Topic: CRS Version
Claire Lennon believed the version of “Come by Here” she taught May Titus was the source for the CRS version of “Kumbaya.” [1] Titus was the sister of the white principal of the Allen School for African-American girls in Asheville, North Carolina, where Lennon was superintendent.
Their lives are a contrast in Black and white. I’ve found nothing about Lennon’s family, not even the names of her parents. The Titus sisters’ immigrant ancestors arrived in Massachusetts Bay on the Hopewell in 1635, and helped settle Rehoboth, Massachusetts, in 1643. Robert Titus was banished to Long Island in 1654, [2] but his descendants stayed in Rehoboth until the American Revolution. [3]
Titus’ great-great-grandfather received a land grant in Moriah township, [4] New York, for his service in the Revolution. [5] The land is mountainous, with about an eight of it arable. [6] His son, Titus’ great-grandfather, invested his profits from peddling into a store, [7] which his son, Edwin, continued. [8]
The population of Moriah Township increased in the 1880s, probably from logging and mining. [9] May’s father, Homer, was born in 1871, as the boom began, but Edwin died in 1876 when he still was a boy. [10] Homer entered Syracuse University at age 23, and pledged Delta Upsilon, but left after his sophomore year. [11]
Her father was ordained a deacon in 1898, [12] the year he married Cora Elma Powlesland. [13] He was posted to Peru, New York, where Julia Pauline was born in 1905. [14] May Louise was born there on 30 November 1909, [15] when Cora was 35-years-old. [16]
The Tituses moved to Warrensburg and Keesville when May was a toddler. Then, when she was seven-years-old, they moved to Troy in 1917. [17] This was more than a change of school and playmates. The areas in the green Adirondack Park is in the North County linguistic district. Troy is in the fringe of the Hudson Valley Core dialect region. [18]
Homer was pastor in an Albany church in 1921, then became superintendent of the Northern District of the Troy Conference in 1923, and of the Central District in 1924 when May was 14. The year she graduated from high school he went back to Troy. [19] During this time, Julia was attending New York State College for Teachers in Albany. [20]
May enrolled at Syracuse University in 1928, [21] where she joined the Preacher’s Kids Club. [22] The next year, she pledged Phi Mu, [23] a sorority that had been founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. [24] At the same time, Julia went to the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut for a missionary study course. [25]
The economy crashed in October 1929, and May did not return to Syracuse for her junior year. Instead, a year later, in 1931, she entered Hartford where her course work were related to the Bible and teaching. [26]
During May’s second year, Julia went to Jacksonville, Florida, to teach mathematics at a Methodist school for African-American girls. [27] Nothing more appeared in May’s official biography until after her mother died in 1942, after a long illness. May then was working as the director of religious education for the First Methodist Church in Schenectady. [28]
A year later, the 33-year-old woman accepted a position as minister of education with the First Presbyterian Church in Poughkeepsie. [29] After her move, May joined the Zonta Club, and served on the “Flowers and Fellowship” committee in 1944. [30] The service club first was organized in Buffalo in 1919, and spread through upstate New York, before evolving into a national group modeled on the Lions Club. [31]
Homer retired in 1944 at age 73, [32] and married a woman living in Moriah Township in November 1945. [33] The next year, May was hired by the Methodist Church’s Interboard Committee on Missionary Education in Nashville. [34]
Her work probably included a great deal of office work that passes unnoted. [35] When her name appeared in the Nashville newspaper, it was for speeches or meetings being publicized by the church. These reflected more the interests of the Church than her activities.
After World War II, as was mentioned in the post for 11 October 2020, the church sponsored teams of college students who moved in caravans across the country to help local churches. In 1946, Titus was the instructor in “world friendship and community service” at the training sessions in Iowa. [36]
In the early 1950s, the church held national convocations on youth, often at Purdue University. Titus went to them in 1950, [37] 1951, [38] and 1952. The goal of the last was “fashioning a four-year program for various age brackets.” [39]
The church changed focus as the Cold War dominated politics, [40] and began sponsoring meetings in Washington that included one college student from each state. One seminar a year was devoted to Christian Citizenship, the other to the United Nations. [41] Titus attended meetings in 1954, [42] 1956 [43], and 1959. [44]
Technically, Titus was paid by Women’s Division of Christian Service, which held a subordinate position after the formation of The Methodist Church in 1939. Previously, a number of women’s groups had founded institutions like the Allen School. Jane Donovan said the Women’s Division “maintained its own fund-raising, financial control, program generation, children’s and youth programs, and its own independent mission institutions, including its own missionaries” [45]
That ended in 1964, when the General Conference eliminated “the entire home and foreign mission departments of the Woman’s Division” and transferred supervision to the male dominated board. [46] In a 1962 report, Titus noted the transition was beginning, [47] and that “the positive and rewarding aspects far outnumber the moments of discouragement” in developing a new curriculum. [48]
Titus’ name appeared less often in the Nashville paper after 1962. In addition to changes in the church, Nashville and the surrounding Davidson County was growing by almost 25% a decade. [49] As its readership became more suburban, [50] The Tennessean’s reporting would have changed.
