 20% owned 6 to 10 chattel, or 22% of the total. [34]

M. Lovejoy reported eleven slaves in 1850 in Henry County, and J. L. Lovejoy had five. [35] Emmaline Heard, who was a slave in Henry County, claimed Roger Harper owned “a large number of slaves,” [36] while Charles Smith, also a slave in Henry County, remembered Jim Smith had “around one hundred and fifty, to two hundred Darkies.” [37]  The 1850 census showed both R. Harper and J. A. Smith with 24. [38]

Few people who were interviewed by the Federal Writer’s Project in the 1930s mentioned the sale of slaves.  Heard said her father was “born in Virginia, but was brought to Georgia and sold to the Harpers as a plow boy, at the age of eleven.” [39]  In Meriweather County, Lewis Favor recalled no one being sold by his owner, but he

“witnessed the selling of others on the auction block.  He says that the block resembled a flight of steps.  The young children and those women who had babies too young to be separated from them were placed on the bottom step, those in their early teens on the next, the young men and women on the next, and the middle-aged and old ones on the last one.  Prices decreased as the auctioneer went from the bottom step to the top one, that is, the younger a slave was the more money he brought if he was sold.” [40]

At Emancipation, then, the Lovejoy name existed for a town and rail station, a plantation, and for some descendants of Edward who remained in the Clayton County area.  One can make no guesses from this about the background of Claire’s grandfather.  All one can surmise is that, if he was 50 years old when she was born, he was an adolescent when the Civil War ended and had lived as a slave.

Graphics
1.  Base map from “Georgia County Outlines Map.”  Georgia Encyclopedia website.  Its source was the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia.

2.  Section of J. T. Dodge and Edward Ruger, United States War Department.  “Map V illustrating the Military Operations of the Atlanta Campaign.”  New York: American Photo-Lithographic Company, 1877.  Posted by David Rumsey Map Collection website.  This was brought to my attention by Larry Stanley.  “Henry Borrows from Clayton’s Heritage.”  December 2007.  The red lines are Confederate forces.

3.  Photographs of her appear on the "Photos K" tab and in the post for 28 October 2020.

End Notes
“WAS” refers to letters about “Kumbaya” in the corporate file of World Around Songs, the successor to Cooperative Recreation Service.  My access to this file and its current location are described in the post for 14 October 2020.

1.  Lynn Rohrbough.  Letter to Shawnee Press.  8 June 1959.  WAS.  Typed carbon.

2.  The letter to Chappell was not in the WAS file on “Kumbaya.”  More than likely, Rohrbough sent Chappell a bundle of the free songbooks that contained “Kumbaya.”  As mentioned in the post for 9 February 2020, Chappell then was working in the Methodist Church’s Youth Department in Nashville.  Chappell, in turn, may have provoked Lennon’s response when he forwarded some to her for use at the Allen School in Asheville, North Carolina, where she worked.

3.  Lynn Rohrbough.  Letter to Mrs. Lennon.  15 November 1956.  WAS.  Typed carbon.  “I am very happy to see a copy of the letter from you to Wallace Chappell about ‘Come By Here’.”

4.  Rohrbough.

5.  Claire M. Lennon.  Letter to Mr. Rohrbough.  19 November 1956.  WAS.  In both typescript and original handwritten letter.  Handwritten version used for quotation.  The post for 14 October 2020 has more information about this letter.

6.  Claire Lennon.  Obituary.  Asheville [North Carolina] Citizen-Times.  20 August 1992.  14.

7.  Frank B. Golley.  “Piedmont Geographic Region.”  New Georgia Encyclopedia website.  28 June 2004; last updated 26 July 2017.

David D. Long.  “Soil Survey of Butts and Henry Counties, Georgia.”  831–854 in Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1919.  Edited by Milton Whitney.  United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils,  1920.  841, on acidic nature of soils.

8.  Lonnie J. Davis.  “Creek Indian Land Cessions.”  Ocmulgee National Monument website.

9.  Chris and Jennifer Richardson. “Information about Edward Lovejoy.”  Genealogy website.  Last updated 10 June 2007.  The surname Lovejoy evolved from a nickname in England, and so it arose more than once. [41]  Edward’s grandfather, Josephus, migrated to Prince George’s County, Maryland, sometime after it became an Anglican crown colony. [42]

10.  Edward’s son Simeon was born in Fairfield County, South Carolina, in 1792. [43]
11.  Golley.

12.  The son, Eleazer Lovejoy, was listed by Gwyneth McNeil in her entry about Edward’s wife.  “Jemima Lovejoy”  Geni website.  Last updated 7 June 2019.  Jemima’s great-grandmother, Phoebe Lovejoy, migrated to Pennsylvania, married, and relocated to Charles County, Maryland. [44]

13.  Cemetery Walker.  “Eleazor Lovejoy.”  Find a Grave website.  28 December 2009.  He was born in 1781 in Fairfield County, South Carolina and died in 1842 in Jasper County, Georgia.

