Lake Poinsett - Kum Ba Yah

Topic: Kumbaya 1955-1961
The American Camping Association’s 1958 songbook, Let’s All Sing, [1] met a need for camps without their own singing traditions or without mimeograph machines to produce their own collections.  For, before song publishers started enforcing the copyright law in the 1970s, the most common camp songsters were a few sheets of paper produced by local volunteers.

Larry Holcomb’s appendix of custom songbooks produced by Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS) was 14 pages long.  But, only 28 were identifiable as camp books, as distinct from organizations superintending camps.  Most were sponsored by the Methodist church or Girl Scouts. [2]  There no doubt were more that were not preserved in CRS’s archives.  They often were given out, and disappeared with other souvenirs of summer.  I found few for sale online.

Lake Poinsett produced one in 1958, the same year as the ACA songbook, which included “Kum Ba Yah.”  The South Dakota Methodist camp was organized to hold institutes for older campers to bind them to the church, and to recruit future ministers. [3]  In that, it was no different than the Wisconsin Lutheran camp attended by Janet Lynn, mentioned in the post for 16 October 2018, or the Methodist’s Epworth Forest in Indiana, mentioned in the post for 30 May 2021.

Lake Poinsett Fellowship Songs contains 138 songs, of which more than half are religious.  Two thirds of those are hymns, with fourteen spirituals and four graces.  “Kum Ba Yah” is the first selection in the spirituals section.

The songbook seems to have been part of an ambitious project of the local Methodist churches, who then were at their peak of influence.  Marshall Reed, Bishop of the Detroit and Michigan Annual Conferences, [4] believed the church needed 3,000 new ministers each year to replace men who retired and serve new congregations.  The church already was having problems recruiting men, [5] and in a few years would acknowledge its membership was dropping. [6]

The Northern and Southern Districts in South Dakota had established their church without funds from the Annual Conference. [7]  However, by 1957, it was hoping to grow from a local camp into a regional center. [8]  It produced a film about the camp in 1955, [9] commissioned a history in 1956, [10] and published the songbook in 1958.

The camp still exists as a retreat and conference center. [11]  However, it no longer was a member of the American Camping Association in 1974. [12]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: single melodic line
Instrumental Accompaniment: guitar

Credits
Spiritual

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no note

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

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5; same melody as that published by CRS
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: slowly
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one syllable to one note except for final “Lord”

Notes on Performance
Cover: outline drawing of tree branches at top and heads of a boy and girl at bottom right; title between

Color Scheme: black ink on maroon paper; inside blue ink on white paper

Plate: made by music typewriter

Audience Perceptions
A member of MYF, the Methodist Youth Fellowship, recalled in 1956: “Bible study groups, studies about Christian living and Christian vocations, and the singing of hymns and spirituals fill a day.  Each evening, weather permitting, the young people gather at the campfire and singing with meditation they thank God for another wonderful day.” [13]

This was before Lake Poinsett Fellowship Songs was published.  Thus, it cannot indicate if “Kumbaya” was sung at the camp, but does suggest a singing tradition existed which would have favored the song.

Notes on Performers
Lewis Reimann, the author of the Lake Poinsett Story, graduated from the University of Michigan around 1916, and went to work for the YMCA in Barry County, Michigan.  In 1921 he established a fresh air camp for the university, then opened a private camp in Michigan in 1928.  Later, he became a camp consultant for the ACA. [14]  This probably led him to assist Poinsett.

The camp’s song, “Shores of Poinsett Waters” was written by his wife. [15]  The former Pearle Shewell, [16] said she had set “numerous songs and verses of noted authors” to music in a 1961 interview. [17]

Availability
Songbook: “Kum Ba Yah.”  50 in Lake Poinsett Fellowship Songs.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service Cooperative Song Service, revised 1958.

End Notes
1.  Let’s All Sing is discussed in the posts for 4 June 2023, 18 June 2023, and 2 July 2023.

2.  Larry Nial Holcomb.  “Appendix B.  Custom Songbooks, 1954-1972.”  222-235 in A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.  PhD dissertation.  University of Michigan, 1972.

3.  Lewis C. Reimann.  The Lake Poinsett Story: A Venture in Faith.  Ann Arbor, Michigan: Edwards Brothers, Inc, for Lake Poinsett Methodist Camp, Arlington, South Dakota, 1957.  94.

4.  “Marshall Russell Reed.”  Wikipedia website, accessed 3 July 2023.
5.  Marshall R. Reed.  Quoted by Reimann.  94.

6.  The membership decline in the Methodist Church is discussed in the post for 14 March 2021.

7.  Reimann.  7, 39.
8.  Reimann.  139.
9.  Reimann.  147.
10.  Reimann.  168.

11.  “Lake Poinsett Camp & Living Waters Retreat Center.”  Dakotas United Methodist Church website.

12.  National Directory of Accredited Camps for Boys and Girls.  Martinsville, Indiana: American Camping Association, 14th edition, 1974.

13.  Quoted by Reimann.  92.  No name given.

14.  “Lewis Reimann.”  Wikipedia website, accessed 3 July 2023.  The camp was Charlevoix.

15.  Lake Poinsett.  Inside front cover.
16.  “Lewis Reimann.”

17.  “Pearle S. Reimann and Tea Table Menu.”  Ann Arbor News, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1 June 1961.