Topic: Early Versions - Waccamaw Neck
The northern part of the Waccamaw Neck owned by Percival Pawley was deeded in the 1730s to members of the Allston, LaBruce, and Pawley families who had met when their fathers were immigrants in Charleston. They were the ones who broke the large grants into ones suitable for plantations.
As mentioned in the post for 16 July 2023, William, the son of the immigrant, bought 1,129 acres from George Pawley in 1730. In his 1743 will, he referred to it as “the tract of land I now live on with my dwelling house.” [1] He made no mention of agriculture, but said he had “twelve hefers and twelve steers of the stock on Sandy Island.” [2]
The inference is that he grew food on his land and raised cattle on the island for income. This is reinforced by the fact that he held at least 5,322 acres and six lots in Georgetown, but only 35 slaves. It seems he invested his profits in land, because he had no need for many slaves.
William had married when he was 23 years old. [3] At the time he wrote his will 23 years later he had six living daughters, three sons, one granddaughter and a pregnant wife. [4] Only the oldest daughter was married; his oldest son and next daughter had reached the age of maturity as defined in the his will. [5]
The boys were given land that could be developed, while the five unmarried girls were asked to split two tracts among themselves. His son William, who was 20 years old, received 920 acres that his father had purchased elsewhere on the Waccamaw Neck. He split the original Pawley land between his two other sons, Joseph, age 11, and John, age 4. Joseph received the part where Hagar Brown lived after the Civil War. [6]
William appointed four men to oversee his estate: his son William; his brother John; the husband of his sister Elizabeth, Joseph LaBruce, and the husband of LaBruce’s sister, William Poole. [7] John [8] and Poole died in 1750, [9] which left the management of Joseph’s land to his brother William and uncle Joseph.
Joseph took ownership in 1756, one year after he married. [10] He soon built a new house since his mother and younger siblings would still have been in his William’s home. In 1769, he bought land downriver, closer to Georgetown from John Huger. Huger just had purchased the 775 acres from the estate of Robert Pawley, [11] who was married to Joseph’s sister Frances, then 30 years old. [12] Joseph may have let her continue living there.
Later that year, Joseph bought 280 acres to the north. At the time, his oldest son Billy was fifteen years old. [13] His younger one, Thomas, was five. [14]
Three years later, in 1770, he bought George Smith’s Castaway Plantation to the south of Robert Pawley’s land. It had 300 acres. [15] No mention is made of the crops at this time, although indigo had been the primary one along the lower Waccamaw until the 1760s. [16] The men who had been active growers included Thomas Lynch and Archibald Johnston. [17] Lynch was married to Joseph’s sister Elizabeth; Johnston was the husband of Joseph’s sister Esther. [18]
Joseph bought more land in 1772. Again, the investment combined personal interests with those of the extended family. This time the land was the Turkey Hill plantation directly south of The Oaks. The land originally had been claimed by his father’s brother Joseph who willed it to his son Josias. [19] Rowena Nyland said: “The reason Josias sold his inheritance is unknown. He relocated in the Little River area on the North/South Carolina border on lands which his will suggests he obtained from Joseph Allston.” [20]
At the same time, Joseph probably acquired the property south of Turkey Hill which became known as Oatland. Nyland said the documentary trail ended when Joseph’s Uncle Joseph willed the land to his son, Samuel. [21] Nothing is known about him, and Nyland surmises Oatland may have come into the hands of his brother Josias. [22]
By 1773, he owned five plantations each with a hundred slaves. A northern visitor declared “his plantation, negores, gardens, etc., are in the best order of any I have seen!” [23] Unfortunately, Josiah Quincy was a city boy who only mentioned Joseph grew grapes. [24]
James Michie surveyed the site in 1993, and found the evidence that slave cabins were built on “lower elevations around the swamp.” [25] This implies Joseph was growing rice with swamp irrigation. [26] Swamps apparently had some structural limitations that led planters to develop separate plantations rather than amalgamate their land holdings. The fact Joseph claimed to have 100 slaves per plantation suggests he also view of an ideal ratio of slaves to land. [27]
Joseph died in 1784 at age 51. [28] He left northern part of Robert Pawley’s land to Billy, who soon after bought the Clifton plantation to the north. He left the southern part [29] and Turkey Hill to his other son, [30] with the priviso that his widow, the former Charlotte Rothmahler, [31] live there until a home could be built for her at Oatland. [32]
He left The Oaks to his son Billy’s son Joseph, then age five. [33] Michie did not indicate who supervised the plantation in the interregnum when rice growing was revolutionized. The post for 16 January 2019 mentioned the popularization of tidal irrigation by Nathaniel Heyward in 1787.
The same year, 1787, Jonathan Lucas built the first workable rice mill to speed the preparation of the grain for market. His first customers included John Bowman and Billy Alston. [34] Alston, of course, was Joseph’s father, while Bowman’s wife was the granddaughter of Josephs’s great-aunt Elizabeth. [35]
As Michie discovered, the plantation was reconfigured for tidal irrigation and the slave quarters were moved [36] The mill at The Oaks appears on a 1825 map. [27] Little remains: the iron parts were removed during World War II, and the bricks from the chimney were reused for a beachfront house. [28] For some period, rice may have been taken down the Waccamaw to Billy’s mill.
End Notes
1. William Allston Senr. Will, 29 January 1743. Transcribed on “Yauhannah Wills.” RootsWeb website.
2. Allston. The map in the post for 16 July 2023 shows the location of Sandy Island.
3. Robert Walden Coggeshall. Ancestors and Kin. Spartanburg, South Carolina: The Reprint Company, 1988. 173.
4. Joseph A. Groves. The Alstons and Allstons of North and South Carolina. Atlanta, Georgia: The Franklin Printing and Publishing Company, 1901. 68. Thomas was born in 1744 and died unmarried.
5. The age of maturity for boys was 18, the age for girls was 17 or when they married.
6. Allston. Hagar Brown is mentioned in the posts for 25 December 2022 and 17 July 2023.
7. Allston. William Poole was a Georgetown merchant [39] who married Hannah [40] DeMarboeuf. [41]
8. Coggeshall. 172.
9. George C. Rogers. The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1970; reprinted by Georgetown County Historical Society, 2002. 60.
10. James L. Michie. The Oaks Plantation Revealed: An Archaeological Survey of the Home of Joseph and Theodosia Burr Alston, Brookgreen Gardens, Georgetown County, South Carolina.
Columbia, South Carolina: Waccamaw Center for Historical and Cultural Studies, 1993. 10.
11. “Prospect Hill Plantation – Georgetown – Georgetown County.” South Carolina Plantations website.
12. Coggeshall. 173. Robert was the son of the Percival Pawley who, according to the post for 17 July 2023, moved to North Carolina.
13. Joseph’s son William was known as King Billy of Clifton. He changed the spelling of his last name to Alston. [42] I’m using the nickname to make it easier to keep track of members of a family that repeated given names in each generation.
14. Given the large gap in ages, it’s possible there had been others who were girls who did not inherit or children who did not survive.
15. “Prospect Hill.”
16. Rogers. 53.
17. Rogers. 88.
18. Coggeshall. 173.
19. Rowena Nyland. “Historical Analysis of the Willbrook, Oatland, and Turkey Hill Plantations.” 14-60 in Archaeological and Historical Examinations of Three Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Rice Plantations on the Waccamaw Neck, edited by Michael Trinkley. Columbia, South Carolina: Chicora Foundation, May 1993. 30.
