Topic: Early Versions
John M. Robinson was born in 1877, [1] just after the close of Reconstruction. [2] When he was 14, younger than when his uncle John was leased to work as a slave in 1860, [3] this John was working in a private residence where he was taught to cook. [4] That was 1891, just as Jim Crow laws were beginning to be passed by Southern states. [5]
Fifteen years later, in 1906, he married Ella Hampton. His obituary said he had worked as a cook in hotels in Texas and New Mexico, and on railway dining cars. [6] This must have occurred while he was single. When he married he was working in a hotel in Ballinger, [7] Texas. The town was located on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad line from Galveston to Santa Fé. [8]
The couple returned to Meridian in 1907, where John’s older brother Pete wanted him to help with his cotton crop. It failed in the drought, and John and Ella picked cotton in the fall “to make payment on the lumber to build our house.” John and Frank Crawford also built all the city’s culverts the same year. [9]
John’s sister Josie [10] may have married George Clyde Crawford. [11] After she died in 1896, Crawford apparently married John’s younger sister Lula. [12] Frank may have been a son, brother, or other relative of George’s.
The financial Panic of 1907 closed in, and the Robinsons moved to Austin in 1908 where John worked as a porter in the state senate. Ella was hired as a nurse-maid. [13]
The Robinsons were able to return to Meridian in 1909 [14] where George Campbell was planing a school to train Methodists ministers. [15] John and Frank Crawford were hired by the masonry contractors. [16] When the school opened, John became the cook and Ella did laundry. [17]
Meridian College closed in 1927, after three fires and low attendance. [18] John went to Waco to work for the Spring Lake Country Club. The economy crashed in 1929, and the Robinsons moved to Lubbock [19] where his sister Ida was living. [20] He first worked in a dormitory at Texas Technological College, then was the cook for West Texas Hospital. [21]
The Robinson family began receiving outside recognition in the mid-1930s. John’s grandmother was interviewed by a representative from the Federal Writers Project for the WPA collection of slave narratives in 1936. [22] John Lomax recorded John’s singing in Lubbock in 1937. [23]
Perhaps more important, Lomax selected two of the recordings by John for a BBC series on American music: [24] “Soon be done with the troubles of the world” and “Wade in the Water.” [25] These two, plus two other songs John recorded, “When I was sinking down” and “As I went in the valley to pray” were collected by Fisk University. [26]
This doesn’t imply John learned them from concerts by the Fisk Jubilee Students. Instead, it suggests a cultural continuity between his Colored Cumberland Presbyterian church community, rooted in the Cane Ridge revival, and Nashville, Tennessee, where the Fisk is located and the songs were collected.
“Wade,” along with two other songs John recorded, “Do Lord” and “Lord, will you come by here?” were included in an anthology published by the National Baptist Convention in 1927. [27] Robinson didn’t learn them from the songbook. He told a Lubbock reporter in 1938 he learned his songs at camp meetings. [28]
In Lubbock, the African-American churches were not strongly sectarian in the 1930s. Robert Foster said “when one church would have a special function, all blacks attended. This was especially true of revivals, which were usually non denominational.” [30] Thus a Presbyterian could learn a Baptist song, and then pass it on at a Presbyterian meeting.
John told the reporter that he didn’t sing “devil songs.” These were the ones “not permitted at church services. Other names given them are ‘sinful’ and ‘reels’.” [31] Still John knew them, perhaps from his father. [32] He recorded “Dan Tucker” and “Old Aunt Dinah” for Lomax.
