The Old Church Yard
Oh, come, come with me, to the old church yard,
I well know the path through the soft green sward;
Friends slumber there, we were wont to regard,
And we’ll trace out their names, in the old church yard.
Oh, mourn not for them, their grief is o’er,
Weep not for them, they weep no more,
For deep is their sleep, though cold and hard,
Their pillows may be in the old church yard.
I know it seems vain when friends depart,
To speak kind words to the broken heart.
I know that the joys of life seem marred
When we follow their steps to the old church yard.
But were I at rest, beneath yon tree,
Why should you weep, dear friend, for me?
It’s I am way worn and sad, oh, why then retard
The rest that I seek in the old church yard?
It’s our friends linger there, in the sweetest repose,
Released from the world’s sad bereavements and woes;
And where should I rest with the friends I regard
In quietude sweet in the old church yard ?
It’s we’ll rest in the hope of that bright day
When beauty shall spring from the prisons of clay,
When Gabriel’s voice and the trump of the Lord,
Shall awaken the dead in the old church yard.
It’s oh, weep not for me for I’m ready to go
To that heavenly rest where no tears ever flow.
It’s I fear not to enter that dark, lonely ward;
For soon I shall rise from the old church yard.
Yes, soon I shall join that heavenly band
Of glorified souls at my Savior’s right Hand;
Forever to dwell in bright mansions prepared
For saints, who shall rise from the old church yard.
I was working on a notebook of Maw Maw’s songs in October, 1980 and had written the words to “The Old Church Yard”, when, a few days later, my cousin, Janette McMillon, one of Maw Maw’s grand daughters called to tell me that Maw Maw had died. She was in the Maryville, Tennessee Hospital, when, while going to the bathroom she fell in the floor. A blood clot set up and in a few minutes she had a heart attack. She was crying, “The bees, the bees are stinging.” It was the pain in her left arm caused by the attack. I’m sure that in Maw Maw’s mind she thought she was being stung.
It seemed ironic that this happened just after I’d written down the words to this song, for it was her favorite of all the meeting house songs. Mine too. I was asked to sing at her funeral, but I couldn’t. The memory of Maw Maw Mae is still so sweet that I sometimes feel like crying.
Maw Maw learned some of her meeting house songs at the Primitive Baptist church in the McMillan Settlement, where she grew up. Later, she learned some of them at Camp meetings at Hartford, Tennessee. Of course, as the years went by and radio and phonographs came into the area she learned any number of gospel songs from the 20th century as well as country and bluegrass tunes. But it was always the older “love songs” that she cared for the most. Those, she learned from many sources. Some, she learned first from her mother, Aunt Becky Jenkins (nee Shults) who learned songs from her parents and others. Maw Maw’s half brother, Joe Fowler, taught her a couple of songs. Many others she learned from relatives and friends who would come and visit and they would go to the woods and sing for hours. Maw Maw didn’t sing much at home. Her stepfather, Dugan Jenkins, was a Civil War veteran and was very high strung. He would grab at his arms and cry, “Them go-devils is biting me.” I suppose he had been shell shocked in the war and it was his nerve endings that were the problem. Maw Maw said you couldn’t hardly read a book if Dugan was in the room; he couldn’t stand to hear the pages being turned.