20. Nyland. 32.
21. Nyland. 31.
22. Nyland. 34.
23. “Journal of John Quincy, Junior, 1773.” Massachusetts Historical Society. Proceedings 44:453:1915–1916. Quoted by Rogers. 99.
24. Quincy was involved with the Sons of Liberty in Boston in the period leading to the American Revolution. He went south in 1773 to encourage support for the coming revolution. [43]
25. Michie. 28.
26. Swamp grown rice is discussed in the post for 13 January 2019.
27. The concept of an optimal size developed in Barbados and is discussed in the post for 23 January 2022.
28. Coggeshall. 173.
29. “Prospect Hill.”
30. Nyland. 32.
31. Coggeshall. 173.
32. Nyland. 34.
33. Michie. 11.
34. Lucas, James Jonathan. Letter dated 20 April 1904 reprinted by The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, volume 32, 1904.
35. Elizabeth Allston married Thomas Lynch. She was the granddaughter of the immigrant Allston, sister of his sons William and Joseph, and great-aunt of Joseph’s grandson Joseph. Their granddaughter Sabina Lynch married Bowman.
36. Michie. 30.
37. Lesley M. Drucker. A Cultural Resources Inventory of Selected Areas of The Oaks and Laurel Hill Plantations, Brookgreen Gardens, Georgetown County, South Carolina. Columbia, South Carolina: Carolina Archaeological Services, 1980. 70. Her source was Robert Mills. Atlas Of The State Of South Carolina. Baltimore, Maryland: F. Lucas Jr, 1825. Reprinted by Silas Emmett Lucas, Jr. as Mill’s Atlas: Atlas of the State of South Carolina, 1825. Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1980. Georgetown District. Cited by Michie. 48.
38. Michie. 48.
39. Rogers. 60.
40. Sonya Suzann Beckenbach Manderson. “James Coachman.” Page of Beckenbach Simons genealogy on RootsWeb website.
41. “Joseph de Marbeuf La Bruce, 1705 - 1751.” My Heritage website.
42. Coggeshall. 174.
43. “ Josiah Quincy II.” Wikipedia website, accessed 14 July 2023.
Sunday, July 23, 2023
The Oaks - The First Generations
Sunday, July 16, 2023
Waccamaw Claims
Topic: Early Versions - Waccamaw Neck
The Waccamaw Neck along the northeastern coast of South Carolina extends 60 miles from the North Carolina border to Winyah Bay at Georgetown. [1] The distance Genevieve Willcox Chandler covered when she conducting interview with former slaves for the WPA was measured in distances people could walk to Murrells Inlet where she lived. [2] They mentioned five plantations along the left bank from Richmond Hill to Oatland.
The chart below lists the names and plantations of individuals interviewed by Chandler. As mentioned in the post for 25 December 2022, Hagar Brown is one of the three most likely sources for Chandler’s variant of “Come by Here.”
Land grants still were tightly controlled by the men in England who owned the colony. As mentioned in the post for 8 January 2023, one landgrave, Robert Daniel, was given the 24,000 acre Winyah Barony in 1711, which he promptly sold to another landgrave. Thomas Smith, [4] in turn, sold 1,280 acres to John Crofts [5] and 1,490 acres to Percival Pawley. [6] He retained land around Murrells Inlet.
A descendant believes Crofts was related to John Crofts of Virginia. He was deputy to the naval collector and his wife, Mary, owned land in Charles Town. [7] His son, also John Crofts, was a ship’s captain who married a wealthy woman in Jamaica in 1697. [8] The son of this Crofts, also John, was a Charleston merchant when he bought the land that eventually would be Oatland. [9]
George Pawley arrived in Charles Town in 1685 [10] at age 53. [11] Family tradition thinks his wife somehow was related to Andrew Percivell, [12] who came from England in 1674 [13] as an agent for Anthony Ashley Cooper, [14] one of the original Proprietors. He was a joiner, [15] and his son, Percivell, was a shipwright. Emma Hart believes Percivell bought land because of “the precarious urban economy, and the sorry state of shipbuilding in the province.” [16] His land eventually became Turkey Hill.
Land produced little wealth at the time. Smith was involved with the Indian trade.[17] Pawley began raising cattle, which he was selling by 1717 [18]. Rice was grown in inland swamps until England imposed so many taxes it was not profitable after 1705. [19]
The value of naval stores increased in 1705, when England began paying a bounty. [20] It relied upon longleaf pine trees, [21] which grew in the uplands. [22] Kilns used to extract tar were built on slight elevations, [23] not on shifting landscape of the neck. Most of the research on tar kilns has been done in the Francis Marion National Forest, south of Winyah Bay. Maps show the industry was concentrated along the southwestern boundary and along the Santee River, with little found in the swamps or on the boundary with the coast. [24].
These are not the kinds of lands Smith sold. Crofts and Pawley probably were just accumulating land for its unknown, future value.
The political landscape changed in 1714 when the Hanoverian George I replaced the Stuart Anne on the English throne. Crofts sold the Oatland land to William Branford that year. [25] Little is known about him, although Henry Smith thought his father might be connected to the John Branford who came south from Dorchester, Massachusetts. [26] Branford died in 1717, and the land was deeded to his daughter, Martha Bryan. [27]
1717 was the beginning of a new crisis in South Carolina’s relations with the Proprietors who owned the colony. The men in England were unhappy that they were not receiving their rents, and ordered their governor, Robert Johnson, to rewrite laws in their favor. [28] The next year the Proprietors closed the land office, so no new land could be granted. [29] This led the colonists to ask George I to take over the colony in 1719. [30]
Pawley apparently became friends with John Allston, who arrived in Charleston in 1682 as an apprentice to the merchant James Jones. [31] Seven years later Allston established himself in Saint Johns. [32] Around 1795, he married the widow of a tanner, and fathered six children. [33] When John died in 1719, Pawley executed his will, and his son George married Allston’s daughter Mary. [34] Pawley drowned in 1723, [35] and George inherited the land on Waccamaw Neck. [36]
The economy grew worse when the Crown stopped subsidizing naval stores in 1724, and collapsed in 1727. [37] George moved to the Waccamaw neck that year, and became associated with Smith. [38] His brother Percival was among those who fell into debt, and moved to North Carolina [39] where Smith was living.
The Proprietors responded to the chaos and depression in South Carolina by asking George I to buy them out. [40] Negotiations lasted until late 1729 when Robert Johnson was appointed royal governor. [41] That same year, Samuel Wragg convinced the Parliament to resume paying the bounty for naval stores and allow Charleston to export rice directly to Spain and Portugal. [42]
Johnson proposed creating frontier townships to protect the area around Charleston. [43] One was centered in the north around Winyah Bay, where the Baptist minister, William Screven, had purchased land in 1710. [44] His son, Elisha, laid out Georgetown in 1729. [45] Men moved to the area hoping it would become an official port. [46] One was Mary Allston Pawley’s brother John who purchased Turkey Hill from her husband George’s niece. [47]
Mary’s brother William purchased land upriver from Turkey Hill from Percival in 1730. [48] His wife was Esther LaBruce. Their sister Elizabeth married Esther’s brother Joseph. [49] The immigrant LaBruce had arrived from France in 1687, [50] and was raising hogs and cattle on the Cooper River by 1696. [51] The marriages occurred in 1721. [52] William’s land became The Oaks.