John turned 65 in 1942, and returned to Meridian. [33] In June 1944, Ella staged a recital by her piano students. World War II still was being fought, and John sang a popular song [34] recorded in 1942 by Lucky Millinder, “When The Lights Go On Again.” [35] The other side of the 78 rpm record featured Rosetta Tharpe singing a humorous warning to the unsaved. [36]
John was an elder in the Meridian church, [37] but he also was active in local fraternal organizations. He joined the Masons in 1912, and the Ancient Order of Pilgrims in 1917. [38] The mutual benefit society was reorganized as the Progressive Order in 1932, [39] and he became a trustee of its Supreme Home. [40]
He died in 1952 soon after celebrating his 75th birthday. [41] Ella remembered:
“He always wanted a beautiful home. A home with a lawn, trees, and shubbery, and never wanted a tree cut-down. His last work on earth was the planting of a hedge around our home.” [42]
At his funeral, Odessa Wyant and Ida’s grandson, Charles Sedberry, Jr., played “He will make it plain,” “What a friend,” and “Asleep in Jesus.” [43] The first was included in the standard collection of Isaac Watts hymns used in this country. [44] The second was popularized by Ira D. Sankey in 1875. [45] The tune for the last, written by William Bradbury in 1843, became associated with Margaret Mackay’s text [46] in an 1862 collection of Sunday school songs. [47]
In addition, three women [48] sang more recent songs: the 1894 “Only a look” from the Methodist Holiness tradition, [49] the 1904 “God will take care” by a convert to the Disciples of Christ, [50] and “He’ll Understand,” which was introduced at the 1933 National Baptist convention in 1933 by Lucie Eddie Campbell. [51] The other solo, [52] “The day is passed and gone” was included in one of the earliest hymnals produced by Presbyterians influenced by Cane Ridge. [53]
Graphics
1. Peter Robinson and his five sons. Ella Robinson collection. Reproduced in June Rayfield Welch. People and Places in the Texas Past. Dallas: G. L. A. Press, 1974. 107.
2. “John M. & Ella Robinson Home.” Ella Robinson collection.
3. John Robinson’s picture appears on the Photos C tab.
End Notes
Robinson’s wife Ella gave copies of photographs, family papers, and John’s funeral book to the Archives of the Bosque County Historical Commission, Meridian, Texas. Copies were provided by Bill Calhoon, Manager of Bosque County Collection.
1. “John Robinson, Pioneer Chef, Rites at Meridian.” Clipping in John Robinson funeral book; only the year, 1952, was penciled in. The “M” was never identified.
2. Reconstruction formally ended when Rutherford B. Hayes ordered the Federal army to leave the South on 31 March 1877. [54]
3. John’s family is discussed in the post for 11 April 2021.
4. John Robinson, obituary.
5. The first law ordering segregation by railroads and streetcars was passed by Florida in 1887. [55] In 1890, Mississippi was the first Southern state to rewrite its Reconstruction era constitution to disenfranchise African Americans. In Plessy vs Ferguson, the Supreme Court upheld the doctrine of separate but equal in 1896. [56] The impact of these laws on African-American regional religious meetings is documented in the post for 15 March 2020.
6. John Robinson, obituary.
7. Ella Hampton Robinson. “Eulogy of the late Elder J. M. Robinson by EHR.” Typed document in Ella Robinson collection.
8. Kathryn Pinkney. “Ballinger, TX.” Handbook of Texas Online website.
9. Ella Robinson, eulogy.
10. Rebecca Radde. “Robinson, Priscilla.” 634 in Bosque County: Land and People. Edited by Nell Gillam Jensen. Meridian, Texas: Bosque County History Book Committee, 1985.
11. This is a surmise. Josephine Crawford is identified as the wife of G. C. Crawford from her monument in the cemetery. Her parents are not named. [57] One daughter, Comail, married a Robinson, but her Find a Grave entry doesn’t name her spouse. [58]
12. Lula Robinson isn’t identified as Crawford’s wife, [59] but her birth and death dates are the same as those of Lula Crawford. [60]
13. Ella Robinson, eulogy.
14. Ella Robinson, eulogy.
15. H. Allen Anderson. “Meridian Junior College.” Handbook of Texas Online website. 15 June 2010.
16. Ella Robinson, eulogy. Frank died “a week after it was completed.”
17. Radde.
18. Anderson.
19. John Robinson, obituary.
20. “Mrs. Sedberry’s Rites Wednesday.” The Lubbock [Texas] Avalanche-Journal. 24 June 1968. 39. Posted by debrahale55 on 24 February 2020.
