Introduction

At the 1965 session of the United Sacred Harp Musical Association, held in Nashville, music educator Irving Wolfe delivered a speech on George Pullen Jackson’s contributions to Sacred Harp. Jackson, whose series of books and articles published between 1926 and 1952 had inaugurated the scholarly study of Sacred Harp singing, had died in 1953. Wolfe’s speech was part of a special “memorial session for Dr. Jackson,” held on Sunday morning during the convention. His remarks were followed by comments from Ruth Denson Edwards and Jackson’s daughter Mrs. Fitzgerald Parker and by singing, with A. M. Cagle leading “Wondrous Love” (p. 159 in The Sacred Harp) and his own “Blissful Dawning” (p. 550)1 and W. B. Matthews leading “Evening Shade” (p. 209).

In his speech, Wolfe notes Jackson’s key role in drawing attention to Sacred Harp singing by telling its story in print. Wolfe also describes how Jackson sought to convince Sacred Harp singers to alter their singing habits. Some of Jackson’s recommendations, such as following the leader and observing rests resonate with teachings at today’s singing schools. Other recommendations, such as adapting volume to a song’s content, remain uncommon at singings, but speak to Jackson’s musical background. Wolfe’s remarks made an impression on the Sacred Harp singers in attendance at the 1965 United convention.

The compilers of the Georgia minutes book saw fit to reprint his speech, unabridged, in that year’s compilation. In this issue of the Newsletter, we present a newly digitized and transcribed version of Wolfe’s essay. We have also included a newly written remembrance of Wolfe offered by his daughter, Charlotte Wolfe, a member of the Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sacred Harp singing community. As a companion to this article, we have also published the complete minutes from the 1965 United convention as an online resource of the Sacred Harp Museum.

—Jesse P. Karlsberg

Irving Wolfe, a Daughter’s Perspective

My father, Irving Wolfe, moved his family to Nashville in the summer of 1940 when he was appointed head of the Music Division at George Peabody College for Teachers. One of the first people he met in Nashville was George Pullen Jackson who took him to a Sacred Harp singing in Alabama. Dad recognized that Sacred Harp singing was a valuable folk tradition that should be preserved. As a specialist in music education, he was particularly interested in the Sacred Harp tradition as a wonderful example of grassroots music education in action, and he wanted his students to be exposed to this. He frequently took carloads of students to rural singings in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, and from the early forties he sponsored an all-day Sacred Harp singing at Peabody College every year nearly to the end of his life in 1977.

In 1948 my dad presented a program illustrating the evolution of a folk song at the Music Educators National Conference in Detroit, which consisted of a talk by Dr. Jackson, followed by Tennessee folksinger/composer Charlie Bryan singing three or four secular folk songs to his own accompaniment on Appalachian dulcimer,2 each folk song followed by a group of around fifty Sacred Harp singers led by Paine Denson singing the Sacred Harp tune based on the folk song. This was followed by the Peabody Madrigalians, a small vocal ensemble led by my father, singing a concert arrangement of the Sacred Harp tune. The session concluded with a general singing by the Sacred Harp singers presented to an enthusiastic audience of some 2,000 people. Some years later, Dad and Hugh McGraw presented a program on Sacred Harp at a conference of the American Choral Directors Association, which again met with an enthusiastic and interested response. And we frequently sang Sacred Harp at home, my parents, sister, brothers, and friends making a balanced group for an evening of singing.

—Charlotte Wolfe

Our Debt to George Pullen Jackson

My introduction to Sacred Harp singing was through George Pullen Jackson. Twenty-five years ago he took me to my first all-day singing at the courthouse in Huntsville. There I learned the joy of singing the old songs with the genuinely friendly singers so dedicated to the Sacred Harp. Dr. Jackson loved the people of the rural South because of their sturdy belief in religious freedom and their deep love for the fine old songs of Zion. At many singings I heard Dr. Jackson talk informally with the class about the history of Sacred Harp singing and the meaning and significance of keeping the tradition alive. His brief talks always helped the members of the class to feel a little prouder of their fine old book and the singings which they loved so much. So it is fitting that we reflect today, while we are here in Nashville, on our debt to Dr. Jackson. George Pullen Jackson was recognized as the foremost scholar of the origins, history, and significance of spiritual song in America. Six books and many learned articles by Dr. Jackson on this subject attest to the thoroughness of his scholarship in this area of knowledge. He was trained at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Dresden, Germany, took two degrees including his doctorate from the University of Chicago, did post graduate work there and at the universities of Munich and Bonn. He was professor of German in several institutions including Oberlin College, Northwestern University, University of North Dakota, and Vanderbilt University here in Nashville from 1918 until his retirement in 1943. He was emeritus professor at Vanderbilt University until his death January 19, 1953.

Dr. Jackson was an active leader in community musical affairs. A few of his contributions while living here will illustrate:

• Founder of Nashville Symphony Orchestra (1920) and later of Nashville Choral Club and Vanderbilt Singers.
• Founder and honorary member of Tennessee Music Teachers Association.
• Organizer and Manager of Old Harp Singers of Nashville.
• Organizer of Tennessee State Sacred Harp Singing Association, 1939.
• President of Tennessee Folklore Society, 1942.
• President of Southeastern Folklore Society, 1946.
• Member of council, International Folk Music Council.

What has this great man, this renowned scholar, this active music leader, done for Sacred Harp singers: Two of his books in particular have told the Sacred Harp story. In White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands (1933) he wrote “the story of the fasola folk, their songs, singings, and ‘buckwheat notes.'” In his own words he described this book as a discussion of his work with early collections of spiritual folk-songs: “How and where I found them, what strange sorts of songs they contained, whence the unique notation in which the songs are recorded, who made, collected, and sang them, how, when and where they came into being, and how and where their singing persists at present.”

