Producing the “Kumbaya” Artifact

Topic: CRS Version
The cast has been assembled, and now is the time to direct its actions in producing the first songbook to contain “Kumbaya.”  The curtain rises on the 1954 Buckeye Recreation Workshop held in Urbana, Ohio.

This most likely is when Kathryn Thompson Good [1] heard “Kumbaya” and first thought about having Lynn Rohrbough print a songbook for her Methodist, family camp in Columbus.  In addition to whatever singing occurred during the week, someone held a session on “community group singing.” [2]

Lynn was there at least one day when he talked about play-parties.  Others from Delaware, Ohio, like Mary Lea Bailey, may have been there for the folk dancing.  Mary Lea or Lynn probably had a display of wooden games offered by World Wide Games, [3] and CRS, no doubt, had samples of its songbooks available.

Someone from the Indianola Church had to have contacted CRS, and signed some kind of agreement.  While both Rohrbough and Larry Holcomb have discussed the production of songbooks, this business aspect was not mentioned. [4]  Two factors were included in setting the price: the number of pages and the number of original plates.  Pages were in multiples of eight, [5] with 64 pages the most common size for small songsters I own. [6]  The number of songs usually was greater.

In 2016, John Blocher recalled he “worked with Tommy [Kathryn Thompson Good] and  Lynn Rohrbough” and that he did “not remember receiving any outside advice beyond what Tommy and I brought to the table.” [7]

Blocher did not remember when they sent their package to CRS, but did recall “my notation would have been penciled onto printed staff paper, of which I had a supply.” [8]

When the packet was received, Lynn said “music editing was supervised by Katherine Rohrbough” and that the manuscript for “Kumbaya” would have been turned over to Jane Keen. [9]

Keen was using curved tails on the eighth notes, and italics for the tempo instructions.  Her treble clef signs all are at different angles.  She must have believed “Kum ba yah” was a foreign word, because she treated it with italics.  While the font was sans-serif, the “K” had a finial on its leg.  The leg was attached to the ascender, and that connected with the stem below the x-height line.  The thin ascender, whose length varied, drew the eye itself. [10]

The song then went to Sara Bailey.  She normally added “the body-text and footnotes” with the vari-type machine described in the post for 8 May 2022. [11]  “Come by Here” is in the style used by that machine, but the subtitle must have been done by Keen: it has the same “K” as the text.

The footnote font differs from the verses below it.  The “c” in the note reaches below the baseline, while the “c” in “crying” does not.  The leg comes from the ascender, which is attached to the stem at the x-height line.  It rises at a more acute able than the leg, which has no finial.  If this were prepared for off-set, Bailey would have assembled the pieces.

Following Rohrbough’s process description, the credit and pronunciation information must have come from Katherine Ferris Rohrbough.  It was not on the manuscript Blocher sent.  Where she got it is speculation, but most likely was someone from CRS who attended the 1954 Buckeye Workshop.

Sara then began the layout process.  The first step was finding another song on the list approved by Good and Blocher that would fit on the page.  By one of the odd coincidences that occur, she chose “Dona Nobis Pacem,” which CRS translated as “give us peace” in 1944. [12]  This pairing was not permanent.  In the 1957 example below, the song is placed with “Jacob’s Ladder.”

The next step was the most complex.  The pages were twice the width and folded, with songs on both halves and both sides.

I do not have a complete copy of Indianola Sings.  This example is taken from a later songbook.

Page layout was part of the complete organization of a songster, since many grouped genres like hymns and folk songs together.  Once those decisions were made, page numbers could be added.

 

 

The index could now be compiled, and the design for the cover complete.  Most songbooks had the index on the inside covers, and sometimes on the last page or back inside cover.  The example is on the inside and outside of the back cover with a classification of songs.

