Walter Awood Meador - Oh, Lord, Come by Here

Topic: CRS Version
Walter Awood Meador published the first version of the 1-3-5 melody in 1934.  In addition to the tune, his first three verses had the same themes that would appear in the version of “Kum Ba Yah” published by Cooperative Recreation Service in 1955.

It began with the traditional “somebody needs you.”  This was followed by “somebody’s praying” and “somebody’s happy.”  The CRS verses were “someone’s crying,” “someone’s singing” and “someone’s praying.”

Meador claimed to have written the lyrics and arranged the melody, and that is probably true.  The first three verses use the statement-refrain line format and describe the actions of the unspecified somebody.  Several of the later verses expand the “need” to the steps for initiation into the church.  These do not have refrains.

The difference in format between the earlier and later verses suggests he heard some form of “Come by Here” and adapted it.  Whether or not he modified the “happy” verse is unknowable at this time.

Meador’s wife [1] founded The Emmanuel Church of Christ, in Nashville.  It followed “Oneness Pentecostalism” that posited a single god, not the trinity. [2]  Frank Ewart introduced the idea to Pentecostals in 1914.  His most influence convert was Garfield Haywood, an African American who opened his Christ Temple in Indianapolis to all races. [3]

Nina Gregory Meador’s church was independent, and she seems to have only had contacts with white churches.  When she wanted to be baptized, she went to Bay City, Texas, on the Gulf coast. [4]  If Meador did not have a direct contact with an African American who knew the song, he may have heard it from some white who did.

His version of “Come by Here” gained wider exposure in 1935 when Orion Alewhite included it in his second song collection.  He listed Anderson, South Carolina, as his home, [5] but apparently was living in Detroit. [6]  He held a revival in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1935 that featured “special string music and singing.” [7]

Alewine was associated with Richard Spurling’s [8] Church of God.  It grew out of Baptist churches in eastern Tennessee in the 1890s, and expanded under the leadership of Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson. [9]  The latter was a Quaker from Westfield, Indiana, who was about five years older than Varner Chance’s father. [10]  The Holiness denominations main activities were in the mountains where most of the residents were white.

Both Nina’s church and Spurling’s Church of God are premillennial.  Emmanuel Apostolic believes it is “a continuation of the great Apostolic Revival which began at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, A.D. 33” and that we are living “under the latter day reign of the Holy Ghost.” [11]  Both churches recognize speaking in tongues as evidence that an individual has been baptized by the Holy Ghost. [12]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: four part
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
Arr. by W. A. Meador
Copyright, 1934, by W. A. Meador in “Gospel Light Songs”

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English

Verses: needs you, sorry, praying, happy, here to be sanctified, loves you, needs to be baptized, needs the Holy Ghost, praising

Pronoun: somebody
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: verse-burden
Verse Length: four lines
Line Repetition Pattern: AAAB

Line Form: lines in first three verses end with the refrain “come by here;” the others end with a variation of the first part of the line

Ending: none
Unique Features: emphasis on conversion

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: not indicated
Key Signature: two sharps
Basic Structure: strophic repetition

Harmonic Structure: parallel thirds in upper two parts; divergent harmony in lower two parts

Singing Style: one syllable to one note including the final “Lord”
Special Features: shape notes

Notes on Performance
The Gospel Light Songs has tan, cardboard covers with a black fabric binding.  A cross is in the center, with scrolls radiating from it.  The inscription in the cross is:
J (top section)
Is Jesus (crossbar)
Jehovah (entire vertical section)

Notes on Performers
Meador’s family had lived in Macon County, Tennessee, on the Kentucky border, since the early nineteenth century when his great-great-grandfather moved from the Virginia Piedmont. [13]  Jobe Meador probably was in Tennessee when the Cane Ridge Revival broke out in 1801.

Walter was a machinist in the U. S. Navy during World War I, [14] and was injured.  Afterwards, he became a lawyer. [15]

His wife had closer ties to Cane Ridge.  Her family’s farm was on the Red River [16].  Her great-great-great-grandfather was a Methodist who left Virginia for Kentucky in 1788. [17]   His descendants moved about Kentucky and Tennessee; her grandfather was buried in Gallatin, [18] mentioned in the post for 2 May 2021.

Nina’s father was a Baptist deacon, while her mother was a “sanctified Methodist.”  She attended services in both, and professed her faith in 1912, when she was twelve years old.  She joined the Holiness group when she was twenty, which may have been before she met Meador.  She began preaching in 1925, and held revivals in Logan County, Kentucky, and Gallatin. [19]

Emmanuel Church of Christ was legally organized as a church in 1933. [20]  Meador published his songbook the next year.