Closing his Foreword to the book he wrote: “My greatest inspiration has come from the southern ‘country singers,’ scores of them, whom I have met at ‘singings’ and the bigger convention, people who seemed glad to let me sing, talk, and eat with them and become their friend.” What a friend he has been to us, and will continue to be as long as this book is read: (I understand it has been reissued recently as a paper back, which I hope many of you will read.) A dozen years later, in 1944 on the centennial of the original publication of the Sacred Harp, he wrote The Story of the Sacred Harp—its footings in the Old Baptist music, how it came to be, its growth through various editions, an analysis of common criticisms, and the new interest in Sacred Harp tunes shown by their use by recognized twentieth century composers. Through these two books George Pullen Jackson has helped the English speaking peoples throughout the world to know about Sacred Harp as a vital part of America’s musical heritage, as “a vigorously living book,” as an American institution.

One additional incident will help us to recall the dynamic influence of Dr. Jackson. Taking advantage of the rare occasion when in the early forties the twenty-ninth day of February fell on Sunday making a fifth Sunday in February, he suggested that Sacred Harpers meet together for a special “school” to consider ways of singing more effectively. With the cooperation of several leaders the session was set up in the court house at Cullman, Alabama. Dr. Jackson and I spent the previous night in the home of Ruth Denson Edwards. I remember very clearly the points which he thought should be stressed in order to bring all Sacred Harp singing up to the best that he had heard.

1. Singers should not try to sing higher than they can sing easily.
2. We tend to sing all songs in a rapid tempo, whereas tempo should be according to the nature of the song.
3. In some classes the singing is always loud, no natter what the words are about.
4. We need to watch the leaders and stay with him exactly. Too often singers around the square try to set the speed, making for a ragged pulse.
5. We should allow time for the rests, not come in ahead of them.

Such was Dr. Jackson’s spirit toward Sacred Harp. He lauded its virtues and strengths to the whole world; at the same time he worked for greater effectiveness. So as long as Sacred Harp songs and voices are lifted up in praise we shall be indebted to him.

—Irving Wolfe
Sunday, September 12, 1965
Nashville Convention of the United Sacred Harp [Musical] Association

1. The minutes of the 1965 United convention record Cagle as having led the song on page 570. “Blissful Dawning” appeared on this page in A. M. Cagle, et al., eds., Original Sacred Harp: 1960 Supplement (Cullman, AL: Sacred Harp Publishing Company, 1960).  [↩]
2. Charles Faulkner Bryan (1911–1955) was a composer, folksong collector, and professor at Peabody along with Wolfe. Bryan composed Singin’ Billy, an opera based on the life of South Carolina shape-note music composer-teacher-compiler William Walker. [↩]

It was a warm, sunny afternoon in early summer 2009. Sitting in the garden with my brand new copy of The Sacred Harp I was following the advice in the rudiments to open the book at random and say the shapes to practice the rhythm. My book fell open at page 562, Tom McGraw’s “Infinite Delight.” I found the song delightful, and my love for the music of this family with such strong ties to Sacred Harp singing was born. Keen to know more in those days before the publication of David Warren Steel’s The Makers of The Sacred Harp I wrote to Hugh McGraw, receiving an encouraging note from him and Charlene Wallace in reply. So began my on-going research into the McGraw family history. As my work progressed, I became increasingly interested in some lesser known members of the McGraw family in particular Tom McGraw’s eldest brother Lee Andrew “L. A.” McGraw, composer of “New Bethel” (p. 395 in The Sacred Harp). Though less well known than that of his younger brothers Tom and Henry Newton “Bud” McGraw, the story of Lee and his family can teach us something about the part that Sacred Harp singing played in the lives of the individuals who collectively make up the tale of our tradition’s history.

Thursday October 7, 1858, was the most significant date in the history of the pre-singing generation of McGraws. On that day in Coweta County, Georgia, Ephraim Wesley McGraw, aged twenty-four, married twenty-five-year-old Jemima Adeline Kilgore. On the same day, in the same county, Thomas Neal Entrekin, aged eighteen, was married to twenty-five-year-old Harriett Henrietta Cannon by a different Justice of the Peace.

Both men were farmers with young families at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Ephraim and Jemima’s eldest child, Roland Jackson McGraw, born on July 5, 1859, was almost two, and the Entrekins’ eldest barely one. Both fathers enlisted to serve in the Confederate States Army and both survived the war. Thomas Neal was furloughed home unfit for further service in 1863 after contracting fever in Pennsylvania and being hospitalized in Virginia. He remained chronically sick with Bright’s disease for the rest of his life. Roland’s wife Harriett was a strong willed lady. Her family remembered that whatever she was doing she was the boss. She took on much of the responsibility for running their small homestead as well as bringing up their six children. She was the role model for their third child and eldest daughter Augusta Ann Savannah Entrekin, born on July 20, 1864.

On September 26, 1879 in Carroll County, Georgia, Roland Jackson McGraw married Augusta Ann Savannah Entrekin in a ceremony conducted by Minister J. M. D. Stallings. Roland was twenty-one and Augusta fifteen.

Both Roland and Augusta were avid Sacred Harp singers. The Entrekins in particular were a prominent singing family. Augusta’s eldest brother George and younger brother Jones became leading singers of their generation.

Augusta too became a dedicated Sacred Harp singer. She sang treble, the first in a long line of McGraw treble singers that has continued to this day. She knew the whole book from memory and sat on the treble front bench, often wearing a white dress. A family story tells that Sacred Harp composer Marcus (“A. M.”) Cagle went to a singing and noticed that Augusta went the whole morning without once opening her book. Marcus sat next to Augusta in the treble section after lunch to see what she was doing. He was astonished to watch her singing—her book still closed—without missing a single note or word.

Roland and Augusta’s first child, George, died in infancy. He lies in an unmarked grave in the cemetery at Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church in Haralson County, Georgia, not far from the grave of Silas Mercer Brown. [See Rebecca Over’s 2013 article “In Search of Silas Mercer Brown” for more information.—Ed.]

Their second child, Lee Andrew McGraw, was born on March 4, 1882 in Bremen, Haralson County. At seven, Lee, likely joined his younger brother Henry Newton and sisters Mattie Mae and Roxie in travelling with their parents to the August 1889 session of the Chattahoochee Convention, held at Standing Rock Church in Coweta County. Roland, then thirty and Augusta, twenty-four, joined the convention that year and are listed in the Membership Book as “McGraw R. J.” and “Augusta Entrekin (Mrs R. J.).” Neither Roland nor Augusta led music at the Chattahoochee Convention that year. I have found no mentions at all of Roland as a leader at Sacred Harp singings.