21. John Robinson, obituary.
22. See the post for 11 April 2021 for more details. The Lubbock newspaper said “Aunt Miriah was photographed and interviewed by an Avalanche-Journal reporter when she came here last spring for a church convention.” [61] This could be the source for the unpublished WPA interview, or it could have been the original one.
23. The list of recordings is from the Library of Congress website. The WPA Project prepared the notes.
24. “Voice of Ex-Meridian Negro To Be Heard on British Broadcasts.” [Lubbock, Texas] Evening Journal. Clipping in Ella Robinson collection; internal evidence suggests it was published in 1938.
25. John Robinson, obituary.
26. “Soon-a Will Be Done.” 15 in Folk Songs of the American Negro. Edited by Frederick J. Work and John Wesley Work. Nashville: 1907.
“Wade in the Water.” 8–9 in New Jubilee Songs. Edited by Frederick J. Work. Nashville: Fisk University, 1902. He said it was “a favorite among Southern Baptists while a baptism is in progress.” This was brought to by attention by Steve Sullivan. “Wade in the Water (1965)—Staple Singers.” 387 in Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings. Lanham, Maryland: Rowan and Littlefield, volumes 3 and 4, 2017. I haven’t been able to locate a copy or table of contents of the Work collection.
“When I was sinking down” is the second verse of “Wondrous Love.” The shape-note song was popularized by William Walker’s The Southern Harmony [62] in 1835. John W. Work arranged it for the Fisk Jubilee Singers around 1954. [63]
“As I went in the valley to pray” [64] was collected as “The Good Old Way” by George Heyward Allan in Nashville, Tennessee, [65] in 1865, when he was the General Relief Agent there for the American Union Commission. [66] It was included in Slave Songs of the United States in 1867 [68] and sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in the 1880s as “Come, Let Us All Go Down.” [69]
27. Edward Boatner. Spirituals Triumphant Old and New. Nashville, Tennessee: National Baptist Convention, Sunday School Publishing Board, 1927 edition. “Wade in the Water,” 37; “Do, Lord, Remember Me,” 54, and “Now is the Needy Time,” 16.
28. Evening Journal.
30. Robert L. Foster. “Black Lubbock: a History of Negroes in Lubbock, Texas, to 1940.” Master of Arts thesis. Texas Tech University, December 1974. 68–69.
31. Evening Journal.
32. Peter’s fiddle playing is mentioned in the post for 11 April 20121.
33. John Robinson, obituary. It said he “came back to spend his retired years.”
34. “Recital.” Typed program, 9 June 1944. Ella Robinson collection.
35. Lucky Millinder And His Orchestra. “When The Lights Go On Again.” Decca 18496, A side. Shellac, 1942. [Discogs entry.] There were other recordings, including one by Vaughn Monroe in 1943, [70] but the one by African-American artists seems the one most likely to have been heard by John.
36. Lucky Millinder And His Orchestra With Rosetta Tharpe. “That’s All.” Decca 18496, B side. Shellac, 1942. [Discogs entry.]
37. Ella Robinson, eulogy.
38. John Robinson, obituary. The order sent two representatives from Houston to his funeral.
39. Ron Bass. “Ancient Order of Pilgrims.” Handbook of Texas Online website.
40. John Robinson, obituary.
41. John Robinson, obituary.
42. Ella Robinson, eulogy.
43. John Robinson, funeral book.
44. “God moves in a mysterious way.” 548 in The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Rev. Isaac Watts. Edited by Samuel M. Worcester. Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1848. It was written in 1774 by William Cowper. [71]
45. H. Bonar and Charles C. Converse. “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” 30 in Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs. Edited by P. P. Bliss and Ira D. Sankey. New York: Biglow and Main, 1875. The text actually was written by Joseph Medlicott Scriven. This was brought to my attention by Donald P. Hustad. Dictionary-Handbook to Hymns for the Living Church. Carol Stream, Illinois: Hope Publishing, 1978. 147.