Alewine’s immigrant ancestor was a Huguenot who fled Alsace for Rotterdam. [21]  His great-grandfather was a farmer near Abbeville, South Carolina in 1870. [22]  Ten years later, his grandfather was a laborer in Abbeville.  By 1910, the thirteen-year-old Alewine and his father were working in a cotton mill near Atlanta. [23]

Alewine may have moved north during World War II, or in the years immediately after.  He was a Church of God preacher in Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1932. [24]  He moved back to Anderson, South Carlina, in the fall of that year. [25]  In 1934, he and his wife enrolled in classes in the church’s Bible Training School in Cleveland, Ohio, and, as mentioned above, were listing Detroit, Michigan, as their home. [26]

His next 1935 songbook was published in Cleveland, Tennessee, and Hartwell, Georgia, [27] another mill town about 25 miles from Anderson. [28]  He died there in 1945. [29]

Meador lived until 1954, [30] when his wife remarried on 14 January in Nashville. [31]

Availability
Book: W. A. Meador.  “Oh, Lord, Come by Here.”  28 in The Gospel Light Songs.  Nashville, Tennessee: 1934.

Book: W. A. Meador.  “Oh, Lord, come by here.”  In Chimes of Glory No 2.  Edited by Orion L. Alewine.  Cleveland, Tennessee: 1935. [WorldCat entry]

Graphics
1.  Copy of “Oh, Lord, Come by Here” in The Gospel Light Songs.  Copy provided by Nancy Richey from the Kentucky Library Research collections of the University of Western Kentucky.

2.  Meador’s photograph appears on the Photo C tab.

End Notes
1.  Linda Carpenter.  Notes for George William Washington Gregory in “George Moses Dallas & Mary Ann Eunice (Hughes) Gregory.”  RootsWeb website.  2007.

2.  “About Our Organization.”  Emmanuel Apostolic website.  This is the current name for Emmanuel Church of Christ.

3.  Vinson Synan.  The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997 edition. 172–173.  Haywood wrote most of the songs in his church’s songbook, The Bridegroom Songs. [32]

4.  Emmanuel Apostolic.

5.  The publication locations for the songbook were Cleveland, Tennessee, headquarters of the Church of God, and Anderson, South Carolina.

6.  The Church of God Bible Training School.  Catalog for 1934–1935.  Nora Alewine and Orion Alewine are listed as freshmen from Detroit on page 32.

7.  Item.  Battle Creek Enquirer, Battle Creek, Michigan, 12 June 1935.  9.

8.  “What is the Church of God (COG), and what do they believe?”  Got Questions website.

9.  Wikipedia.  “Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee).”

10.  Wikipedia.  “Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson.”  Chance is discussed in the post for 21 March 2021.  Tomlinson was born in 1865 and Enoch Alvin Chance in 1869.  These sorts of connections are interesting because, while they do not indicate direct influences, they suggest shared cultural values that lead to an appreciation of “Come by Here.”

11.  Emmanuel Apostolic.

12.  Emmanuel Apostolic.

“Declaration of Faith.”  Church of God website.

13.  Rock Talker.  “Jobe Meador.”  Find a Grave website.  27 March 2009.  Updated by Michael Meador.  His immigrant ancestor migrated from Suffolk, England, by 1738. [33]

14.  US Veterans Affairs Office.  “Walter Awood Meador.”  Find a Grave website.  3 March 2000.  Updated by Rock Talker.

15.  “Walter Awood Meador, LL,B., LL.M.” Gospel Light Songs.
16.  Emmanuel Apostolic.
17.  Daniel Gregory.  “Richard W. Gregory.”  Find a Grave website.  26 March 2014.

18.  Sent with love~Cerise.  “George M. Dallas Gregory.”  Find a Grave website.  4 March 2005.

19.  Emmanuel Apostolic.  Logan County was the initial center of the Cane Ridge revival; it is mentioned in the post for 8 November 2020.

20.  Emmanuel Apostolic.

21.  shirley amerson.  “John George (Johann Georg Genewyn) Alewine.”  Find a Grave website.  7 March 2019.

22.  Bill Alewine.  “Abraham Alewine.”  Find a Grave website.  21 November 2018.
 
23.  Bill Alewine.  “Re: George Benjamin Alewine.”  Genealogy website. October 03, 2009.

24.  Item.  Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, Ohio, 19 April 1932.  7.
25.  Item.  Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, Ohio, 29 September 1932.  8.

26.  Bible Training School catalog.  This school became the Lee College that was attended by Clariece Paulk.  She is mentioned in the post for 11 October 2018.

27.  Orion L. Alewine.  Chimes of glory. No. 3.  Cleveland, Tennessee, and Hartwell, Georgia, 1935. [WorldCat entry]

28.  Wikipedia.  “Hartwell, Georgia.”
29.  Bobbie O’Barr.  “Orion L. Alewine.”  Find a Grave website.  18 January 2012.
30.  US Veterans Affairs Office.

31.  kimshockey (reb).  “Elder Nina May Gregory Pierce.”  Find a Grave website.  3 June 2005.  Updated by Victor E. Everhart.

32.  The Bridegroom Songs.  Indianapolis: Christ Temple, no date, purchased in 2016.

33.  Walter Pack Family.  “Thomas Meador.”  Find a Grave website.  2 March 2012.  The first child was born in York County, Virginia, in 1738.