In her “Introduction and History” prefacing the 1971 edition of the Original Sacred Harp, Ruth Denson Edwards notes that Lee’s brothers Henry Newton (“Bud”) and Thomas Buford (“Tom”) McGraw were both taught by famed Sacred Harp singing school teacher Thomas Jackson Denson. Lee and the other McGraw siblings would probably have attended the same singing schools. [For more on Denson’s impact on Sacred Harp singing, see “Uncle Tom Denson’s Last Lesson” and “Letters of Condolence after the Death of Thomas Jackson Denson,” both published in the Newsletter in 2013.—Ed.]

At the time of the 1900 census, Roland and Augusta were living in the Turkey Creek District of Carroll County—the area of present day Mount Zion. Eighteen-year-old Lee lived with them and worked as a laborer on their rented farm. The family remained in Georgia until 1902 when Roland began a series of travels with Augusta and their eleven children, moving between Georgia and Alabama in search of better land for farming. They headed first for Cullman County, Alabama, a hotbed of Sacred Harp singing where they remained for about a year.

It was there that Lee married Louisa Idenia (“Lou”) Nix. Lou was born in Carroll County, Georgia, on October 12, 1881, but had lived in Cullman County since at least 1900. Her family had evidently made the same journey as Roland and Augusta’s when the Nix family moved to Cullman County. Lee and Lou married in Jones Chapel, Cullman County, on Christmas Day in 1902. He was twenty and Lou twenty-one.

The young couple soon traveled with Roland and Augusta to Lauderdale County in the northwest corner of Alabama and decided to settle there, where the land remains good for farming to this day. Roland died at the early age of fifty on June 30, 1910, and was buried in Anderson Cemetery.

Lee was an active singer and leader by the early 1900s. Earl Thurman’s history of the Chattahoochee Convention tells us that Lee was a “leading promoter” of the Tennessee River Convention, which was organized at Shelter Primitive Baptist Church, Anderson, Alabama in 1907.1 Lee was twenty-five in that year.

In the 1910 census, Lee was recorded as a “general farmer” on rented land in Lauderdale County with Lou working on the farm as well as raising two young children, Hulon and Aubrey. Lee and Lou showed their high regard for the Denson family by giving their eldest son Hulon the middle name Denson.

Lee was a dedicated and successful farmer. By 1920, at the age of thirty-eight, he and his family were farming land that he owned. Hulon and Aubrey worked on the farm, seven-year-old son Curtis attended school and youngest son Edgar Leon was two years old. Lee himself was the census enumerator for Mitchell Beat No. 1 in Lauderdale County and recorded his own family as living on County Line Road, which lies east of and runs parallel to part of Highway 207 just north of Mitchell Cemetery.

It is not possible to pinpoint exactly where on County Line Road Lee’s home was, but his enumeration duties would have taken him the entire length of it. On March 20, 2013 I drove the whole of it myself, enjoying being able to follow and photograph the same route that Lee had traveled all those years before.

Lee was census enumerator again in 1930, by which time he and Lou’s last child, Mildred Magdalene, was six years old. His handwriting is shown on this extract from the census form. Twelve-year-old Edgar Leon was attending school.

Lee served as a member of the Music Committee for the 1936 edition of our songbook together with younger brothers Bud and Tom. He contributed two songs, both major fuging tunes dated 1935, to that edition. “Entrekin,” named for Augusta’s family (then on p. 284 in Original Sacred Harp: Denson Revision), was removed in 1991. Lee’s “New Bethel” (p. 395) remains in our current 1991 edition of The Sacred Harp.

In 1940, Lee and his family were still in Mitchell but now living on Middle Road. He and Lou lived with their daughter Mildred, son Curtis and daughter-in-law Lila. Lee owned the farm, valued at $5,000. By then, his son Aubrey had married his wife, Annie, and had a son named James Earl. Aubrey rented his farm at a cost of $8 per month. It is possible that Aubrey rented this portion of land from his father. Lee, recorded in the census as both a farmer and a cotton-ginner, no longer undertook enumeration duties.

The next record of where Lee may have been living is in 1944, when he attended the Sacred Harp Centennial Celebration, which ran from Monday, September 18, to Sunday, September 24, in Double Springs, Winston County, Alabama. The minutes from the celebration contain conflicting information. When Lee led music on the Sunday he was recorded in the body of the minutes as “L. A. McGraw, Anderson, Ala.,” but in the roll of “Visiting Singers And Others Who Attended,” he is listed as “McGraw, L. A., Minor Hill, Tennessee.” Minor Hill is north of Anderson on Highway 207 with its city limit on the Tennessee state line.

Lee and his brothers Bud and Tom would often lead each other’s songs at singings. At the Centennial Celebration, he chose to sing Bud’s “Sabbath Morning” (p. 283), Tom’s “Georgia” (p. 197) and his own song “Entrekin” (then on p. 284).

In 1952 Earl Thurman refers to “Lee A. McGraw, Minor Hill, Tennessee” but notes that he was “not personally acquainted” with him. Genealogist Darrell McGraw also mentions Lee living in Minor Hill, telling us that he “worked as a farmer, carpenter, brick mason, Clerk of the Anderson Gin Company, sub rural mail carrier, then rural mail carrier” and that adds that he was a member of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, located on the corner of Highways 207 and 64.2

Powell, too small even to appear on my detailed atlas of Alabama, lies on Highway 64 between Bethel Baptist Church at the corner of the 207 and the community of Grassy further along the highway driving west. The only way to know you are there is by the sign at the Powell Church of Christ. On March 19, 2013, while visiting Roland Jackson’s grave at Anderson Cemetery, I met a man in search of another grave. We got talking and when I said who I was looking for he told me that when he was a small child his family were neighbors of Lee. I would guess from the man’s age that this may have been some time in the early 1950s. He told me that Lee grew corn and was a quiet man—“like most folks it took a lot to get anything out of him”—but when they saw him loading up his car he often said he and his family were going to a singing. He knew that Lee sang regularly in the local churches in and around Anderson and also in Tennessee. He told me that at that time, Lee and his family lived in a community called Powell. Their house had burned down since then and he could not remember the exact location, but he described where Powell was in sufficient detail that I was able to find it later that afternoon.