Once rice and naval stores were reestablished as profitable crops, and the land office was reopened in 1732 under the King, [53] men borrowed money to buy slaves [54] knowing they would receive 50 acres for each slave. [55] John Allston received royal grants in 1733 and 1734 for 137, 490, and 700 acres. [56] That would suggest he also was able to purchase three slaves in 1733, ten in early 1734, and another fourteen later the same year. William received royal grants between 1732 and 1737 for 785 acres (for fifteen slaves) and three tracts on Sandy Island. [57] Mary and William’s LaBruce brother-in-law was granted 727 acres north of the Pawley land in 1733. [58]
Johnson tried to ensure the new lands offered by the Crown did not go to speculators, and was successful enough that when Smith laid out a rival town to Georgetown at what became Murrells Inlet, no one was interested. [59] He willed some of the town lots to his children. [60]
The prosperity lasted until a new war with Native Americans broke out in 1739. [61] The best lands on the east side of the Waccamaw had been purchased or claimed by 1734.
Graphics
Base map: “Map of the Pee Dee River Basin in South Carolina.” 15 in An Overview of the Eight Major River Basins on South Carolina. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, 2013.
End Notes
1. Clarke Willcox. “Preface to Historical Sketches.” 1967. 105 in Clarke A. Willcox. Musings of a Hermit. Charleston, South Carolina: Walker, Evans and Cogswell Company, seventh edition, second printing, 1986. iv. The geography is discussed in the post for 1 January 2023.
2. Genevieve is introduced in the post for 15 December 2022. The people she interviewed are introduced in the post for 25 December 2022
3. The Black and and PeeDee rivers parallel the Waccamaw for short distances, then each turns inland.
4. Thomas Smith, son of the original landgrave Thomas Smith, is discussed in the post for 8 January 2023.
5. Rowena Nyland. “Historical Analysis of the Willbrook, Oatland, and Turkey Hill Plantations.” 14-60 in Archaeological and Historical Examinations of Three Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Rice Plantations on the Waccamaw Neck, edited by Michael Trinkley. Columbia, South Carolina: Chicora Foundation, May 1993.
6. George C. Rogers. The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1970; reprinted by Georgetown County Historical Society, 2002. 1.
7. Harold Cross. “John (Croft) Crosse (abt. 1630 - 1709).” Wiki Tree website, 1 Apr 2021; last updated 24 April 2021. This is John’s father.
8. Harold Cross. “John Crosse (abt. 1670 - 1736).” Wiki Tree website 9 March 2021; last updated 26 August 2022.
9. Harold Cross. “John Croft (bef. 1698 - aft. 1745).” Wiki Tree website, last updated 24 April 2021. This is John’s son.
10. Agnes Leland Baldwin. First Settlers of South Carolina, 1670–1700. Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1985. 180.
11. Robert Walden Coggeshall. Ancestors and Kin. Spartanburg, South Carolina: The Reprint Company, 1988. 151.
12. Coggeshall. 152.
13. Baldwin. 183.
14. Coggeshall. 152.
15. Baldwin. 180.
16. Emma Hart. Building Charleston: Town and Society in the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic World. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010. 31.
17. Smith’s business interests are discussed in the post for 8 January 2023.
18. Rogers. 1.
19. Walter Edgar. South Carolina. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998. 138.
20. Edgar. 138.
Grant Snitker, Jason D. Moser, Bobby Southerlin, and Christina Stewart. “Detecting Historic Tar Kilns and Tar Production Sites Using High-resolution, Aerial LiDAR-Derived Digital Elevation Models: Introducing the Tar Kiln Feature Detection Workflow (TKFD) Using Open-Access R and FIJI Software.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 41(103340):2022. 2.
21. Michael A. Harmon and Rodney J. Snedeker. “The Archaeological Record of Tar and Pitch
Production in Coastal Carolina.” 100-122 in Historic Landscapes in South Carolina: Historical
Archaeological Perspectives on the Land and Its People, edited by Linda F. Stine, Lesley M.
Drucker, Martha Zierden, and Christopher Judge. Columbia, South Carolina: Council of South Carolina Professional Archaeologists, 1993. 145.
Snitker. 2.
22. W. E. McLendon, G. A. Crabb, Earl Carr, and F. S. Welsh. “Soil Survey of Georgetown County, South Carolina.” 513-562 in Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1911. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture, 1914. 518.
23. Harmon. 153-154.
24. Snitker. 11, 13.
25. “Willbrook Plantation – Pawleys Island – Georgetown County.” South Carolina Plantations website.
26. Henry A. M. Smith. “Old Charles Town and Its Vicinity, Accabee and Wappoo Where Indigo Was First Cultivated, with Some Adjoining Places in Old St. Andrews Parish.” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 16(1):1-15:January 1915. 7-8.
27. Nyland. 26.
28. M. Eugene Sirmans. Colonial South Carolina: A Political History 1663–1764. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1966. 120.
29. Sirmans. 123.
30. Sirmans. 129.
31. A. S. Salley. “John Alston.” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 6(3):114-116:July 1905. 114.
32. Nyland. 24.
33. Coggeshall. 171. Allston married Elizabeth Turgis, widow of John Harris.
34. Coggeshall. 171.
35. Coggeshall. 152.
36. Coggeshall. 153.
37. Sirmans. 155.
38. Coggeshall. 153.
39. Sirmans. 146. Sirmans only says Percival, so I assume he is referring to the brother of George. Robert Walden Coggeshall says he was a gunsmith. [62]
40. Sirmans. 160.
41. Sirmans. 161.
42. Sirmans. 162. Technically, South Carolina merchants could ship to any port south of Cape Finisterre. [63]
43. Sirmans. 162.
44. Rogers. 17.
45. Rogers. 33.
46. David Duncan Wallace. The History of South Carolina. New York: American Historical Society, 1934. 1:340. Georgetown became a port in 1732. [64]
47. Nyland. 26. Percival Pawley had given the 490 acres that became Turkey Hill to the daughters of his brother John in 1722. [65] One niece died in 1725, [65] and the husband of the other sold the land to Allston. [67]
48. James L. Michie. The Oaks Plantation Revealed: An Archaeological Survey of the Home of Joseph and Theodosia Burr Alston, Brookgreen Gardens, Georgetown County, South Carolina.
Columbia, South Carolina: Waccamaw Center for Historical and Cultural Studies, 1993. 10.
49. Coggeshall. 171.
50. Baldwin. 153. The original name was LaBrosse de Marboeuf.
51. A. S. Salley, Jr. “Stock Marks Recorded in South Carolina, 1695-1721.” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 8(3):126-131:July 1912. 130.
52. Coggeshall. 171, 173.
53. Sirmans. 172.
54. Sirmans. 167.
55. Wallace. 1:331.
56. Nyland. 26.
57. William Alston Sen. Will, 29 January 1743. Transcribed on “Yauhannah Wills.” RootsWeb website.
58. Rogers. 277.
59. Sirmans. 174.
60. Smith and Murrells Inlet will be discusses in a future post.
61. Sirmans. 167. The War of Jenkin’s Ear was part of the War over Austrian Succession.
62. Coggeshall. 152
63. Wallace. 1:324.
64. Rogers. 32.
65. Nyland. 26.
66. Coggeshall. 152. The niece was Ann.
67. Nyland. 26. The niece who married Joseph Allen was Susanna.
Sunday, July 9, 2023
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.
Sunday, July 2, 2023
Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) - Kum Ba Yah
Topic: Kumbaya 1955-1961
The Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) was the second religious group to publish “Kumbaya” after it appeared in the American Camping Association’s Lets All Sing in 1958. [1] As mentioned in several posts, the denomination broke from Presbyterians following the Cane Ridge Revival, and was distinguished by its refusal to use musical instruments. [2]
Its Chapbook was intended for youth group meetings, as well as summer camps. As such, it contained more religious material than a typical Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS) publication or the Southern Baptist Convention collection mention in the post for 18 June 2023. Just over a quarter of the songs in the ACA songbook were religious and nearly 44% in Songs for Fun and Fellowship. More than 75% of the ones in the Christian Church book had sacred content.
