Photos C

 Early Versions of "Come by Here"

Below are photographs of individuals who sang, recorded, or published versions of “Come by Here” before 1940.  They appear in chronological order.

 

Thomas H. Wiseman recorded “Now Is the Needy Time” in 1923 with the Bethel Jubilee Quartet.  He was the pastor of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in Columbia, South Carolina, at the time.  The record was never released and the masters were destroyed.  Photograph from Richard Carroll and T. H. Wiseman.  Thoughts.  Columbia: Lewis Publishing Company, 1920.

Madelyn Sheppard published "O, Lordy Wont You Come By Here" in a 1926 collection of Eight Selected Spirituals. She was a popular music composer who must have heard the song in Florida or Alabama, and created her own version. She is on the left, with Helen Smith Woodruff, tenor John Barnes Wells, and Annelu Burns. She wrote the music for a Broadway show by Woodruff, and wrote tunes for lyrics by Burns. The original is in the Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection. 

 

Edward Boatner included “Now is the Needy Time” in a 1927 songbook published by the African-American National Baptist Convention.  Photograph from his collection The Story of the Spirituals published in 1973 by McAfee Music Corporation of New York.

The Pace Jubilee Singers recorded "Lawdy Won’t You Come By Here" in Chicago in 1927 for Brunswick. The organizer, Charles Henry Pace, is at the far left in the back row. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to parents who moved in steps to Chicago. Photo reprinted from A City Called Heaven with the permission of the author, Robert M. Marovich. The University of Illinois Press published the book in 2015.

Clara Hudman recorded "Lordy Won’t You Come by Here" in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1930 for Okey Records. Her name also was spelled Hudmon and Hudson; she later called herself the Georgia Peach. This publicity photograph was taken around 1953. Gospel Friend used it on the cover of its CD compilation Georgia Peach: Lord Let Me Be More Humble In This World (PN-1504). The original is in the Roger Pryor Dodge Collection, courtesy of Pryor Dodge.

The Society for the Preservation of Spirituals published a version of "Come by Yuh" in The Carolina Low Country in 1931. The editors provided no information about their source. The musical transcriptions were done by Katharine Critchfield Hutson, Josephine Pickney, and Caroline Pinckney Rutledge. The above photograph of Katharine Critchfield is from The Adytum, the Denison University yearbook for 1913, the year she graduated. Copy provided by Jack Hire and Alexa Peterson of the Denison alumni office.

 

Walter Awood Meador published the 1-3-5 melody with “Oh, Lord, Come by Here” in 1934.  A year later, Orion L. Alewine included Meador’s arrangement in a Church of God (Cleveland) collection, Chimes of Glory No 2.  Meador’s photograph from The Gospel Light Songs, published in Nashville, Tennessee.  Copy provided by Nancy Richey from the Kentucky Library Research collections of the University of Western Kentucky.

Ruby Pickens Tartt collected a version of "Lord, Won’t You Come by Here" in Sumter County, Alabama, in 1936 or 1937. She did not provide any information about her source, but she transcribed her conversations with a number of African Americans, any one of whom could have sung it for her. The post for 23 January 2019 provided some biographical details about her; other posts have included information on the people she interviewed. This photograph was taken in her home in October 1940 by Ruby Terrill. The original is in the Library of Congress, Lomax Collection.  Her biography appears in the post for 23 January 2019.

 

 

Genevieve Willcox Chandler collected a variant of “Come by Here” on the east bank of the Waccamaw River in Georgetown County, South Carolina, around 1937.  This photograph is from the seventh edition of Musings of a Hermit privately published by her brother, Clarke A. Willcox, in 1986.

 

John Robinson, Ella Robinson, and Ida Sedberry recorded "Lord, Will You Come by Here" in 1937 in Lubbock, Texas, for John Lomax. Both his parents were slaves in Meridian, Texas, where he was born. He spent much of his life working as a cook. Robinson said he learned most of his songs at camp meetings. This photograph was taken by Lyle Deffebach in the 1920s when John was working for Meridian College. Copy courtesy of Bill Calhoon and The Bosque County Collection; Bosque County Historical Commission; Meridian, Texas.  He is discussed in the posts for 11 April 2021 and 18 April 2021.

John’s wife, Ella Robinson, was able to take music classes at Meridian College, and later taught piano. She, like her husband and sister-in-law, was active in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The photograph was taken by the Wiseman Studio of Hieo, Texas, in 1920. Copy courtesy of Bill Calhoon and The Bosque County Collection; Bosque County Historical Commission; Meridian, Texas.  She is profiled in the post for 2 May 2021.

 

 

Ida Robinson Sedberry lived in Lubbock, Texas.  She played piano, and two of her children were recorded by Lomax with Juanita Pollard at the same time she sang with her brother John.  One her grandsons also played piano.  Photo from Southwestern Collection of Texas Tech University.  Copy provided by J. Weston Marshall.  She is discussed in the post for 25 April 2021.