After spending a while taking pictures I drove on to take a look at Grassy, feeling truly grateful for my chance encounter with that man at the cemetery. Thanks to him I was almost certainly driving on a road along which Lee and his family must have traveled many times between their home and all those singings.

The earliest record I have found of Lee as a leader is at the Tennessee River Convention at Goodhope Schoolhouse (state not recorded) in 1924, by which time he was clearly a highly respected singer and leader at the age of forty-two. At this the Eighteenth Annual Session, which began on the Friday before the second Sunday in August, he was elected vice-president and member of the arranging committee. He sang for twenty-five minutes during the Memorial Lesson, which he conducted together with W. S. Hand, who also sang for twenty-five minutes. He remained a member and officer of this convention, which held sessions at various churches in the Tennessee River areas of Alabama and Tennessee, throughout the rest of his life. He served as Chairman in 1956, the year before he died.

Lee sang mostly in northwest Alabama, parts of Tennessee adjoining Alabama, and in the area of Alabama around Cullman County. In Tennessee he sang regularly at Odem’s Chapel in St. Joseph and was often an officer there.  This was a very active area for singing. In 1950 one could have sung at the Tennessee River Convention, held that year at Anderson Creek Church, from Friday, August 11, through Sunday, August 13, followed by a whole week of singing at Odem’s Chapel from Monday, August 14, through Sunday, August 20. Lee was vice chairman at Tennessee River that year and sang at Odem’s Chapel.

In some years, Lee and family also traveled to Carroll County, Georgia, to sing at the Mount Zion Memorial Convention, where he served as chairman in 1926, vice-chairman in 1929, and member of the Memorial Committee in 1932. A particularly notable year at Mount Zion was 1934. On Saturday morning, July 21, one day after celebrating her seventieth birthday, Augusta led music. This is the only record we have of her as a leader. The minutes appeared in a local newspaper, from which we know that Lee led three songs, but there is also a manuscript record in the hand of secretary Faris F. Tant.

Augusta died on September 11,1940 and rests with some of her grandchildren in the cemetery at Mount Zion United Methodist Church, home of the Mount Zion Memorial Singing.

Lee led music at Mount Zion again in 1935, 1941 (Leon also sang there that year), and 1946. When he sang at the 1949 session his son Aubrey and nephew Albert Jackson McGraw also led music there.

The last record of Lee leading music at Mount Zion is at the sixty-third session in July, 1955. Lou had passed away earlier that year on March 11, at the age of seventy-three, after being at least a couple of years of illness. I have found no mention of Lou McGraw leading music but she was certainly a lover of Sacred Harp. Hugh McGraw remembers traveling with the Georgia McGraws to sing in Alabama and Tennessee a year or two before she died. They stayed at Lee’s home and sang for Lou, who was sick and unable to leave her bed. At the time of her death she and Lee had been married for a little over fifty-two years.

Lee and Lou had six children. Eldest son Hulon Denson McGraw (1903–1970) enumerated “Anderson Village” for the 1930 census and served as postmaster of Anderson Post Office from June 15, 1945, until his death in 1970. He is buried at Mitchell Cemetery. Second son Aubrey Lee McGraw (1906–1972) appears to have sung for at least part of his life. I have found no evidence of their third child Curtis Eugene McGraw (1912–1993) being involved with Sacred Harp. Fourth child Cecil Clay McGraw (1914–1915) died in infancy and was buried near Roland in Anderson Cemetery. Fifth child Edgar Leon McGraw (1917–1987) shared his father’s love of the land. He was a specialist in vocational agriculture at Auburn University and composed “Odem” (p. 295), a major plain tune named for his father’s good friend Lonnie Odem. He is buried at Auburn Memorial Park. Sixth child Mildred Magdalene Middlebrooks (1923–2004) held stock in the Sacred Harp Publishing Company.

Mildred and her husband Ronald Middlebrooks are buried at Bethel Baptist Church. Aubrey Lee and his wife Annie also rest there with their son James Earl McGraw.

It was at Bethel Baptist Church, on June 30, 1956, that Lee, now seventy-four, married his second wife, seventy-two-year-old Ida Bertha Hardman. Daughter of Civil War soldier Francis Marion Nix and his second wife Nancy Elizabeth Duke, Ida was born In Carroll County, Georgia, on January 16, 1884. She was a half sister of Lou’s father, David Orean Nix, and hence “half aunt” of Lou. It was her branch of the Nix family that were keen singers, particularly her oldest brother Welcome Duke Nix and her youngest brother Robert Newton (“Newt”) Nix.

Ida was also a cousin of composer Alfred Marcus Cagle. Ida’s mother, Nancy Elizabeth Duke Nix, was an older sister of Samaria Mamie Duke who married Jesse Martin Cagle. Samaria and Jesse were the parents of Alfred Marcus.

In January, 1912, in Cullman County, Alabama, Ida married Henry Thompson Hudson. Although she was probably an avid singer I have found no mention of her leading music as a Hudson. She may have been too busy bringing up their seven children. I have not found Henry mentioned either but his younger brother Marcus appears in minutes as a leader.

Henry died in 1938 and in the 1940 census Ida (then fifty-six) is recorded living with children Duke (twenty-nine), Edward (twenty) and twins Aubrey and Audrey (both eighteen) on a farm in Jones Chapel, Cullman County, Alabama, for which the family paid rent of $4 per month. In 1947 Ida married singer William Henry (“Uncle Bill”) Hardman, whom she had met at a singing. She went to live with him in Atlanta, where they are recorded in the 1948 City Directory living at 464 Ashby Grove SW. Uncle Bill Hardman was a dedicated Sacred Harp singer, frequently traveling to singings in Alabama and Tennessee as well as parts of Georgia. He was a regular supporter of the Mount Zion Memorial Singing, where he sang at various sessions between 1932 and 1948.