The denomination’s musical aesthetic was formed in the 1800s when the two denominations, the Christian Church and the Disciples of Christ, were spreading. More than 60% of the hymns are from that century, with less than a quarter from the 1900s. The earlier ones were written by Martin Luther, [3] Isaac Watts, [4] and Charles [5] and Samuel Wesley. [6]
Almost none are popular religious songs from the late 1800s [7] Instead, like CRS and the Baptists, the editorial committee used spirituals as a less solemn alternative to hymns. They represented about 30% of the ACA songbook, and 18% of this one. [8] The number in the Baptist book represented 16% of the total.
The editors obviously expected the songbook to be used in camps: it contained eleven graces while the Baptists only had one. However, sung graces were not an indigenous traditions: six were in Let’s All Sing. [9]
The songbook wished to include “fun songs,” but again had no tradition to draw upon. Of the 31 secular songs with no religious content, 22, or nearly 60%, were in the CRS songbook. “Kumbaya” falls into the group of songs it considers secular, but, in fact, have religious content.
The editors took their version from the Song Sampler published by CRS in 1956. [10] It not only had the same headnote on an Angolan origin and the same pronunciation footnote, but it italicized “Kum Ba Yah” that way Jane Keen had. Let’s All Sing said it was a “Spiritual,” and had no footnote or special typography.
The song was accepted: it was one of the ones that was reprinted in Chapbook 2 in 1966. That collection “picks up some of the best songs, hymns, and worship resources from The Chapbook.”
Performers
Vocal Soloist: single melodic line
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Credits
African (Angola)
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom-bah-yah, like that published by CRS Song Sampler
Verses: those published by Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS) in Song Sampler – kumbaya, praying, crying, singing
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Basic Form: four-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: 4.25" x 5.75" spiral bound; drawings of thee Gothic church windows enclosing music notes
Color Scheme: white with red print; windows and music notes in shades of black, white, and gray
Plate: exactly like that in CRS’s Song Sampler; this includes italicizing “Kum Ba Yah”
Audience Perceptions
The person who owned the copy I purchased online checked “Kumbaya” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain” in pencil; “Are You Sleeping” was checked in ink. The C-F-G chords were written in; this is the only song so marked.
Notes on Performers
Guin Tuckett worked for the Christian Board of Education from 1953 until 1990. Born Guinevere Ream in Indiana, [11] she was a descendant of Johann Eberhard Reihm who migrated to Conestoga, Pennsylvania, from the Palatine in 1717. [12] Count Zinzendorf, leader of the Moravians in Germany, stayed with Eberhard in 1742. [13] When her branch joined the Christian Church is unknown, but her father’s mother was a member when the family lived in Nebraska [14].
Besides the Martin Luther hymn, the Chapbook contains lyrics set to old German tunes. The setting for Saint Francis of Asisi’s “All Creatures of Our God and King” is from Geistliche Kirchengesäng. [15] The tune for “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” is in Straslund Gesanbuch. [16] The melody for “Fairest Lord Jesus” is from Schlesische Volkslieder. [17]
Availability
Songbook: “Kum Ba Yah.” 150 in Christian Youth Chapbook: Hymns, Fun Songs, Worship Resources for Young People. Saint Louis: Bethany Press, 1955.
Songbook: “Kum Ba Yah.” 151 in Chapbook 2, edited by a “joint youth committee from The American Baptist Board of Publication and Education and the publishing and program divisions of the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) chaired by Guin Tuckett. Saint Louis: The Bethany Press, 1966, and Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: The Judson Press, 1966.
End Notes
1. Let’s All Sing is discussed in the post for 4 June 2023.
2. The Christian Church and Disciples of Christ are mentioned in a number of posts, including one for 8 November 2020. The Disciples of Christ in Pamlico County, North Carolina, were mentioned in posts about Minnie Lee, especially the one for 26 January 2020.
3. “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”
4. “Jesus Shall Reign.”
5. “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” and “Love Divine, All Love Exceeding.”
6. “The Church’s One Foundation.”
7. The one possibility is “Take Time To Be Holy,” which was published by Ira Sankey. [18] Sankey is discussed in the post for 17 January 2021.
8. The church segregated after the Civil War, but did not expel freed slaves as the Methodists and Baptists did. Its attitudes toward Blacks are mentioned in the posts for 18 July 2021 and 30 October 2022.
9. “Chimes Grace,” the Girl Scouts’ “God Has Created a New Day,” “Gratitude Grace,” “O Give Thanks,” “Praise for Bread,” and “Round of Thanks.” The Baptists adopted the “Round of Thanks.”
10. Song Sampler, number 1, is discussed in the posts for 31 July 2022 and 7 August 2022.
11. Lynn. “Guinivere (Tuckett) ‘Guin’ Ream Stemmler.” Find a Grave website, 24 October 2009.
12. John Ream. “Ream Family History: 9 Generations.” His website.
13. Norman Whisler Ream. “Riehm-Ream Genealogy.” 1930. 248. Reprinted by John Ream.
14. “Mrs. J. S. Ream Funeral Held.” The Minden Courier, Minden, Nebraska, 27 Mary 1948. 11. Reprinted by Rose Marie Brown on “Maggie Mae Simon Ream.” Find a Grave website, 7 August 2013.
15. Friedrich Spee. Geistliche Kirchengesäng. Kohn: 1623.
16. Ernewertes Gesangbuch. Stralsund: 1665.
17. August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben. Schlesische Volkslieder mit Melodien. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1842.
18. Laura Lee Leathers. “Who Wrote the Hymn ‘Take Time to be Holy’?” Christianity website, 5 December 2022.
Sunday, June 18, 2023
Southern Baptist Convention - Kum Ba Yah (Come By Here)
Topic: Kumbaya 1955-1961
Membership in the American Camping Association (ACA) grew after World War II, with much of it coming from church groups. [1] In Michigan, a third of the camps, which existed in 1974, that were accredited between 1947 and 1958 were religious. [2] No doubt there were more that did not seek ACA approval. [3]
The Michigan camps represented a variety of sponsors from Detroit’s Roman Catholic Youth Organization [4] and Ann Arbors’s Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship [5] to Baptists, [6] Calvinists, [7] Methodists, [8] and Mennonites. [9] [10] Presumable staff members of some of the camps purchased copies of the ACA’s 1958 songbook, Let’s All Sing that contained “Kum Ba Yah.” [11] This allowed the song to spread beyond the confines of the Methodist church that originally sponsored the song and its publisher.
The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention included a version of “Kum Ba Yah” the next year, 1959, in its Songs for Fun and Fellowship. They used the CRS text, but provided a four-part chord arrangement by William Reynolds. [12] This made it one of the first versions to include a piano accompaniment.
David Music notes that the church was broadening its interest in music in the 1950s, but it had few available composers who could write hymns in contemporary styles. Reynold filled the vacuum and became “the most influential Southern Baptist church musician in the second half of the twentieth century.” [13]
The church apparently also did not have many resources for children’s music. Twenty-five of the thirty-one secular songs were published by CRS by this time; twelve of the twenty-five were in Let’s All Sing. The others included a nineteenth century popular song with Irish themes, [14] and ones like “Michael Finnigan” and “Mistress Shady” that CRS did not encourage.