The individual paired pages were grouped on larger sheets of four pairs or eight pages, [13] depending on how one counts.  The copy was ready for printing.  Decisions about paper and ink colors were made, perhaps with advice from customers.  More important, someone decided which presses to use for the body and the cover—offset or letterpress.  Oscar Bailey handled the one, while John Leininger and Hugh Macmillan operated the other. [14]

Since the order from Indianola may have been comparatively small, the letter press may have been selected early.  This would have given Keen more freedom in her lettering.

The process of assembly involved several machines.  One cut the large pages into individual paired pages.  Next, Rohrboughs said:

“The flat sheets were folded into 4x7-inch signatures by Dan Warner on an automatic folder.  The three pats making up the booklet were next collated and stitched by Violet Dewitt and Doris Warner and made ready for the cutter.  The folded edges were trimmed on three sides by Howard Blanchard.” [15]

“Pats” seems to refer to material from different press runs.  Normally, the cover and the body needed to be brought together, but sometimes an insert was printed on different colored paper.

Indianola Sings probably bypassed the shipping department.  More than likely, Good or Blocher drove up from Columbus to pick up the finished songsters.

All this was provided to the Indianola Church for about $70.00.  In 1963, CRS charged $.19 for a single 64-page book, or $36.36 for 200 copies.  The plates for new music cost $12 each, and Blocher sent two: “Kumbaya” and the camp’s song, which he had written. [16]  Then the artwork for the cover cost $8.75. [17]

Graphics
Map.  David Benbennick.  “Delaware County, Ohio.”  Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons on 12 February 2006.

Original version of “Come By Here”/“Kum Ba Yah.”  Indianola Sings, edited by Kathryn Thompson Good and John Blocher, Jr. for Camp Indianola, sponsored by the Indianola Methodist Church, Columbus, Ohio.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, 18 March 1955.  38.  Date from Lynn Rohrbough. [18]  Copy provided by John Blocher, Jr.

1957 version of “Come By Here”/“Kum Ba Yah.”  The Bridge of Song, edited by Max V. Exner for the Iowa State College Extension Music Program.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service, 1957.  30.  This book was chosen because I had two copies and it was safe to take one a part.

End Notes
1.  Kathryn Thompson Good is discussed in the post for 10 October 2021 and her photograph appears on the PicK tab.

2.  Larry Nial Holcomb.  “A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Michigan, 1972.  87.

3.  Mary Lea Bailey and World Wide Games are discussed in the post for 22 May 2022.

4.  By the time Holcomb was working with Lynn, “most of the business records before 1960 have been destroyed.” [19]

5.  L. Rohrbough. “Spring report to cooperative songbook patrons,” Spring 1962.  1.  Quoted by Holcomb.  124.

6.  Among the books I have that are 64 pages are ones from The Methodist Church, [20] Camp Winnipesaukee, [21] and the Church of the Brethren. [22]  National organizations seem to have created larger books: the Camp Fire Girls’ Joyful Singing is 80 pages, [23] Exner’s The Bridge of Song is 96, and the YWCA’s 1951 edition of Sing Along the Way is 128. [24]

7.  John Blocher, Jr.  Email, 25 June 2016.  His photograph and biography appear on the PicK tab.

8.  John Blocher, Jr.  Email, 20 June 2016.

9.  “How a Sampler Is Made.”  Song Sampler, Number 3:7–8: July 1956.  Quoted by Holcomb.  134.  “The music autographs were hand-drawn by Jane Keen.”  Keen is discussed in the post for 24 April 2022.

10.  Keen used upright type for the Latin “Dona Nobis Pacem” and the sung syllables in “Holla Hi.”  The terminology for typography is explained in the post for 8 May 2022.

11.  “How a Sampler Is Made.”

12.  “Done Nobis Pacem.”  Songs of Many Nations, for the Evangelical and Reformed Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Custom Printed Songs, 1944.  3.  “Dona nobis pacem” is from the “Agnus Dei section” of the Roman Catholic Latin mass. [25]  The source of the canon is unknown. [26]  The songbook is discussed in the post for 6 March 2022.

13.  “How a Sampler Is Made.”