Ida led music and attended some of the same singings as Lee. After not much longer than two years of marriage, Uncle Bill died, at the age of eighty-two, two days before Christmas of 1949. By this time he and Ida were living at 211 Arnold Street West in Cullman, Alabama, but he was buried with his first wife Mamie at Westview Cemetery in  Atlanta. After her marriage to Lee, Ida began to lead much more often at singings. It seems that he inspired and encouraged her to do so. Lee retired from farming and went to live with Ida at her home in Cullman. The final record I found of Lee as a leader was at the New Hope (Joe Myers) Singing in Alabama at the end of October, 1956. Sadly he and Ida had been married for less than a year when Lee Andrew McGraw died in Cullman on Ida’s seventy-third birthday, January 16, 1957. He was buried with Lou at Mitchell Cemetery on Highway 207 north of Anderson. In August, 2013, the field next to the cemetery was, appropriately, full of ripening corn.

After Lee’s death, Ida continued to lead music and she is listed as a “contributor” to 1960 edition of Original Sacred Harp on the songbook’s title page.

Her inclusion may indicate that she gave the book’s music committee a copy of Lee’s song, “Liberty Grove,” (then on p. 516) which first appeared in that edition dated 1959 (two years after it’s composer’s death). This major fuging tune was removed from The Sacred Harp in 1991.

Ida was particularly active as a leader in 1961. During that year she is recorded leading at nineteen singings in various parts of Alabama. At the sixteen singings that recorded song numbers, she led twenty-six different songs. She sang “Wondrous Love” (p. 159) and “Sharon” (p. 212) three times and led four songs twice (“Stratfield,” p. 142; “Georgia,” p. 197; “Calvary,” p. 300”; and “Heavenly Dove,” p. 371). She led an additional twenty songs just a single time that year.

On Friday March 15, 2013, I visited New Hope No. 1 Cemetery opposite New Hope Church at Jones Chapel in Cullman County, Alabama, in search of the grave of David Orean Nix, father of Lou McGraw. After finding the small flat marker relatively easily I was looking around the cemetery when two custodians of the cemetery arrived. When I mentioned the names Nix and McGraw one of the men identified himself as a descendant of Henry Hudson.

At this time I knew nothing of Ida’s husbands before Lee, though I was quite familiar with the seventeenth-century English sea explorer! Imagine my surprise and delight then, when the man showed me Henry T. Hudson’s grave and explained that Ida B. Hudson, his wife, was none other than “our” Ida McGraw.

He told me that when he was a very small child he had known Lee and Ida. Though he could remember very little about them he could recall that all the family greatly respected “Mr. McGraw” and that Ida had really loved him. The man said that he was not a singer and had never been to the annual singing at New Hope (neither had the other man with him) but as a child he had been aware that both Lee and Ida loved Sacred Harp. Were it not for that chance meeting I would never have known that Ida was buried at this cemetery or that Henry Hudson had been her first husband.

Ida lived in the house that she had shared with Lee in Cullman until she died. In the back of the Minutes of Carroll, Cobb, Coweta, Douglas, Fulton, Haralson, Heard, Paulding, and Polk Counties, Georgia for 1963, she was listed as “McGraw, Mrs Ida, 211 Arnold St. W, Cullman, Alabama.” Buell Cobb told me that this would have been an easily walkable distance from where Ruth Denson Edwards lived at the time.

Ida passed away in Cullman on November 29, 1964, at the age of eighty. I feel pleased to have made the acquaintance of this remarkable lady in some small way and only regret that I have been unable to find a photograph of her. Through tracing the footsteps of Lee Andrew McGraw, and encountering the stories of other devoted Sacred Harp singers such as Ida McGraw along the way, I feel as though I have got to know these people—though separated from them by time and the veil of death. The details of their lives, and the connections among them, help us to appreciate the way in which singing from The Sacred Harp draws us all into this very special world that we understand as a community and as a family.

Acknowledgements

My heartfelt gratitude and thanks go to Hugh McGraw, Charlene Wallace, Charles Woods, Earlis McGraw, Judy Henry and all the present day McGraw family singers for their continuing generosity and help. I also thank genealogist Darrell McGraw, whose website inspired me to look into the McGraw and other family histories, and to all others who assisted in any way.

1. See Earl Thurman, “The Chattahoochee Musical Convention, 1852–1952,” in The Chattahoochee Musical Convention, 1852–2002: A Sacred Harp Historical Sourcebook, ed. Kiri Miller (Bremen, GA: The Sacred Harp Museum, 2002), 29–120. [↩]
2. Darrell McGraw, “Chambers Family Heritage,” accessed April 19, 2014, http://www.chambersheritage.com/pafg558.htm. [↩]

Introduction: Observations and Impressions of a Grandson

From the earliest years of my life I have heard of my grandfather, Tom Denson. “Pappy Denson,” “Dad Thomas,” “Uncle Tom,” “Professor Denson,” T. J. Denson, Thomas Jackson Denson, and “Mr. Denson” are some of the names I have heard him called. Although I never knew him as he died several years before I was born, I have read about him in old newspaper articles and books about Sacred Harp, and I have heard stories about him from many relatives and friends of the Denson family. My Mother and her two sisters were his “second set” of children and were born in 1913, 1915, and 1916. Howard Denson, youngest child of T. J. and his first wife, Amanda Burdette Denson, was sixteen when T. J.’s first child with Lola Akers Denson was born. T. J. Denson’s immediate family spanned an astonishing time range—his first child was born in 1862 and his last in 1916. His first grandchild was born in 1904 and his last grandson in 1947.

During the years that I have been singing Sacred Harp I have been amazed by the number of people I have met who attended T. J. Denson’s singing schools in Alabama, Georgia, and Texas. They were all eager to share stories about his teaching, his sense of humor, and his great ability to inspire them to sing. He spent much time traveling to teach singing schools, some lasting two to three weeks. My mother told us stories about going to singings in a horse-drawn wagon when she was young. Her parents would make a pallet in the wagon and would awaken the three young sisters, as she told it, “in the middle of the night and we would get dressed with everything on but our dresses. We would get in the wagon and sleep until we got close to the singing location and Pappy Denson would stop the wagon, and we would get up and put on our dresses and go on to the singing.”