Nine of the twenty-four religious songs were spirituals, while “One More River” was a humorous description of Noah’s ark. The book also may have introduced “I Have Decided To Follow Jesus,” which Music credited to Reynolds. [15]
Performers
Vocal Group: four part chords
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano arrangement
Credits
Arranged by Peter Gregory. Arrangement © Copyright 1959, Broadman Press.
From Hymns of Universal Praise copyright Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc., 1956, Delaware, Ohio. Used by permission.
[At this time, CRS was using the Hymns of Universal Praise copyright for the song.]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no comment
Verses: those published by Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS) – kumbaya, crying, singing, praying
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Basic Form: four-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5; same melody as that published by CRS
Time Signature: 3/4
Key Signature: three flats
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one syllable to one note, except for final “Lord;” alto occasionally sings two notes
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: four-part chords change on every syllable
Notes on Performance
Cover: none oval balloons with bows underneath to suggest heads with bow ties; ovals at different heights; title at top
Color Scheme: green and black ink on dark yellow paper
Notes on Audience
Two more volumes were published in 1961 [16] and 1969. [17] They must have popular, because versions of all three are available on Abe Books, Amazon, and eBay.
Notes on Performers
William Jensen Reynolds edited Songs for Fun and Fellowship and arranged “Kum Ba Yah.” He was the son and nephew of singers, and both his parents graduated from Moody Bible Institute. [18] He earned degrees in church music from Southwestern Baptist Theological School and North Texas State College. [19]
After graduation in 1946, he spent nine years workings as a minister specializing in music and youth in Oklahoma and Texas. During this period, he established a summer music camp for the First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City. He also served on the committee that produced the 1956 Baptist Hymnal. [20] [21]
Reynolds went to work as music editor for the Sunday School Board in 1955, and remained there until the purges that followed the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1979. [22] Music says: “the reasons for his mandatory retirement are not entirely clear, but were a result of internal issues at the Board.” Reynolds returned to teach at Southwestern Seminary until he retired in 1998. He died in 2009. [23]
Cecil McGee co-edited Songs for Fun and Fellowship. He was raised in Oklahoma, and received a master’s degree from Southwestern Theological Seminary. He was the man on the Sunday School Board who encouraged the group that produced the first Baptist musical, Good News. [24] He later built a retreat in Titusville, Florida, and died in 2007. [25]
Availability
Songbook: “Kum Ba Yah (Come Ba Here).” 47 in Songs for Fun and Fellowship #1, edited by William J. Reynolds and Cecil McGee. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1959.
End Notes
1. Item on Elmer Ott in “A History of ACA Presidents and Board Chairs.” American Camp Association website; based on Eleanor Fell’s History of Organized Camping: The First 100 Years. Martinsville, Indiana: American Camping Association, 1986.
2. See the post for 28 Mary 2023 for more details on the sample of camps.
3. A camp does not need accreditation from the ACA to operate. Many 4-H and church camps I knew about in the 1950s and 1970s were not accredited, because the name of the sponsoring organization was sufficient for parents.
4. CYO Camp for Boys.
5. Cedar Campus.
6. Michigan Baptist General Conference’s Center Lake Bible Camp.
7. Church of Christ’s Michigan Christian Youth Camp; Maumee Valley, Ohio, Presbyterians’ Premauca Education Center.
8. The Methodist Church’s Wesley Woods; Free Methodist’s Covenant Cove Camp.
9. Friedenswald.
10. I could not find the affiliation for Blair Lake Bible Camp, although it still exists.
11. Let’s All Sing is discussed in the post for 4 June 2023.
12. Reynolds used the name Peter Gregory. [26]
13. David W. Music. “William J. Reynolds: Extraordinary Church Musician.” Artistic Theologian website, 15 November 2013.
14. “Sweet Rosie O’Grady” was written for vaudeville by Maude Nugent in 1896. In 1946, she unsuccessfully sued 20th Century Fox for misappropriating the title. [27]
15. “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” 53 in Songs for Fun and Fellowship. Stanzas 1 and 2 as sung by the Garo Christians; stanza 3 by John Clark; folk song from India arranged by William J. Reynolds; copyrighted in 1959 by Broadman Press.
16. Songs for Fun and Fellowship #2, edited by William Jensen Reynolds and Cecil McGee. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1961.
17. Songs for Fun and Fellowship #3, edited by Cecil McGee and Bob Oldenburg. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1969.
18. Moody Bible Institute was founded in Chicago in 1886 at the behest of Dwight Lyman Moody to train Christian teachers, ministers, missionaries, and musicians to work in cities. [28] It has been mentioned as an alma mater or employer in posts for 27 September 2017, 19 December 2018, 2 August 2020, and 11 December 2022.
19. Music.
20. Southern Baptist Convention. Baptist Hymnal, edited by W. Hines Sims. Nashville, Tennessee: Convention Press, 1956.
21. Music.
22. “Southern Baptist Convention.” Wikipedia website; accessed 7 June 2023.
23. Music.
24. Good News is discussed in the post for 13 December 2020.
25. Obituary for Cecil L. McGee. Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas, 11 April 2007; reprinted on Legacy website. I assume he also was forced out in 1979, although that is not stated in the obituary.
26. “Carols Sing.” Copyright Encyclopedia website.
27. James J. Fuld. The Book of World-Famous Music. New York: Dover Publications, 2000 edition. 343-345.
28. “Moody Bible Institute.” Wikipedia website; accessed 8 June 2023.
Sunday, June 4, 2023
American Camping Association - Kum Ba Yah
Topic: Kumbaya 1955-1961
The American Camping Association issued a new songbook through Cooperative Recreation Service in 1958 that included “Kumbaya.” It contained 42 songs from the 1948 songbook discussed in the post for 28 May 2023. They represented just over a quarter of the 160 songs in Let’s All Sing.
The change was not simply the result of Lynn Rohrbough having more international songs to offer. The editors of the 1948 songbook were associated with private camps. Two of the four editors of the newer book worked with camps for the underprivileged. Beyond class, the children in private camps tended to be older than those in ones sponsored by public agencies.
The repertoire reflected these changes. A quarter of the songs in the 1948 songbooks came from Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, the YWCA, and other girls’ camps traditions. That number was down to 14% in 1958. The earlier songbook had only one that involved motions, decremental or cumulative repetition that appeal to younger campers. In 1958, that number was up to 19, or just over 10% of the collection.
Equally important is a change in the gender composition of camps. A third in Michigan in 1948 served girls alone and a third catered to boys and girls in the same session. About 15% of the camps were for boys, and the other 15% were camps that served boys and girls in different sessions or locations. The camps in Michigan accredited by the American Camping Association between 1949 and 1958, which still existed in 1974, were predominantly coed (65%). [1]
More songs in the 1958 songbook would have appealed to boys than in the 1948 one. Two in the earlier book had cowboy themes. [2] Four were added in the 1948 songster, [3] along with two sea chanteys. [4] The editors did not include any of the rowdy songs that would appeal to young boys, like “Puffer Billies” or “Little Tommy Tinker.” [5]
The 1948 songbook contained just two spirituals: “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Trampin’.” The latter often was considered a camp song because “tramping” was analogous to “hiking.” The later collection had nine, [6] plus two that had the same form: “Rocka My Soul” and “Standing in the Need of Prayer.”
