From the Archives: “Wait Till the Clouds Roll by Zion”

By July 31, 2012

One fascinating document that has been submitted to the Saints of Alberta Project (SAP) is this page of lyrics for a folk hymn composed by “H. Garner” on April 17, 1884, titled “Wait till the clouds roll by Zion”:

composed by H. Farmer April 17, 1884

Wait till the clouds roll by Zion

Zion oppressed and burdened

By evil angry men

Who show their spite and malice

Both by the tongue and pen

Frame laws to agravate the Saints

And take away their legal rights

But daylight allways follows

The very darkest nights

(Chorus) Wait till the clouds roll by Zion

Wait till the clouds roll by

Then up and shine in splendour

Wait till the clouds roll by

The plant is firmly rooted

Twas planted by the Lord

[this line is on the fold of the paper]

neither by fire or sword

yea if we ourselves should falter

Loose faith and hope and turn away

The Lord could raise up others

Who would his laws obey

(chorus) Wait till the clouds [etc?]

Courage saints stand firm and true

Fear not what man can do [1]

There seems to be more text following the last line of the lyrics, but I have yet to confirm this with the submitter, Mel Van Zeben. Through a bit of research I found the song is an adaptation of the popular parlor tune (composed between 1880-1890) “Wait Till the Clouds Roll By Jenny,” words by J. T. Wood and music by H. J. Fulmer.[2] Here is a old recording of that song with what was likely the same tune used by the Alberta saints with the lyrics above:

It is interesting to see how the Mormon influence changed the song. Specifically, the lines dealing with legal issues related to the Latter-day Saints. The 1880s were a rough decade for the Mormon practice of plural marriage, with several laws enacted by the United States government to try and enforce monogamous mores on the Church. I have yet to identify the full name of the author and thus any biographical information about them, but I am excited at the thought of that discovery. More on this and other documents in the SAP collection in forthcoming posts.

_____________________

[1] My transcription of the scan hosted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/saintsofalberta/7648121238/in/photostream/

[2] http://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/16339/transcript/1

Article filed under Digital Humanities From the Archives

Comments

  1. Cool stuff, Tod. And way to hunt down the tune and original lyrics.

    Reminds me of a poem composed in Denton, Texas that I posted about a while back.

    Comment by Jared T — July 31, 2012 @ 11:13 pm

  2. Very cool, Tod. Thanks.

    Comment by Christopher — August 1, 2012 @ 8:26 am

  3. One dumb question: what’s the connection to Alberta? The song predates the settlement of Cardston by three years, so I think we can be quite sure it wasn’t written up in Canada. Perhaps H. Garner did move to Alberta later, or maybe the song was just in the possession of someone else who did.

    Comment by Mark B. — August 1, 2012 @ 2:46 pm

  4. Mark,

    Not dumb at all. This scan came as a submission by Mel Van Zeben as part of a collection of other documents/images having to do with Beazer, AB. I’ll follow up on the provenance and get back to you. Thanks!

    Comment by Tod R. — August 2, 2012 @ 10:15 am

Series

Recent Comments

Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “The burden of proof is on the claim of there BEING Nephites. From a scholarly point of view, the burden of proof is on the…”

Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “But that's not what I was saying about the nature of evidence of an unknown civilization. I am talking about linguistics, not ruins. …”

Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “Large civilizations leave behind evidence of their existence. For instance, I just read that scholars estimate the kingdom of Judah to have been around 110,000…”

Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “I have always understood the key to issues with Nephite archeology to be language. Besides the fact that there is vastly more to Mesoamerican…”

Steven Borup on In Memoriam: James B.: “Bro Allen was the lead coordinator in 1980 for the BYU Washington, DC Seminar and added valuable insights into American history as we also toured…”

David G. on In Memoriam: James B.: “Jim was a legend who impacted so many through his scholarship and kind mentoring. He'll be missed.”

Topics

juvenileinstructor.org

© 2024 – Juvenile Instructor