Maw Maw’s mother, Rebecca Shults, was first married to Elijah “Lige” Fowler. She had two sons by him. Lige took up with Elizabeth Greene and run “Maw” (Aunt Becky) off. She, ever after would refer to her as “Ole Liz Greene, the bitch!” She tried to get the boys, Joe and ...., but Lige stumped her with the law. Then Aunt Becky hired herself out to a widow man, John Harrison, who lived on Lower Cosby, to make a little money. John's father, Nathaniel Harrison, was first married to my great grandfather, Anse McMillon,s sister Louise (pronounced in those days as “Lou-eyes”). After she died he married a Ball who had John and other children. John had a number of children by his wife and needed help raising them and with the housework. So Aunt Becky took them on and one thing led to another until she became pregnant with Mae and then he wouldn’t marry Aunt Becky after promising her that he would. And so, she was put out again and had Mae “by herself” as the saying goes. She then went to Newport where she got a job working at the railroad commissary taking in washing for the railroad men. As time went by she became acquainted with a young man from Morristown, Tennessee by the name of Esau Mantooth. Years later, Mae’s children would laugh about his name. Esau eventually asked Aunt Becky to marry him. He had no children of his own and promised to take care of Mae as if she was his. Aunt Becky accepted and Esau was to come to Newport on a train on a certain weekend and pick up Aunt Becky and Mae and take them back with him to Morristown. In the meantime abunch of gypsy’s came to town and Aunt Becky took Maw Maw to see them. There was a fortune teller there and Aunt Becky went in to get her fortune told. The gypsy woman told her that she would marry an old man with a grey beard who’d come walking across the mountain on a stick (walking cane) and spend her life with him. Aunt Becky laughed and said, “Why, you’re crazy! I’m going to marry a young man whose coming on a train this weekend to get me and my daughter and take us to Morristown where we’ll get married.” “That’s what I see,” was all the gypsy woman said to that. Well, it just so happened that Esau Mantooth came down with the flu or some such sickness and couldn’t make it into town that weekend as he’s promised.
They found out too late that he’d written a letter and sent it to Aunt Becky, but it didn’t get there before the end of the week, so she thought she’d been double crossed again and packed up their things and moved back to Cosby to her parents home. A short time later, a friend of the family, Mitch Sutton, brought a friend to see Aunt Becky and he came across the mountain wearing a grey beard a walking on a stick and that’s the man Aunt Becky married. His name was Wilson Dugan Jenkins. He went by Dugan and he was a veteran of the Civil War on the Union side. He was a widow man and had a bunch of kids for Aunt Becky to raise, which she did, And she never married again.
Oh, come, come with me, to the old church yard,
I well know the path through the soft green sward;
Friends slumber there, we were wont to regard,
And we’ll trace out their names, in the old church yard.
Oh, mourn not for them, their grief is o’er,
Weep not for them, they weep no more,
For deep is their sleep, though cold and hard,
Their pillows may be in the old church yard.
I know it seems vain when friends depart,
To speak kind words to the broken heart.
I know that the joys of life seem marred
When we follow their steps to the old church yard.
But were I at rest, beneath yon tree,
Why should you weep, dear friend, for me?
It’s I am way worn and sad, oh, why then retard
The rest that I seek in the old church yard?
It’s our friends linger there, in the sweetest repose,
Released from the world’s sad bereavements and woes;
And where should I rest with the friends I regard
In quietude sweet in the old church yard ?
It’s we’ll rest in the hope of that bright day
When beauty shall spring from the prisons of clay,
When Gabriel’s voice and the trump of the Lord,
Shall awaken the dead in the old church yard.
It’s oh, weep not for me for I’m ready to go
To that heavenly rest where no tears ever flow.
It’s I fear not to enter that dark, lonely ward;
For soon I shall rise from the old church yard.
Yes, soon I shall join that heavenly band
Of glorified souls at my Savior’s right Hand;
Forever to dwell in bright mansions prepared
For saints, who shall rise from the old church yard.
I was working on a notebook of Maw Maw’s songs in October, 1980 and had written the words to “The Old Church Yard”, when, a few days later, my cousin, Janette McMillon, one of Maw Maw’s grand daughters called to tell me that Maw Maw had died. She was in the Maryville, Tennessee Hospital, when, while going to the bathroom she fell in the floor. A blood clot set up and in a few minutes she had a heart attack. She was crying, “The bees, the bees are stinging.” It was the pain in her left arm caused by the attack. I’m sure that in Maw Maw’s mind she thought she was being stung.