The text and tune for “Kum Ba Yah” were the same as the one’s included in the original Indianola songbook edited by Kathryn Thompson Good and John Blocher. The credit had changed from “Angola” to “spiritual” and the pronunciation note had been removed in the copy I own. [7] In addition, guitar chords had been added.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: single melodic line
Instrumental Accompaniment: guitar chords
Credits
Spiritual
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: the pronunciation note in Indianola Sings has been removed
Verses: kumbaya, crying, singing, praying; same verses and same order as those published in Indianola Sings
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: four-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5; the melody is the same as Indianola Sings
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: slowly
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Guitar Chords: C F G7
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one syllable to one note except for final “Lord”
Ending: none
Notes on Performance
Cover: Title with a treble clef sign and the American Camping Association logo
Color Scheme: The cover uses dark green ink on mustard stock; inside, the pages employ dark gray ink on white paper. The revised edition cover is lighter yellow.
Plate: made by music typewriter
Notes on Audience
Let’s All Sing was revised in 1960. Unlike many CRS songbooks, [8] this one listed the changed on the inside front cover. All the songs that were dropped were under copyright, including “Smokey the Bear.” [9]
The impact of the songbook on various camps varied, depending on their existing repertoires. I remember singing 16 at Camp Kitanniwa from the 1948 anthology, and 15 that were new in 1958. However, the Battle Creek, Michigan, Camp Fire Girls’ camp already was singing most of them.
The one that most likely came from this book is “In a Cottage in the Wood.” I recall one girl in the senior unit particularly liked the gestures, and she was there in 1958 and 1959. However, the ACA version came from Mrs. Charles Hensley, who learned it at an International Encampment of Girl Scouts. [10] It could have been brought to Kitanniwa by a Girl Scout.
Notes on Performers
The ACA song book committee had four members. I could find nothing about Ann Woolf, other than she received the Southern California chapter’s Outstanding Service Award. [11] She contributed the version of “Downright, Upright,” [12] a literal gesture song.
Annabeth Brandle was born in Missouri in 1907, [13] and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1929. [14] She became associated with Sherwood Forest, a camp in the Cuivre State Park near Troy, Missouri. The camp opened in 1937 as a WPA project to offer recreation to urban residents, and catered to the low-income city children. [15] She was particularly interested in public school camping programs. [16]
Brandle was credited with three songs in Let’s All Sing: “Fire Is Burning,” [17] “Lu-la-le,” [18] and “Now Come All.” [19] The first is based on “Scotland’s Burning,” while the second encourages swaying to the words. The last is an evening closing song.
Larry Eisenberg, as mentioned in the post for 9 February 2020, worked for the Methodist Church until 1952. He and his wife, the former Helen Lowe, then wrote books for the YMCA through 1956. [20] This broadened his awareness of camp needs, especially his How To Lead Group Singing. [21] He volunteered the “Calliope Song” to the ACA collection. It involved groups imitating the different parts of an instrument. [22]
Walter Anderson probably was the lead editor, since he was closely associated with Rohrbough in 1958. As mentioned in the post for 5 February 2023, he spent the summers before joining the Antioch College faculty, working at a summer camp run by a Cleveland community center. He directed the Chippewa Valley Camp during World War II. [23] Sometime in this period he was elected treasurer of the American Camping Association. [24]
In 1968, Anderson left Ohio for the Washington, DC, area to work for the National Endowment for the Arts. He died in 2003. [25]
He is credited with the version of “Good News” [26] in the ACA songbook, and transcribed the songs of Brandle and Woolf. He, no doubt, also was responsible for the inclusion of so many spirituals.
Availability
Songbook: “Kum Ba Yah.” 85 in Let’s All Sing, edited by Walter Anderson, Annabeth Brandle, Larry Eisenberg, and Ann Woolf for the American Camping Association. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service, no date.
Songbook: “Kum Ba Yah.” 85 in Let’s All Sing, edited by Walter Anderson, Annabeth Brandle, Larry Eisenberg, and Ann Woolf for the American Camping Association. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service, January 1958; revised December 1960.
Graphics
“Kum Ba Ya.” Let’s All Sing. 85. Previous owner checked the song.
End Notes
1. See the post for 28 Mary 2023 for more details on the sample of camps.
2. “Night Herding Song” and “Roundup Lullaby.”
3. “Ol Texas” [27] and “Railroad Corral” [28] appeared in earlier Girl Scout songbooks. The “Cowboy Love Song” and “Cowboy Night Song” were new and carried no citation.
4. “Rio Grande” and “Shenandoah.”
5. When I attended a public school camp in 1955, these are the two rounds that were taught.
6. “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit,” ‘Good News,” “He’s Got the Whole World,” “I Know the Lord,” “Let Us Break Bread Together,” “Little Wheel,” “Old Ark’s a-Movering,” and “We’ll Stand the Storm.” Kitanniwa sang the version of “All Night, All Day” published by Mary Allison Sanders for the Camp Fire Girls and Girl Scouts. [29]
7. One is never sure one has the original version of a CRS songbook.
8. The post for 20 February 2022, note 18, mentions some of the ways songbooks changed from printing to printing, and the problems those changes could cause.
9. The other omitted songs are “Tzena, Tzena” and “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”
10. “In a Cottage.” Let’s All Sing. 26.
11. American Camp Association Southern California/Hawaii. “Outstanding Service Award Recipients.” Its website. It only lists names.
12. “Downright, Upright.” Let’s All Sing. 18. “As sung by Ann Woolf. Notated by Walter Anderson.
13. Laura. “Annabeth Brandle.” Find a Grave website, 7 November 2013; updated by Memorial Grammy.
14. Savitar. University of Missouri yearbook, 1929.
15. Cathy Sala. “Note about the Emergency Conservation Work (E.C.W.) Architecture in Missouri State Parks, 1933 – 1942, Thematic Resources (TR).” Missouri State Parks website, April 2018.
16. Annabeth Brandle. “Camp Living Gives New Insights.” Childhood Education 30(4):172-174:1953.
17. Annabeth Brandle. “Fire Is Burning.” Let’s All Sing. 49. “Based on Scotland’s Burning.”
18. “Lu - la - le.” Let’s All Sing. 18. “As sung by Annabeth Brandle. Notated by Walter F. Anderson.”
19. “Now Come All.” Let’s All Sing. 49. “As sung by Annabeth Brandle. Notated by Walter F. Anderson.”
20. Larry Eisenberg. “It’s Me, O Lord.” Tulsa, Oklahoma: Fun Books, 1992. 62.
21. Helen Eisenberg and Larry Eisenberg. How To Lead Group Singing. New York: Association Press, 1955.
22. “Calliope Song.” Let’s All Sing. 40. Courtesy Larry Eisenberg. Other songs in the collection that imitated musical instruments or ensembles are: “The Instruments,” and “Orchestra.”
23. Joan Horn. Playing on All the Keys: The Life of Walter F. Anderson. Yellow Springs, Ohio: Yellow Springs Historical Society, 2007. 39–40.
24. Horn. 45.
25. Claudia Levy. “Walter Anderson Dies.” Washington Post, 29 November 2003.
26. Walter F. Anderson. “Good News.” Let’s All Sing. 82.
27. “Ol’ Texas” appeared in Eleanor Thomas’ Pocket Songbook, which is discussed in the post for 4 December 2022.
28. “Railroad Corral” appeared in Janet Tobitt’s Ditty Bag, which is discussed in the post for 4 December 2022, especially in note 33.