My mom and her sisters, Vera and Tommye, would also tell stories about Pappy Denson talking about his schools and students after coming home from his travels. They lived in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, for some time when the three children of T. J. and Lola Akers Denson were young. They stayed in houses that were owned by Lon Odem, a great singer and successful businessman who helped T. J. Denson while he taught schools and provided the capital for the 1936 Original Sacred Harp: Denson Revision. Mom used to tell about her daddy coming home from teaching a singing school and being disappointed because his three young daughters had been playing in a pile of sawdust that their father had bought. They had spread the sawdust all over the place and their daddy was unhappy. As they ate dinner that night, he started telling a story with a familiar plot: “One time there was a man who had three fine young daughters. Now this man got a load of sawdust to use for his plants and garden and he told his fine daughters not to play in that sawdust. Well, the man came home one day and the sawdust was all over because the three girls had been playing in it.” He got no farther with his story before, as my mom would tell the story, “we three girls started crying and went running to our room. We never played in sawdust again!”

Mom told another story about her Pappy Denson coming home from a convention in which as they ate dinner he said “I was surprised when I was asked to pray before the dinner on the ground today.” They asked him, “What did you pray?” He smiled and said, “I don’t know. When I came to myself I was taking out the beans.” They all laughed and wanted to hear him tell the story again. When he was not feeling well, he would tell his girls that “Pappy is camping in the low ground today.”

Pappy Denson bought some kind of used automobile in the late 1920s. He was apparently not a very good driver. Aunt Vera, the oldest of the three daughters, used to tell us that she was riding with him as he drove along a dirt road that had ruts in it from a recent rain. Along the way, they met a man on a wagon pulled by a team of horses. As they got close to the wagon, one of the horses “got spooked and reared up on his hind legs.” Pappy Denson’s reaction was to turn the steering wheel to the right and into a muddy ditch. After another man pulled the car out of the ditch with horses, Pappy Denson said, “Sugar girly, you are going to have to drive from now on. Pappy is too strong to drive.” And he never drove again.

I have learned much about my grandfather from hearing stories from singers who attended his singing schools, as well as from descendants of his students. A number of times I have been told “Your grandfather taught my grandfather to sing!” I have been surprised at the number of people who sing today who have connections to T. J. Denson. It has been a source of joy to meet people and hear stories about my grandfather.

It has also been a joy to hear the tunes that T. J. Denson composed that are still being sung. Some of his tunes are difficult and have lots of notes! From things I have heard about his leading, he moved around the hollow square and was a “lively” leader.

I had long heard stories about the last lesson that T. J. Denson lead at a singing. He led the lesson in Georgia, just a few days before his death in 1935. Howard Denson’s daughter, Amanda Denson Brady, told us about the lesson, and that her father, Uncle Paine, and Aunt Annie Aaron were with him. Recently I found a copy of an article written about T. J. Denson’s last lesson. Following the contemporary custom that allotted leaders a certain amount of time to lead for the deceased from individual areas, he was asked to conduct a memorial lesson for singers from Alabama who had died in the past year.

The article, “Observations and Impressions of a Son” was printed in The Haleyville [Alabama] Advertiser-Journal in September, 1935.

Although the newspaper didn’t print the author’s name, the article must have been written by one of T. J. Denson’s two sons, Paine or Howard. If I had to guess who wrote it, I would say that it was Howard Denson; the writing style is much less formal and eloquent than what I have seen of Paine’s writing in his letters. I sent a copy of the article to Frances Robb, who is a great-granddaughter of T. J. Denson, and granddaughter of Maggie Frances (Denson) Cagle. Frances has done considerable research on the Denson family. As she notes, “Paine’s writing was more elaborate and lawyerly. A bit pompous at times and often self-conscious in ways I don’t see in this article. But I do think that the son in the title is one of T. J. Denson’s sons; it strikes me as too observant for someone not in the family and not keeping a hawk eye on him. I’d pick Howard as the author for, if nothing else, the article’s objectivity.”

Regardless of who actually wrote it, the article is a poignant account of the last lesson Pappy Denson lead. I submit it on behalf of his family in appreciation and remembrance of a man who taught many to sing Sacred Harp and who touched many lives during his seventy-five years. He often told his students: “I can teach you to sing, but only God can teach you to sing with the spirit.”

—Michael Hinton

Observations and Impressions of a Son

Reprinted from The Haleyville [Alabama] Advertiser-Journal, September, 1935

Thomas J. Denson died suddenly at his home near Jasper, Alabama, early Saturday morning, September the 14th 1935, and was buried by the side of his wife, Amanda Burdette Denson, in Fairview Cemetery near Double Springs on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 15th. The funeral was attended by hundreds and hundreds of his friends throughout North Alabama and from Georgia and Tennessee.

Truly, Tom Denson, or “Uncle Tom,” as he was affectionately called, was the Dean of Sacred Harp Singers and Teachers.  He had taught two twenty day schools in the Sacred Harp during the past summer, and claimed that they were the best he had ever taught, with students enrolled from Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. During the past year he had attended more of the leading Sacred Harp Singings and Conventions than during any similar period of his life.  He had just returned from Atlanta where he attended the United Sacred Harp Musical Association which convened there on the 6, 7 and 8th of September, last, and his last appearance as a Leader was to conduct the Memorial lesson in that convention for the members and their friends, who had died during the past twelve months throughout the entire state of Alabama.  When his call came to take charge of the class he proceeded to the Leader’s position as usual with eagerness and determination. He looked over the audience and at the class about him and said: “We can’t help our friends who have gone on, but we can warn the living.” Then after a short pause, he continued. “I don’t feel like I can lead you now.” One friend seated near replied, “We have never seen you fail.” He then announced, “We will sing,—STRUGGLE ON, Page 400, Just the words”

“Our praying time will soon be o’er, Hallelujah,
We’ll join with those who’re gone before, Hallelujah,
To love and bless and praise the name, Hallelujah,
Of Jesus Christ, the dying Lamb, Hallelujah,
Struggle on, Struggle on, Hallelujah,
Struggle on for the work’s most done, Hallelujah”

At this point he hesitated and looked about, —(We do not know what he was thinking, but we do know he had visited Fairview Cemetery recently, where his wife, the mother of his older children, Paine Denson, Mrs. Annie Denson Aaron, Mrs. Maggie Denson Cagle, and Mrs. Jerusha Denson Edwards and Howard Denson, had lain for nearly twenty-five years with no other of the family near, and requested that he be placed by her side)—and then deliberately announced, “We will sing,—THE LONE PILGRIM, Page 341.”