It seemed ironic that this happened just after I’d written down the words to this song, for it was her favorite of all the meeting house songs. Mine too. I was asked to sing at her funeral, but I couldn’t. The memory of Maw Maw Mae is still so sweet that I sometimes feel like crying.
Maw Maw learned some of her meeting house songs at the Primitive Baptist church in the McMillan Settlement, where she grew up. Later, she learned some of them at Camp meetings at Hartford, Tennessee. Of course, as the years went by and radio and phonographs came into the area she learned any number of gospel songs from the 20th century as well as country and bluegrass tunes. But it was always the older “love songs” that she cared for the most. Those, she learned from many sources. Some, she learned first from her mother, Aunt Becky Jenkins (nee Shults) who learned songs from her parents and others. Maw Maw’s half brother, Joe Fowler, taught her a couple of songs. Many others she learned from relatives and friends who would come and visit and they would go to the woods and sing for hours. Maw Maw didn’t sing much at home. Her stepfather, Dugan Jenkins, was a Civil War veteran and was very high strung. He would grab at his arms and cry, “Them go-devils is biting me.” I suppose he had been shell shocked in the war and it was his nerve endings that were the problem. Maw Maw said you couldn’t hardly read a book if Dugan was in the room; he couldn’t stand to hear the pages being turned.
Maw Maw’s mother, Rebecca Shults, was first married to Elijah “Lige” Fowler. She had two sons by him. Lige took up with Elizabeth Greene and run “Maw” (Aunt Becky) off. She, ever after would refer to her as “Ole Liz Greene, the bitch!” She tried to get the boys, Joe and ...., but Lige stumped her with the law. Then Aunt Becky hired herself out to a widow man, John Harrison, who lived on Lower Cosby, to make a little money. John's father, Nathaniel Harrison, was first married to my great grandfather, Anse McMillon,s sister Louise (pronounced in those days as “Lou-eyes”). After she died he married a Ball who had John and other children. John had a number of children by his wife and needed help raising them and with the housework. So Aunt Becky took them on and one thing led to another until she became pregnant with Mae and then he wouldn’t marry Aunt Becky after promising her that he would. And so, she was put out again and had Mae “by herself” as the saying goes. She then went to Newport where she got a job working at the railroad commissary taking in washing for the railroad men. As time went by she became acquainted with a young man from Morristown, Tennessee by the name of Esau Mantooth. Years later, Mae’s children would laugh about his name. Esau eventually asked Aunt Becky to marry him. He had no children of his own and promised to take care of Mae as if she was his. Aunt Becky accepted and Esau was to come to Newport on a train on a certain weekend and pick up Aunt Becky and Mae and take them back with him to Morristown. In the meantime abunch of gypsy’s came to town and Aunt Becky took Maw Maw to see them. There was a fortune teller there and Aunt Becky went in to get her fortune told. The gypsy woman told her that she would marry an old man with a grey beard who’d come walking across the mountain on a stick (walking cane) and spend her life with him. Aunt Becky laughed and said, “Why, you’re crazy! I’m going to marry a young man whose coming on a train this weekend to get me and my daughter and take us to Morristown where we’ll get married.” “That’s what I see,” was all the gypsy woman said to that. Well, it just so happened that Esau Mantooth came down with the flu or some such sickness and couldn’t make it into town that weekend as he’s promised.
They found out too late that he’d written a letter and sent it to Aunt Becky, but it didn’t get there before the end of the week, so she thought she’d been double crossed again and packed up their things and moved back to Cosby to her parents home. A short time later, a friend of the family, Mitch Sutton, brought a friend to see Aunt Becky and he came across the mountain wearing a grey beard a walking on a stick and that’s the man Aunt Becky married. His name was Wilson Dugan Jenkins. He went by Dugan and he was a veteran of the Civil War on the Union side. He was a widow man and had a bunch of kids for Aunt Becky to raise, which she did, And she never married again.