29. Sanders is discussed in the post for 4 December 2022, especially note 26.
Sunday, May 28, 2023
A. C. A. Song Book
Topic: Kumbaya 1955-1961
The next Cooperative Recreation Service publication that contributed to the spread of “Kumbaya” was issued by the American Camping Association in 1958. It came ten years after CRS published the A. C. A. Song Book. [1]
The organization then was beginning its transition from a small group of private camp directors to a professional organization. The ACA president in 1948 was Carol Gulick Hulbert, [2] whose uncle founded the Camp Fire Girls [3] and whose parents opened a private girls’ camp in Vermont in 1905. [4] In 1922, Edward Gulick opened Lanakila for boys. It was run by Carol’s husband, Chauncey Hulbert. She took over in 1924. [5]
Hulbert was succeeded as ACA president by Reynold Carlson. [6] He had joined by faculty of Indiana University’s Health, Physical Education and Recreation school in 1947. Previously, he had worked for the National Recreation Association. [7]
Under Hulbert, the organization changed the name of its periodical from the Camp Directors Bulletin to Camping Magazine in 1946. [8] The ACA began accrediting camps in 1948. [9] It was countering Porter Sargent’s A Handbook of Summer Camps, which he had begun publishing in 1924 [10] This complemented his Handbook of Private Schools that first appeared in 1915. [11]
Of the 68 camps, which existed in 1948 in Michigan and still were accredited by the ACA in 1974, half were sponsored by five youth groups: the YMCA (16), Girl Scouts (9), Camp Fire Girls (4), YWCA (4), and Boy Scouts (1). Less than a quarter were private, and those of the Camp Fire Girls, YWCA, and Kings’ Daughters emulated their programs, bringing their influence to 36%. The remaining 25% were religious, settlement houses, or special interest. [12]
No one is credited with editing the ACA songbook, but songs are included from three private camps: Wabukani and Winona in Maine, and Severance in New York. Emily Welch, the owner of Wabukani, was the ACA president in 1932. [13]
The one thing that distinguished private camps from others was the length of time children and adolescents spent in them. Private camps before 1950 tended to have one session that lasted all summer, while the others catered to groups that changed every week. This had a strong impact of their repertoires. [14]
Private camps often developed traditions that included a number of songs written in the camps, which had been passed on for years. New campers learned them as part of their initiation into the mores of camps. Few spread beyond a camp’s boundaries. The exceptions in the A. C. A. Song Book are: “My Paddle’s Keen and Bright” from the Gulick’s camp Sebago, [15] and “Whipporwill.” The last was written by Anne Chapin at a Girl Scout training camp in 1921. [16] Both spread through organization channels.
Camps that emulated private ones, like the CFG camp I attended in 1951, still assumed returning campers would learn the local repertoire a bit at a time, some songs each year. Camp owners, who ran camps for profit, could not assume community prestige would move young children to accept such demands. They realized they needed songs children could learn quickly, and something more was needed than “Row, Row Your Boat.”
The 1948 A. C. A Song Book was an attempt to fill the gap. It still included many of the songs that had been sung in camps since the 1920s, like “The Border Trail,” [17] “Each Campfire Lights Anew” [18] and “Father Time.” [19] It had a few from English and American folk tradition, like “The Keeper” [20] and “Old Smoky,” [21] and a few cowboy songs like “Night Herding Song” [22] and “Round-Up Lullaby” [23] that came from the popular view of folk music derived from collections published by Carl Sandburg and John Lomax. [24]
Many of the European folk songs were popularized by the National Recreation Association, or its music specialist, Augustus D. Zanzig. [25] Seven came from their Singing America, [26] three from Folk Songs and Ballads published by Zanzig’s earlier employer, [27] and “Toviska” from an NRA publication from 1938. [28]
Lynn Rohrbough had not yet begun amassing a collection of international songs. The ones in the A. C. A. Song Book that came from the CRS repertoire were from Bliss Wiant’s The Pagoda of 1946, [29] Olcutt Sanders’ Amigos Cantando of 1948, [30] and UNESCO’s Work and Sing of 1948. [31]
A large number of songs in the A. C. A. Song Book were religious, including three graces, [32] and eight spirituals. [33] Except for the “Hannukah Hymn,” [34] they were from the Protestant tradition. Two, “Day Is Dying in the West” [35] and “Now the Day Is Over” [36] came from the Chautauqua strain of camp meetings.
It is difficult to judge the impact of this songbook. I remember 15 of the 94 songs at Kitanniwa. Most were available from other sources and I know some were introduced after my first summer.
Notes on Performers
Wabunaki was founded in 1910 by Amy Dunlap. At the time, she was working for the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, New York. The camp apparently closed and the site “on an island in Hancock Lake, near Hillside,” Maine, [37] was purchased by Welch in 1921. [38] It did not survive into the 1970s.
Welch graduated from Vassar in 1904, and worked as a teacher. In 1914, she became principal of the Charlton School in New York. [39] She left for Richmond, Virginia, in 1917 where she was headmistress of Saint Catherine’s School. The school said “her early retirement was influenced by the precarious state of the School’s finances as well as the increased family responsibilities which she faced following the death of her sister.” [40] Her nephew recalls she started the camp because her teacher’s salary was insufficient to raise him and his two brothers. [41]
The two songs in the ACA collection from Wabunaki [42] were written by Isabel Grimes Booth and Ethel Wilcox. Booth was writing music [43] when she was a senior at Vassar College in 1921. [44] Wilcox had to leave Vassar when her father died. [45] Thereafter, she lived in Poughkeepsie where she sang at programs sponsored by the Methodist Episcopal Church. [46] One assumes both worked at Wabunaki.
Winona was founded in 1908 by Charles Cobb in Denmark, Maine, as the brother camp to Wyonegonic. In the 1940s, it was managed by his grandson, Roland. [47] In 1973, an eight-week session for boys cost $1,075. [48] In comparison, Kitanniwa charged $39 for a one-week session. The total income, per camper for the summer, was $241. [49]
One song appeared in the A. C. A. Songbook from Winona by F. E. Jones: “Off to the Hills.” [50]
Severance was found in 1917 on Paradox Lake in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. [51] Carrie Sinn was the owner in the 1940s. [52] The girls’ camp closed in 1972. [53] At that time, an eight-week session cost $1,400. [54]
No author was given for “We Think of Camping.” [55] Like many camp songs before CRS began publishing custom songsters, it was written to a popular song. The melody for “The Old Refrain” was composed for a Viennese operetta in 1887 by Johann Bundle and popularized in this country by Fritz Kreisler. [56]
End Notes
1. American Camping Association, Inc., Chicago, Illinois. A. C. A. Song Book. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Song Service, Cooperative Recreation Service. Undated; the most recent songs in the book are from 1948.
2. “A History of ACA Presidents and Board Chairs.” American Camp Association website; based on Eleanor Fell’s History of Organized Camping: The First 100 Years. Martinsville, Indiana: American Camping Association, 1986.
3. Luther Halsey Gulick is discussed in note 35 in the entry for 5 September 2021. He also is discussed in Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 12.
4. Hulbert’s parents, Edward Leeds Gulick and the former Harriet Marie Farnsworth, are discussed in Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 341. The first camp was Aloha.
5. “Who We Are.” Aloha Foundation website; accessed 26 May 2023.
6. “History of ACA Presidents.”
7. Joel Meier. “Reynold E. Carlson: A Distinguished Pioneer in Outdoor Education.” Research in Outdoor Education 6:article 4:2002. 3.
8. “Timeline of ACA and Summer Camp.” American Camp Association website.
9. “American Camp Association.” Wikipedia website; accessed 23 April 2023.
10. A Handbook of Summer Camps. Boston: Porter Sargent, 1924.
11. “Porter Sargent.” Wikipedia website; accessed 20 Mary 2023.