14.  “How a Sampler Is Made.”  Oscar Bailey, John Leininger, and Hugh Macmillan are discussed in the post for 1 May 2022.  Leininger was the compositor and Macmillan the printer. [27]

15.  “How a Sampler Is Made.”  Stitching involved stapling the books together.  Two were used.  Photograph from Bridge of Song.

16.  John Blocher, Jr.  Email, April 28, 2016.  “She and I assembled the Camp Song Book,  Indianola Sings for which I wrote the camp song Indianola.”

17.  Rohrbough, 1962.  1.

18.  Lynn Rohrbough.  Letter to Shawnee Press.  16 February 1959.  Copy provided by Bruce Greene, World Around Songs, Burnsville, North Carolina.  “We published it this way March 18, 1955.”

19.  Holcomb.  104.

20.  Sing It Again!, for The Methodist Church, Nashville, Tennessee.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.  This is discussed in the post for 9 February 2020.

21.  In Harmony.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.  It has a reference to the United Catholic Youth Ministries and camps on Lake Geneva and the Winnipesaukee River.

22.  Come Up Higher, for Church of the Brethren, Elgin, Illinois.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.

23.  Joyful Singing, for The Campfire Outfitting Company, New York City.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.  This is discussed in the post for 20 February 2022.

24.  Sing Along the Way, edited by Marie Oliver for the YWCA, New York City.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service, 1951, fifth printing.  This is discussed in the posts for 13 March 20220 and 20 March 2020.

25.  “Dona Nobis Pacem.”  Wikipedia website.
26.  “Dona Nobis Pacem (Round).”  Wikipedia website.
27.  Holcomb.  135.

Kathryn Thompson Good

Topic: CRS Version
Kathryn Thompson Good was the immediate source for Lynn Rohrbough’s version of “Kum Ba Yah.”  She most likely learned it at a Buckeye Recreation Workshop in 1954, and taught it to John Blocher, Jr.  He transcribed it for a 1955 an Indianola Methodist Church camp songbook published by Rohrbough’s Cooperative Recreation Service. [1]

As mentioned in the post for 3 October 2021, Bruce Tom was one of the founders of the Buckeye Workshop.  She first met him when she was an undergraduate at Ohio State University in the late 1930s.

In 1938, Thompson directed a “Get Acquainted” party for a short course offered to Grange lecturers that was sponsored by Tom and the university’s Agricultural Extension office. [2]

That was spring of her senior year.  Thompson was an education major, and on the department’s student council.  Its responsibilities included “training in recreation activities for future teachers.” [3]  Although it is not stated, one assumes Tom was involved, either directly or indirectly.

Her primary interest was music.  Before Thompson could be initiated into the Delta Omicron music honorary, she had to present a recital. [4]  Her other college activity was the YWCA.  She co-chaired its peace committee. [5]

The summer after Thompson graduated, she worked at Camp Ohio, the 4-H camp mentioned in the post for 3 October 2021.  She assisted in evening programs. [6]  The next year she had “charge of group singing and vesper services,” while Tom supervised group games. [7]  In 1940, she was on staff for a six-week conservation short course at the camp, and probably the one responsible for teaching folk dancing. [8]

She was teaching in the Columbus public schools in 1940, when she served on a National Recreation Association panel at its fall meeting in Cleveland, Ohio.  Carl Hutchinson chaired the group discussing “Recreation in Cooperatives.”  Tom was in the audience. [9]

Despite her activities with Tom, Thompson was not a farm girl.  She was born in 1914, and her family says “she lived in Columbus most of her life.” [10]  However, she became one when she married Gene Good.  He was raised on a farm in northwestern Ohio, and worked for the Soil Conservation Service after he graduated from high school.  During this time, he also had to have been working on his undergraduate degree in botany.  They must have married soon after he earned it in 1940. [11]