“I came to the place where the lone pilgrim lay,
And pensively stood by his tomb,
When in a low whisper I heard something say,
How sweetly he sleeps here alone.

The Tempest may howl and loud thunders roar,
And gathering storms may arise,
Yet calm are his feelings, at rest is his soul,
The tears are all wiped from his eyes.”

He looked at the audience again and then at the class about him, and with apparent sorrow announced,

“We will sing,—WHEN I AM GONE, Page 339.”

“Shed not a tear o’er your friend’s early bier,
When I am gone, When I am gone;
Smile when the slow tolling bell you shall hear,
When I am gone, When I am gone.
Weep not for me as you stand round my grave,
Think who has died His beloved to save,
Think of the crown all the ransomed shall wear,
When I am gone, When I am gone.

Plant you a rose that shall bloom o’er my grave,
When I am gone, When I am gone;
Sing a sweet song such as angels may have,
When I am gone, When I am gone.
Praise ye the lord that I’m freed from all care,
Pray ye the Lord that my joys ye shall share,
Look up on high and believe that I’m there,
When I am gone, When I am gone.”

Again he looked over the class, first turning to the Bass Section where one son sat, then to the Tenor Section where the other son sat, then to the Treble Section where one daughter sat and then to the Alto behind which the Officials of the Convention sat, and slowly announced, “I would like to sing one more piece.” He paused, as if in deep thought, the moments grew tense, this tension was relieved by the calm and gentle voice of his good friend, Fred Drake, the chairman of the Convention, announcing “Time is up, Uncle Tom.”  He looked over the class again, as if to say, “Farewell,” and walked slowly to his seat.

We do not know and never will know what the last song he wanted to sing was but, from the foregoing, we do know that his lesson was completed and the addition of anything more would have been repetition of something already stated, or the introduction of new subject matter. He must have anticipated that the end was not far distant.

Lovers of Sacred Harp music, and there are many and their friends everywhere, will mourn his passing. Truly he was a good father, a good citizen, a good neighbor and a good singer.

May his work and influence continue.

Editors’ Note: Sacred Harp singers from across the South wrote to Paine Denson expressing their condolences and sharing their memories after the death of his father, singing school teacher, leader, and composer Thomas Jackson Denson. T. J.’s death on September 14, 1935, shortly after returning home from the United Sacred Harp Musical Association, interrupted work on a planned revision of Original Sacred Harp. Col. Paine kept these letters, later passing them along to his sister, Ruth Denson Edwards, who in turn gave them to Hugh McGraw, who placed them in the Sacred Harp Museum. The excerpts from these letters presented below express the profound impact T. J. Denson had, as a leader, teacher, and friend, on the “hundreds, yea, thousands, of people throughout the country whose hearts [were] lacerated with grief” by his death.

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Letter from C. J. Griggs

C. J. Griggs was a member of the committee appointed by the United Sacred Harp Musical Association that endorsed the 1911 Original Sacred Harp, ancestor of the current 1991 edition. Griggs’ picture appeared just to the right of J. S. James’ on a page at the front of the book depicting all the members of the committee tasked with supervising the production of the book. Griggs authored the second and third verses to “The Happy Sailor” (p. 388 in The Sacred Harp), which were added to the song in 1911. Griggs wrote a short essay on The Sacred Harp, titled “A Sketch or Brief History of the Sacred Harp Song Book,” in 1936. Born in Cobb County, Georgia, and later based in Atlanta, he served as assistant president of the United Sacred Harp Musical Association under Joseph Stephen James, and was a member of the Methodist Church.

Atlanta, Georgia, 445 Langhorn Street, S. W.
September 18, 1935

My highly esteemed friend and brother:

This letter comes to you in tears of condolence, evidencing the sadness that joins me with hundreds, yea, thousands, of people throughout the country whose hearts are lacerated with grief by the death of your distinguished father, our lifelong friend, companion, and brother. Its sorrow impresses us with such force that we hardly can realize its meaning. When we think of his long life of unparalleled usefulness, our minds reflect upon the happy communities and homes filled with sweet singers which are the fruit of his labor. He laid not up for himself treasures of silver and gold, for his life was filled with the milk of human kindness which he demonstrated in his profession and daily attitude to the people. But the melancholy day has come when one and all must lament his departure. We can hear it among the old and the grown-ups, but the saddest of all are the lamentations of that army of sweet children that he has taught to sing. We can hear them say, as they learn of his passing, “Oh, Uncle Tom has gone—our dear old teacher, into whose arms we have fallen so many times and welcomed him to our schools and conventions!” And how sad now is the threshold of his home, where he was kissed goodbye on his outings, where he was welcomed back again to take his hours of rest.

It can truly be said of him that he gave his life to the Sacred Harp song book and its contents, of which he was master. There are and have been more fine singers and teachers credited to his instruction than to any other teacher in the southern states. We hope his humble and simple way of living, together with his famous professional life, which has been of such value to the people, will immortalize for years to come the name of T. J. Denson.

In sadness, but in love, I am

Yours,
C . J. Griggs.

O may my last end be like theirs,
Like theirs my last reward!

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Letter from T. S. McLendon

Thomas Simpson McLendon (1876–1965) was one of four sons—all active Sacred Harp singers—of Isaac Newton McLendon. A resident of Carroll County, Georgia, T. S. served as an officer of the Chattahoochee Musical Convention, as did his brothers. One brother, Augustus Jackson McLendon, composed “Sister’s Farewell” (p. 55) and served with C. J. Griggs on the committee tasked with revising The Sacred Harp that produced the James revision. Members of the McLendon family continue to sing Sacred Harp in West Georgia today.

Carrollton, Georgia, Rt. 3
September 22, 1935

My Dear Sir and Brother, my sincere sympathy goes out to you children and Mrs. Denson in the death of Uncle “Tom.” He was loved by more Christian singers than any man living in our day. He was the best and most correct director of sacred music I have ever seen on the floor. I have known him for about 50 years and I can truth[ful]ly say he was a man of integrity and honor—you could depend on what he promised or told you at all times.