14.  Davis.  It was the Treaty of Fort Wilkinson.

15.  The southwestern section of Clark County seceded to form Oconee County in 1875. [45]

16.  Ann.  “James L. Lovejoy.”  Find a Grave website.  6 April 2011.  His obituary said: “He removed with his parents, John and Mary Lovejoy, to Henry county when but a child.”  The posts for Edward’s son John give no connecting information. [46]

17.  Davis.  It was the 1821 Treaty of Indian Springs.
18.  Long.  835.

19.  Darien is mentioned in the post for 3 February 2019 as the center of the post-Civil War lumber industry.

20.  “Geographic Regions of Georgia.”  Galileo website.

21.  Steve Storey.  “Railroads.”  New Georgia Encyclopedia website.  3 November 2006; last updated 14 September 2018.  Technically, the train went to Marthasville.  The city became Atlanta in 1847. [47]

22. Richard Cloues and Kenneth H. Thomas, Jr.  “Crawford-Talmadge House.”  Nomination form for National Register of Historic Places Inventory prepared by Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Section on 11 January 1980.

23.  Ann.  He moved to the section of Clinch County that later became Lanier County in 1920. [48]

24.  The Dodge and Ruger map has the note: “Although but little timber is shown, yet the whole Country is heavily timbered, with cleared ground in the immediate vicinity of the farm houses.”

25.  “Welcome to Clayton.”  US Gen Net website.  “The Lovejoy Plantation is believed to be the inspirational motivation for Margaret Mitchell’s fictional Wilkes family of Twelve Oaks.” [49]

26.  Wikipedia.  “Lovejoy, Georgia.”

27.  Joan H. Taylor.  “Clayton County.”  New Georgia Encyclopedia website.  8 September  2004; last updated 18 September 2019.

28.  “Chetoogeta Tunnel Timeline.”  Whitefield County, Georgia, website.  Fertilizer, of course, came by train.

29.  Long.  836.
30.  Wikipedia.  “Georgia Land Lotteries.”
31.  Cloues.

32.  Joseph H. Moore, and Ancestors Unlimited Inc (Genealogical Society of Clayton County).  “Clayton - Henry County, Ga Slave Owner 1850 Census.”  US Gen Web website.

33.  Cloues.

34.  My calculations from Moore’s data.  This was nothing like Tom Spalding, who owned 350 slaves on Sapelo Island, Georgia, [50] or Jeremiah Brown who owned 540 in Sumter County, Alabama. [51]    
 
35.  Moore.  In Cinch County, where James moved, James L. Lovejoy listed two freed men, one 12 and one 19 years of age. [52]

36.   Emmaline Heard.  Interviewed by Minnie B. Ross for WPA’s Slave Narratives collection from Georgia. [53]  Revised by J. C. Russell on 26 January 1937.  2:125.

37.  Charlie Tye Smith.  Interviewed by Mary A. Crawford for WPA.  16 September 1936.  3:186.

38.  Moore.  J. C. Smith had 12 slaves, J. G. Smith had 5, J. Smith had 2, and J. A. Smith had 1.  The variance between statistics and memory may mean owners understated their slaves to census takers, or Moore’s data didn’t include all of Henry County, or children have different perceptions of the size of their communities than do adults.

39.  Heard.  2:125.
40.  Lewis Favor.  Interviewed by E. Driskell for WPA.  8 May 1937.  1:162.

41.  “Lovejoy History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms.”  House of Names website.

“Last name: Lovejoy.”  Surname Database website.

42.  “Josephus Joseph Lovejoy, Sr.”  Geni website.  Last updated 8 October 2015.

43.  Gwyneth McNeil.  “Edward M. Lovejoy.”  Geni website.  Last updated 16 November 2017.

44.  William Woodward Dixon.  The Mobeley’s and Their Connections.  1915.  12.
45.  Wikipedia.  “Clarke County, Georgia” and “Oconee County, Georgia.”

46.  “John Lovejoy.”  Geni website.  Last updated 30 November 2014.  This lists his parents, but not his wife or children.

47.  Wikipedia.  “Atlanta.”

48.  Elizabeth B. Cooksey.  “Lanier County.”  New Georgia Encyclopedia website.  16 June 2006; last updated 31 October 2018.

49.  Kenneth H. Thomas, Jr.  “Crawford-Dorsey House and Cemetery.”  Nomination form for National Register of Historic Places Inventory prepared by Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Section on 7 May 1984.  The “neighborhood planters included Miss Mitchell’s great grandfather, Philip Fitzgerald.”  The name Fitzgerald appeared northwest of Crawford on the map.

50.  Buddy Sullivan.  “Thomas Spalding (1774-1851).”  New Georgia Encyclopedia website.  14 May 2003; last updated 21 February 2018.  He is discussed in the post for 9 June 2019.

51.  Tom Blake.  “Sumter County, Alabama: Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules and Surname Matches for African Americans on 1870 Census.”  Ancestry website.  Brown is discussed in the post for 23 August 2020.

52.  “Clinch County, GA: 1860 Census.  Schedule I, Free Inhabitants.”  Georgia Genealogy Web Project website.

53.  For more information on the WPA Slave Narratives project, see the post for 23 January 2019.