In 1965, Titus worked on a revived sort of Caravan project to send groups of youth and adults to poor areas in the country, including inner cities of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit; Appalachia; French-speaking parts of Louisiana, and “Latin Americans in Texas.” [51]
More changes occurred after the 1968 merger with the Evangelical United Brethren that produced The United Methodist Church. [52] However, Titus survived the various reorganizations. In 1972, she was the Nashville contact for youth programs in the Mississippi Conference. [53]
May turned 66 in late 1974, and probably retired. Her name disappeared from the public record. Not even an obituary has been found.
Graphics
1. Base map: Jackaranga. “Adirondack Park” (in green). Wikimedia Commons. December 2007; last updated by Daniel Case on 11 December 2007. Red circles are where Homer Titus worked; blue circles are where May Titus worked.
2. A photograph of May Titus in college appears on the Photos K tab. One with her sister and father appears in the post for 4 November 2011. A later one appears in the “Legends” article.
End Notes
1. Claire Lennon is discussed in five posts from 18 October 2020 through 28 October 2020.
2. Leo Joseph Titus Jr. Titus—A North American Family History. Baltimore, Maryland: Gateway Press, 2004. 5–6. Cited by Wikipedia. “Robert Titus.”
3. Carolyn L. Thompson. “Descendants of Silas Titus.” Genealogy website.
4. A number of hamlets exist in Moriah township including Moriah, Moriah Center, South Moriah, and Port Henry. I’m going to refer to the township to keep things simple.
5. Carol Darling. “Russel L Titus.” Find a Grave website. 11 February 2014.
6. “Welcome to Moriah, NY.” In and Around the Adirondack Park website.
7. Darling, Russel Titus.
8. Carol Darling. “Edwin Bristol Titus.” Find a Grave website. 24 April 2015.
9. Wikipedia. “Moriah, New York.”
10. Darling, Edwin Titus.
11. Frank Smalley. Alumni Record and General Catalogue of Syracuse University, 1872-1910. Syracuse, New York: Alumni Association of Syracuse University, 1911. 2095.
12. Homer F. Titus. Obituary. The [Troy, New York] Times Record. 4 August 1958. Posted by Stephen Payne to “Rev Homer Fuller Titus.” Find a Grave website. 11 November 2012.
13. W. B. Osborne. “Rev. Homer F. Titus.” Prominent People of the Capital District. Albany, New York: Fort Orange Recording Bureau, 1923. 165.
14. Stephen Payne. “Julia Pauline Titus.” Find a Grave website. 11 November 2012.
15. “May Louise Titus.” Mormon’s FamilySearch website.
16. Stephen Payne. “Cora Powlesland Titus.” Find a Grave website. 11 November 2012.
17. Homer Titus, obituary.
18. Aaron J. Dinkin. “Dialect Boundaries and Phonological Change in Upstate New York.” PhD dissertation. University of Pennsylvania, 2009. 430.
19. Homer Titus, obituary.
20. Julia P. Titus. Obituary. Asheville [North Carolina] Citizen-Times. 29 July 1990. 20. It did not give dates for her degrees or employment history.
21. Syracuse is in a third dialect region, the Inland North Core. [54]
22. Onondagan. Syracuse University yearbook, 1929. Edited by William A. Swallow. 403.
23. Onondagan. Syracuse University yearbook, 1930. Edited by Edward C. Reifenstein Jr. 320.
24. “Faithful Sisters, Since 1852.” Phi Mu website.