46. “Asleep in Jesus! Blessed Sleep.” Hymnary website. It was written in 1832 and published in the Watts collection in 1848. [72]
47. Wm B. Bradbury. “Rest.” 39 in Bradbury’s Golden Shower of S. S. Melodies. Edited by William B. Bradbury. New York: Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman, and Company, 1862. The subtitle was “Asleep in Jesus.” This collection is mentioned in the post for 28 October 2020.
48. John Robinson, funeral book. They were Mrs. R. V. Haliburton of Waco, Texas; Mrs. Kemp Houston, and Mrs. Guy Eula Rogers of Abilene, Texas.
49. Fred S. Shepard and W. A. Ogden. “Only a Look!” 157 in Pentecostal Hymns. Edited by Henry Date, Elisha A. Hoffman, and J. H. Tenney. Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, 1894. This collection and its role in the Holiness tradition is discussed in the post for 9 August 2020.
50. Civilla D. Martin. “God Will Take Care of You.” Songs of Redemption and Praise. Edited by John A. Davis, W. Stillman Martin, and C. D. Martin. Chicago: Bilhorn Brothers, 1905. [73] She first married a Congregational minister, then Stillman Martin, who was a Baptist one. In 1916, they joined the Disciples. [74]
51. Lucie Eddie Campbell. “He’ll Understand and Say Well Done.” 1933. It wasn’t published until later. [Hymnary entry.]
52. John Robinson, funeral book. She was Mrs. Johnnie Bell of Cleburne, Texas.
53. “The Day is Passed and Gone.” 233 in The Christian Hymn-Book. Cincinnati: Looker and Wallace, 1815 edition. [75] The text was written by John Leland in 1792. [76]
54. Wikipedia. “Reconstruction Era.”
55. C. Vann Woodward. “The Case of the Louisiana Traveler.” University of Minnesota, Department of Sociology website.
56. Wikipedia. “Jim Crow Laws.”
57. Linda Huff. “Josephine Crawford.” Find a Grave website. 15 March 2008. Last updated by Abby Streight Birdwell.
58. Linda Huff. “Comail Crawford Robinson.” Find a Grave website. 15 March 2008. Last updated by Abby Streight Birdwell.
59. “Crawford, Lula.” In Texas Gen Website page for “Meridian Cemetery, A-F.”
60. Linda Huff. “Peter Robinson Jr.” Find a Grave website. 15 March 2008. Last updated by Abby Streight Birdwell. She is listed as Lula Robinson.
61. Evening Journal.
62. C. Michael Hawn. “History of Hymns: ‘What Wondrous Love Is This’.” The United Methodist Church Discipleship Ministries website. Walker is mentioned in the post for 21 December 2017.
63. The Fisk Jubilee Singers. The Gold and Blue Album. Folkways 2372. Vinyl LP, 1955. John W. Work, director.
64. These references were brought to my attention by Wikipedia. “Down in the River to Pray.”
65. William Francis Allen. “Introduction.” The Slave Songs of the United States. Edited by Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. New York: A. Simpson and Company, 1867. xli.
66. “George Hayward Allan.” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 40:411:1886. The complete entry is not available on line. The American Union Commission evolved into the American Freedmen’s Bureau. [67]
67. Wikipedia. “Lyman Abbott.”
68. Allen. 84. This collection is mentioned in the post for 20 September 2018.
69. “Come, Let Us All Go Down.” 156 in J. B. T. Marsh. The Story of the Jubilee Singers. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1880 revised edition.
70. Wikipedia. “When the Lights Go On Again.”
71. “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” Hymnary website.
72. Worcester. 759. The suggested tune was “Federal St.”
73. Hustad. 143.
74. “Civilla D. Martin.” Hymnary website.
75. “Hymnals of the Stone-Campbell Movement.” Lincoln Christian University website. It was edited by John Thompson, who later rejoined the Presbyterians. Three denominations emerged after Cane Ridge: the Cumberland Presbyterians, the Disciples of Christ, and the Christian Church. The last two merged, and other smaller groups like that of Thompson existed briefly. The song continued to be included in Disciples of Christ hymnals.
76. “Evening Song.” Hymnary website.