Good worked for the Indiana Department of Conservation in 1941, then they moved to a farm in his native Van Wert County where he grew purebred seeds.  He also was working on his master’s thesis on the local Great Black Swamp. [12]  During this time, they had three children.  She, now known as Mrs. Eugene Good, was involved with a Farm Bureau Youth Group recreation program in 1945. [13]

After Good earned his master’s in 1948 and joined the OSU staff, [14] they returned to Columbus.  One would guess they conformed to faculty expectations for its members.  It may be then that they joined the Indianola Methodist Episcopal Church. [15]  It often shared its pastor with the university’s Wesley Foundation. [16]

As was the way with women in the years after World War II, Tommy, as she was called, became nearly invisible.  Mrs. E. E. Good attended the wedding of a cousin in 1949, [17] and led the singing at a revival in Worthington in 1952. [18]  She used her nickname when she registered for the Buckeye Workshop that year in Urbana. [19]

Gene earned his zoology PhD in 1952, [20] which may have given them more freedom, and possibly more income.  The children would all have been in elementary school.  It is not known when they began going to the Indianola camp. [21]  Oscar Barnebey [22] built facilities for the church in 1927, [23] and transferred ownership to the Barnebey Foundation in 1954. [24]

Camp Indianola offered three week-long sessions for boys in 1941, and three for girls. [25]  Blocher described it as a family camp. [26]  A photograph he sent of Tommy shows her serving food at a picnic table.  It looks like that, by 1958, the camp had abandoned the old buildings, and abbreviated its program.

The family remembers: “Tommy always led the group sings, whether around a campfire, after meals, or vespers.  She particularly loved negro spirituals and folk songs.  Kumbaya was a favorite of all.”  One child especially recalls “she had an amazing range of musical interests and enthusiasms.  She was a gifted square dance caller.” [27]

Tom retired from OSU in 1954, but continued to work as a lecturer for the Grange. [28]  He attended the 1954 Buckeye Workshop, [29] where it is believed Tommy heard “Kumbaya.”  She was on the Workshop planning committee in 1963, [30] and served on the permanent committee from 1967 through 1969. [31]

By then, the Good children were entering college.  One graduated from high school in 1961, a second in 1962, and the youngest in 1968. [32]  Tommy was able to return to teaching by 1969. [33]  She died in 1985. [34]

Graphics
1.  Kathryn Thompson Good at Indianola, August 1958.  Photograph by John Blocher, Jr.
2.  Her photograph also appears on the Photos K tab.

End Notes
Biographical information on Good is scarce.  Her married name is a common adjective, and difficult to use in a Google search.  Some historic Ohio State University publications only are available to members.  The Columbus newspaper does not seem to have been digitized.  The large local cemeteries have not been inventoried by the Find a Grave website.

1.  Patricia Averill with John Blocher, Jr.  “‘Kumbaya’ and Dramatizations of an Etiological Legend.”  Voices 46:26–32:Spring–Summer 2020.  Copy available from Academia.edu.

2.  “Grange Speakers To Meet March 21.”  The Lantern, Ohio State University, 25 February 1938.

3.  “Education Council.”  59 in Makio, Ohio State University yearbook, 1938.
4.  “Delta Omicron.”  Makio.  376.

5.  “YWCA.”  Makio.  182.  Thompson also was tapped for Mortar Board [35] and Pi Lamda Theta, the education honorary for women. [36]

6.  Item.  The Marysville Tribune, Marysville, Ohio, 5 July 1938.
7.  Item.  The Marysville Tribune, Marysville, Ohio, 10 July 1939.  3.
8.  Item.  The Evening Independent, Massillon, Ohio, 19 August 1940.  6.

9.  National Recreation Association Congress, 30 September–4 October 1940.  Proceedings.  136–137.  Hutchinson is discussed in the posts for 19 September 2021, 26 September 2021, and 3 October 2021.

10.  Kathryn Thompson Good’s family.  Email, 10 November 2020.

11.  Thomas M. Stockdale and John F. Disinger.  “Ernest Eugene Good 1913–1994.”  Ohio Journal of Science 94:164–165:December 1994.  When she died in 1985, they had been married for 45 years.