25. “Party for Miss Titus.” Rutland [Vermont] Daily Herald. 21 September 1929. 1. Homer was assigned to a Methodist church in Rutland from 1929 to 1931. [55]
26. “May L. Titus. Summary of her courses, 1931–1933.” Hartford Seminary. Compiled 10 November 1964. Copy provided by the registrar.
27. “Boylan-Haven School.” 50–51 in Methodist Episcopal Church. The Women’s Home Missionary Society. Annual Report for 1932–1933. Cincinnati, Ohio: The Women’s Home Missionary Society. 51.
28. “Mrs. Homer F. Titus.” Obituary. The [Troy, New York] Times Record. 4 August 1958. Posted by Stephen Payne to “Cora Powlesland Titus.” Find a Grave website. 11 November 2012. Cora died in Moriah Center, where Homer had been a pastor between 1934 and 1938. He then worked for the Board of Stewards, [56] which may have allowed him to spend time in Moriah.
29. “Miss Titus to Become Poughkeepsie Minister of Education.” The [Schenectady, New York] Gazette. 19 June 1943.
30. Item. Poughkeepsie [New York] Journal. 16 May 1944. 10.
31. Wikipedia. “Zonta International.”
32. Homer Titus, obituary.
33. Jean McGregor. Item in “Tea Table Chat.” The [Saratoga Springs, New York] Saratogian. 29 November 1945.
34. May L. Titus. “Biographical Sketch.” The United Methodist Church Archives and History Center at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. Copy provided by Frances Lyons, Reference Archivist.
35. The only published work by Titus that has survived is Youth and Mission. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1949. The adolescent textbook is 48 pages long and has five chapters: “Why?,” “Let’s Act, Now!,” “Giving,” “Working in the Missions in My Church,” and “Relations to Other Agencies.”
36. “Youth Caravan Training At Morningside.” The [Morningside College] Morningsider 4:3:June 1946.
37. Item. The [Nashville] Tennessean. 22 August 1950. 21. Larry Eisenberg was one of the attendees.
38. “Church Group Leaves Aug. 2.” The [Nashville] Tennessean. 17 August 1951. 11. Larry Eisenberg was one of the attendees.
39. “Nashvillians At Youth Parley.” The [Nashville] Tennessean. 22 August 1952. 42. Larry Eisenberg was one of the attendees.
40. As mentioned in the post for 9 February 2020, Eisenberg left the Youth Department in 1952 when the church changed the focus of the department.
41. Nashville dateline. “Christian Citizenship Seminar of MSM and UN Seminar of MYF To Have Over 100.” The Louisiana Methodist 11:310:5 February 1959.
42. “Nashvillians To Hear Lippmann at Seminar.” The [Nashville] Tennessean. 17 February 1954. Wallace Chappell also attended from Nashville. As mentioned in the post for 9 February 2020, he replace Eisenberg in the Youth Department.
43. “Midstate Methodists To Attend Conference.” The [Nashville] Tennessean. 24 August 1956. 27.
44. Louisiana Methodist.
45. Jane Donovan. “But Gideon Refused: The Institutionalization of Methodist Mission.” The American Religious Experience website. Julia, and the rest of the faculty of the Allen School, also were employees of the Women’s Division.
46. Donovan.
47. The transition apparently began in 1962, and was ratified by the quadrennial conference of the church in 1964.
48. Hazel Corbell. “Youth Work.” 118–119 in The Methodist Church, Woman’s Division of Christian Service of the Board of Missions and Church Extension. Annual Report for 1 June 1961 to 31 May 1962. New York: The Methodist Church, 1963. 119.
49. The population of Davidson County increased 25.1% between 1940 and 1950, and another 24.2% between 1950 and 1960. [57]
50. While the population of Davidson County was growing dramatically, the population of Nashville increased only 4.1% between 1940 and 1950, and declined 2% between 1950 and 1960. In 1963, the city and county merged into a single unit. [58]
51. May Titus. Letter to Family and Friends. Christmas 1965. Typed, mimeographed. Copy of one in the files of Hartford Seminary that was provided by the registrar.
52. Wikipedia. “United Methodist Church.”
53. The Untied Methodist Church, Southeastern Jurisdiction. Mississippi Conference Journal. 1972. 69.
54. Dinkin.
55. Homer Titus, obituary.
56. Homer Titus, obituary.
57. Wikipedia. “Davidson County, Tennessee.”
58. Wikipedia. “Nashville, Tennessee.”
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