It seems to us we needed him more just now than any time—But God knows best. Sometimes it seems like the loss of a Great man causes his desires or his work to be hastened on. So we hope and believe his most cherished work—the revision of the dear old Sacred Harp—will be finished to completion. Don’t let the [illegible] interest interfere with the work because we the lovers of your Father and the Old music want it as near like uncle Tom had planned it as possible. We need the books now because the supply of the other [edition] is exhausted and we can’t carry on our practice as we should. As one that loves the whole family, I ask God in my little humble way, to give you all as much as possible reconciliation. We can reflect back to the great work he has done in the cause of Sacred music. May we all live as he lived so when the summons comes that we may be prepared as I believe he was.

May I remain as ever. Sincere good wishes to every one of the family.

T. S. McLendon

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Letter and Remembrance from Wilber E. Morgan

Wilbur E. Morgan was an active Sacred Harp singer and a close friend of the Denson family. He lived in Atlanta.

Atlanta, Georgia, 898 Allene Ave.
September 22, 1935

Dear Paine:

I was grieved beyond expression when I heard of the death of your father. I was away on vacation with my father at the time, he too sends condolence to you with me.

All the Morgans loved your father like a brother. I guess you recall the good times we all had together in the Standing Rock community.

I recieved a letter from Ora Morgan this week, she spoke very highly of your father; they were the best of friends. He will be greatly missed by all our people. He had many loyal admirers in and around our old home town.

Some how I wanted you to attend our singing at Standing Rock this year. I wish now that you could have attended more than ever, in the event of your father’s passing.

I have tried to write the Denson family some heart felt sentiment regarding your father’s life. I hope you will take this as an expression from the Morgan family.

I have wanted to come to the singing at Jasper, Ala. the first sunday in Oct. ever since the invitation was given, I want to go more than ever now, as I guess your father’s memorial will be held at this time.

I am sending Howard a copy of the paper I am inclosing to you, also a note of condolence.

Write me what time I could reach B’ham by rail or bus in time to get to Jasper by singing time on Saturday and Sunday. I want to come in auto if I can find some one that is going that is not loaded.

With kind regards to you and yours.

I am your friend,
Wilber E. Morgan

Morgan enclosed the following remembrance along with his letter.

THOMAS J. DENSON

Since The Morning Stars sang their sweet melody out to the world of mankind, there has been a musician beloved by all who knew him, yet not one loved more than our good friend, Tom Denson. He was a man of unusual ability, perhaps somewhat limited in his education, yet the cords of sweet music found lodgment in his soul, where they gave birth to a melody that is beyond human expression. His presence in a class of singers was a leaven that permeated all of the audience.

“Uncle Tom,” as he was most familiarly known, was not only a good singer, but a man who wrote good music. He and his brother, Seaborn Denson, with the help of some more good friends, revised The Sacred Harp and made it one of the best books of sacred music that the South has ever produced.

Mr. Denson has been a teacher of music for more than half a century. He has taught classes in many different kinds of books during his life time, but the old Sacred Harp was his favorite book of them all. He used to recall how his sainted Mother and kind old Father sang these sacred old songs to him in the tender years of his life.

Thousands of people will rise up and call him blessed because of their own musical training. We can never forget his visit to our home and community many years ago. Tom Denson taught the first singing school I ever attended. He was a young man then, full of life and vigor. The class would do their best to help him sing and he would play games with them during the noon hour.

The world has been made a sweeter place to live because of Tom Denson’s life of service in song to God and humanity. We will always cherish his memory, remembering the good times we have had together along life’s pathway.

Friends, may each of us take some good deed of Brother Denson’s life, put it into practice in our own life. May we live a life of service to God and humanity, so that when this pilgrimage is over we can meet OUR FRIEND and loved ones on the other shore, where we will never more take the Parting Hand.

Faithfully yours,
Wilber E. Morgan

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Letter from W. T. Coston

Coston’s note came typed on letterhead representing its author as President of the Texas Young People’s Interstate Sacred Harp Musical Association. A long-time advocate of Sacred Harp singing in Texas, W. T. Coston (1861–1938) brought T. J. Denson to the Lone Star State in 1932 to teach a singing school. Coston was a regular attendee of major singing conventions in Alabama and Georgia. Denson dedicated the song “Coston” to him (p. 382 in The Sacred Harp). Lorraine Miles McFarland, a singing school student of uncle Tom’s who had won a gold piece at a children’s song-leading contest in 1930, recalls that Coston, the contest’s sponsor, was so pleased with the young leaders that he invited them to stay at his home in Dallas for the weekend. McFarland remembers the wealthy man’s home as “more like a grand hotel, not just a house.”

1012 N. Marsalis Avenue, Dallas, Texas
September 30, 1935

My dear Friend:

Yours of September 18th received in due course of mail and I would have answered ere this but for the fact we arrived home sick, and have neither one of us been able to be around since. Glad to state, however, we are feeling better now and hope that we will continue to improve.

Your father’s sudden death was such a shock to us all that we have hardly been able to gather our wits together since we learned of it, and I want you to know that you letter, giving detailed account of how he came to his death, was a great satisfaction to us, as well as his many other friends in our state that we have passed the information to.

In his passing I, myself, as well as so many of his other friends in our state, deeply realize that we have lost one of the greatest Sacred Harp Divines that has ever lived, and that his place can not be filled. It was my pleasure to ride with him from Atlanta, Ga. to Jasper, Ala. on September 9th, and I don’t think he was ever more jubilant when I was with him on that occasion. … As the train neared the station at Jasper, and the time approached to say Good Bye, Uncle Tom, as I have always called him, looked me in the face and said to me, “Brother Coston, we may never meet again on this earth, but if we don’t, we will meet in a better world than this.” I shall never forget how he looked at me when he spoke those words, when he said, “I want you to remember that I am your friend.” I replied to him, “It is mutual.” God bless his memory and his influence to the edification and building up and forward march of our organization throughout the South. …

Give our love to all inquiring friends and write me again a long letter at your earliest convenience, and believe me, as ever,

Your friend,
W. T. Coston