12.  Stockdale.
13.  Item.  The Times Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, 2 February 1945.  3.
14.  Stockdale.

15.  The only reference to her prior religious beliefs is her membership in the YWCA.  Her cousin was married in an Evangelical and Reformed church. [37]  Two of Good’s brothers were Baptists. [38]

16.  Joan Giangrasse Kates.  “Rev. Lee Charles Moorehead, 84.”  Chicago Tribune, 23 March 2003.  In 1944, Moorehead was appointed “as the minister to students at the Wesley Foundation at Ohio State University and as associate pastor of Indianola Methodist Church.”  The church and the foundation merged with the University United Methodist Church to form the Summit United Methodist Church in 1977. [39]

17.  “Grierson-Osborn Wedding Is Solemnized on Sunday In Church in Columbus.”  Newark Advocate, Newark, Ohio, 4 April 1949.  6.  Tommy was a hostess.  Jane Grierson also was in the YWCA at Ohio State in 1938.

18.  “M. E. Church Plans Religious Emphasis Week.”  The Worthington News, Worthington, Ohio, 13 November 1952.

19.  John Fark.  Email, 1 November 2020.
20.  Stockdale.

21.  The family remembers their “summers were spent out of the city often in youth camps. Tommy and her husband Gene served in staff positions for youth camps as well as family camps. Camp Indianola, a Methodist church camp, was the primary camp.” [40]

22.  Oscar Leonard Barnebey was from Missouri, [41] and earned a chemistry PhD in 1912 from the University of Wisconsin. [42]  He met Merritt Brooke Cheney when both were serving in World War I.  After their discharges, they formed a company [43] that exploited Barnebey’s research on manufacturing carbon filters. [44]

23.  Gregg Griffith.  “Former Recreation Site Donated as Research Lab.”  The Lantern, Ohio State University, 5 June 1970.

24.  “The Barnebey Foundation.”  US Corporates website.

25.  Camp Indianola.  Brochure for 14th season.  Ohio State University archives website.

26.  John Blocher, Jr.  Email, 28 April 2016.
27.  Good family.

28.  “R. Bruce Tom.”  Ohio 1954–1955 Community Service Guide.  Columbus: Ohio State University, September 1954.  23.  He died in 1969. [45]

29.  Larry Nial Holcomb.  “A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Michigan, 1972.  87.

30.  “David Jenkins, County 4-H Extension Agent.”  Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Lancaster, Ohio, 15 February 1963.  13.  Also involved were Tom, and Rohrbough’s son-in-law, John Rowlands.

31.  Fark.
32.  One son is discussed in the post for 17 October 2021.

33. Item.  Ohio State University Monthly, February 1969.  The family said “she taught elementary vocal music in Columbus, Ohio area schools.” [46]

34.  Stockdale.
35.  Makio.  72–73.
36.  Makio.  378.
37.  Grierson-Osborn Wedding.

38.  “Merrill M. Good.”  The Times Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, 9 March 2017.

“Mood H. Max Good.”  The Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio, 25 July 2006.

39.  “Our History.”  Summit United Methodist Church, Columbus, Ohio, website.
40.  Good family.

41.  Laura Anne Knight.  “Oscar Leonard Barnebey.”  Geni website, last updated 10 June 2017.

42.  Oscar Leonard Barnebey.  “Rare Earth Reactions in Non-Aqueous Solvents.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Wisconsin, 1912.

43.  “Merritt Brooke Cheney.”  American Ceramic Society Bulletin 1:26:May 1922.  The company was Barnebey-Cheney Engineering of Columbus.

44.  Oscar L. Barnebey.  “Process for the Manufacture of Decolorizing Carbons.”  Patent 1537286A, granted 12 May 1925.

45.  Item.  The Circleville Herald, Circleville, Ohio, 4 September 1969.  5.  The Grange charter was draped in his memory.

46.  Good family.