The Handbook of Private Schools. Boston: P. Sargent, 1915.
12. National Directory of Accredited Camps for Boys and Girls. Martinsville, Indiana: American Camping Association, 14th edition, 1974. I chose Michigan as my sample because I am from Michigan and have some sense of the camps listed. Beyond that pragmatic reason, the state was typical of camps in the 1970s. Camps not only had a variety of owners, but the sponsors were based in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. This was because cities like Chicago and Toledo did not have the same types of small lakes and big lake waterfronts that are found in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
13. “History of ACA Presidents.”
14. The following discussion is based on a more detailed analysis in Camp Songs, Folk Songs.
15. “My Paddle’s Keen and Bright” is discussed in the post for 5 December 371 (note 46) and on pages 445 and 565 in Camp Songs, Folk Songs.
16. “Whipporwill” and Chapin are discussed on pages 445 and 571 in Camp Songs, Folk Songs.
17. Carol Peterson. “The Border Trail.” Written to “Road to the Isles” as transcribed by Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser in Songs of the Hebrides. London: Boosey and Company, 1917. [57]
18. “Each Campfire Lights Anew” is reproduced in the posts for 28 November 2021 and 13 March 2020, and is mentioned in posts for 5 December 2021 and 20 February 2022.
19. “Father Time” is mentioned in the post for 13 March 2022. Camp Songs, Folk Songs quotes a woman who believed it was from Vassar (page 341).
20. “The Keeper” is discussed in the post for 5 December 2021.
21. “Old Smoky,” is identified in the A. C. A. Song Book as an American folk song recorded by Greta Biddle Kaylor in Knox County, Tennessee. This was before the song was popularized by The Weavers in 1951. [58] By then, it had been collected by a number of folklorists. [59]
22. “Night Herding Song.” Published by Ina Sires in Songs of the Open Range. Boston: C. C. Birchard and Company, 1928. Ellen Ina Sires grew up in Navarro County, Texas, [60] about 40 miles south of Dallas. [61] She taught school [62] and lectured on cowboy culture. [63]
23. “Round-Up Lullaby” is discussed in note 32 of the post for 20 March 2022.
24. Camp Songs, Folk Songs describes the music that developed from the publications of Carl Sandburg and John Lomax as “consensus folk music [64] Sandburg is discussed in the post for 5 May 2019. Lomax is discussed in the post for 12 May 2019.
25. For more on Zanzig, see the column at the right of the screen.
26. “America the Beautiful,” “At the Gate of Heaven,” “Down in the Valley,” “Over the Meadows,” “Prayer” from Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, “Våsång,” and “Walking at Night.”
27. “Morning Comes Early,” “The Silver Moon Is Shining,” and “Tiritomba.”
28. “Toviska.” Songs for Informal Singing. New York: National Recreation Association, 1938. [WorldCat entry] The A. C. A. Song Book identifies it as a Moravian folk song arranged by Max V. Exner.
29. “After School” and “Yangtze Boatman’s Chantey” appear in The Pagoda, arranged by Bliss Wiant. Cooperative Recreation Service Inc, © 1946. This is mentioned in the post for 2 October 2022.
30. “The Carpenters” and “My Farm” appear in Amigos Candando, edited by Phyllis Aden Sanders and Olcutt Sanders. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service; copyrighted 15 October 1948. This is mentioned briefly in the post for 13 February 2022.
31. “Ahrirang,” “Holla Hi, Holla Ho!,” “Mill on the Rhine,” “My Bela Bimba,” and “Tamo Daleko” appear in UNESCO, Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service. Work and Sing: An International Songbook. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc. It was copyrighted in 1948, but the earliest edition I own was edited by Patricia Dunham Hunt.
32. “Chimes Grace,” “Round of Thanks,” and “Praise for Bread.”
33. “Jacob’s Ladder,” “Nobody Knows,” “Steal Away,” “Study War No More,” “Trampin’,” and “Won’t You Sit Down.” James Weldon Johnson’s “Life Every Voice and Sing” is not a spiritual but often is treated as one.
34. “Hannukah Hymn,” which begins “Rock of Ages, let our song.” It was copyrighted in 1932 by the Central Conference of American Rabbis. The group represented the Reformed Jewish tradition. [65]
35. Mary A. Lathbury and William F Sherwin. “Day Is Dying in the West.” It was written in 1877 for the Chautauqua Assembly. [66]
36. Sabine Baring-Gould wrote “Now the Day Is Over” in 1865, and Joseph Barnby composed the melody in 1869. It appeared in the 1868 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern edited by William Henry Monk. London: J. Alfred Novello. [67]
37. Handbook of Private Schools. 1915.
38. Handbook of Summer Camps. 1935. 262.
39. Handbook of Private Schools. 1915.
40. “School Leadership.” Saint Catherine’s School, Richmond, Virginia, website.
41. Ralph Hubbell. “As It Was at the Beginning!” Living Prime Time website, August 1997.
42. “Come All You Campers” and “When a Breezy Morning.” A. C. A. Song Book. 36–37.
43. “Jadda Bird” was published by Isabel Grimes in 1921. [68]
44. Item. Vassar Quarterly 25(1):1 October 1939.
45. Item. Kappa Kappa Gamma’s The Key 29(2):154:May 1912.
46. Item. Pokeepsie Evening Enterprise, Poughkeepsie, New York, 20 February 1915. 6.
“Sunday School Association Convention, Oct 31.” Poughkeepsie Eagle, Poughkeepsie, New York, 30 October 1914. 7.
Vassar is in Poughkeepsie.
47. “Camp Wyonegonic.” Sensagent website reproduces a Wikipedia post that no longer exists.
48. National Directory. 96.
49. National Directory. 39. This included six one-week sessions, and two five-day sessions.
50. F. E. Jones. “Off to the Hills.” A. C. A. Song Book. 34. Nothing could be found about Jones.
51. A. C. A. Song Book. 186.
52. Item. Ticonderoga Sentinel, Ticondergoa, New York, 6 June 1940. 3.
53. “Sleepaway: Two Chances to Go Back to Summer Camp.” American Heritage 43(3):June/July 2003.
54. National Directory. 186.
55. “We Think of Camping.” A. C. A. Song Book. 35.
56. James J. Fuld. The Book of World-Famous Music. New York: Dover Publications, 2000 edition. 414–415.
57. Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 282.
58. The Weavers And Terry Gilkyson. “Across The Wide Missouri / On Top Of Old Smoky.” Decca 9-27515; issued 1951. [Discogs entry]
59. “On Top of Old Smokey.” The Traditional Ballad Index. Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle, Ballad Index website, 2023.
60. “Obe Hoy Sires.” Mormon’s Family Search website. He was her father.
61. Julie G. Miller. “Navarro County.” Handbook of Texas Online website. 1976; last updated 28 May 2021.
62. Ina Sires, Dallas, Texas. Letter to Erwin E. Smith, 9 July 1926. Reproduced on Amon Carter Museum of American Art website.
63. Guy Logsdon. “The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing” and Other Songs Cowboys Sing. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995. Quoted in a review by George W. Lyon. Ethnologies 17(2):168–171:1995. 169–170.
64. Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 54–55.
65. “Central Conference of American Rabbis.” Wikipedia website; accessed 27 May 2023.
66. Donald P. Hustad. Dictionary-Handbook to Hymns for the Living Church. Carol Stream, Illinois: Hope Publishing, 1978. 184.
67. Hustad. 184.
68. Item on Picclick website selling sheet music.