"JingleBells" - the crisis!

Controversy over the origin of the Famous Winter Holiday Song

By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer

SAVANNAH, Ga.

- Dashing in the sun, through oaks and Spanish moss.

Sleigh riding's no fun, when there's no snow to cross.

Could "Jingle Bells" really be a song of the South?

It's not hard to see why balmy Savannah has a tough time selling the Christmas carol as a native creation.

Or why the claim makes folks in Medford, Massachusetts, hometown of the song's composer, cry "Humbug ! ". 

This much is known: James Pierpont was the organist at Savannah's Unitarian Universalist Church in 1857 when he copyrighted the song,  "One Horse Open Sleigh,"  a title later changed to  "Jingle Bells."   One of the most popular American Christmas songs,  "Jingle Bells"  made Pierpont a pre-Civil War one-hit wonder.   But did he write it here as a piece of homesick, holiday nostalgia?   Or did he compose it years before in Medford, not seeing the tune as a moneymaker until he drifted south?   "No one really knows where he was when he wrote it - that's the rub" ,  said Constance Turner,  Pierpont's great-granddaughter in Coronado, Calif.   "Evidently, James was quite the free-spirit and he published some bad songs and one, at least, we know of that's a very good song." 

Medford, just outside Boston, claimed the carol without challenge until 1969, when Milton Rahn, a Savannah Unitarian, announced he had linked the song's composer to Georgia. Rahn was listening to his daughter play "Jingle Bells" on the piano when he glanced at the sheet music and noticed the composer's name: J. Pierpont.   He had earlier found letters John Pierpont Jr., the church's pastor from 1852 to 1858, had written home to Medford saying his brother, James, had come to Savannah as an organist and music teacher.  Further research found the composer had married in Savannah in 1857 weeks before he copyrighted "Jingle Bells."   "I saw this as something to help us get publicity for the church,"  Rahn said. 

Pierpont, who lived from 1822 to 1893, was said to be a wanderer who ran away to sea at 14 and later went to California during the Gold Rush. During the Civil War, he joined a Confederate cavalry regiment in Savannah, bucking his family's staunch abolitionist views. Though Pierpont came from an aristocratic family - his nephew was the financier John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan - he never made much money himself.   His other songs included several touting the Confederate cause, with titles such as "We Conquer Or Die" and "Strike For The South."   But none struck a chord like  "Jingle Bells." 

After Savannah erected a "Jingle Bells" marker across from the church in 1985, then-Mayor John Rousakis declared the tune a Savannah song.  To folks in Medford, that made Rousakis and Rahn a pair of grinches out to steal their Christmas history.   A series of not-so-jolly exchanges followed.   "In the words of Shakespeare, it is our intention to keep our `honor from corruption' ",  Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn wrote in a 1989 letter to Rousakis.  "We unequivocally state that `Jingle Bells' was composed ... in the Town of Medford during the year 1850!"   Rousakis fired back with an equally strong, unyielding letter.  "James L. Pierpont is still here with us,"  Rousakis wrote, noting the composer's Savannah burial.  "I am sure (Pierpont) will join us in spirit when we finally and formally proclaim Savannah, Georgia, as the birthplace of `Jingle Bells.'" 

According to Medford, Pierpont was inspired by the winter sleigh races down snow-filled Salem Street in Medford and wrote the song at the Simpson Tavern, a boarding house with the only piano in town.   Ace Collins, author of the 2001 book "Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas," says he found more proof of Medford being the rightful birthplace while researching his chapter on "Jingle Bells."   Collins said he found a New England newspaper from the early 1840s that mentioned "One Horse Open Sleigh" debuting in Medford at a Thanksgiving church service.   The song proved so popular, he said, Pierpont gave a repeat performance at Christmas.   When it comes to which city deserves bragging rights, Collins gets diplomatic.   Pierpont may have written his song in Medford, he says, but Savannah made him realize its universal appeal. "Savannah was the key," Collins said. "If it can play in Savannah, where snow was a novelty, it can play anywhere." 

On the Net: 

Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah Georgia probable site of debut of "Jingle Bells" 

Medford Massachusetts birthplace of author of "Jingle Bells" 

Songwriters Hall of Fame ~ have fun finding the story behind other favorite songs, Holiday and "otherwise". 

You

You may not think the world needs you, but it does.  

You are unique,

like no one who has ever been before,

or will come after.  

No one can speak with your voice,

say your piece,

smile your smile or shine your light.  

No one can take your place, for it is yours alone to fill.  

 If you are not there to shine your light ,

who knows how many travelers may lose their way,

as they try to pass by your empty place in the Darkness.?

  

- credited to various authors

---

POST SCRIPT:

The Story of "You" - and Me:  I have shared this here because it was a gift to me on a day when only Job had suffered more - and I felt there  was no "me" at all.    It helped - I am fine - and so it is here to help others, most truly!   

The Tablecloth - TrueYule loveStory

THE TABLECLOTH - true winter holiday story

The brand new pastor and his wife,  arrived in early October at Suburban Brooklyn, New York, newly assigned to their first ministry, to re-open a church  that was not in use,  very run down and needing much work.  Undaunted, they set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve 1970. 

They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls,  painting, and more.  It was December 18 and they were ahead of schedule and just about finished.  Then, on December 19,  a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm - hit the area and lasted for two days.  On the 21st, the pastor's heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 10 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor.  Prepared to postpone the Christmas Eve service,  he headed home.

On the way, he noticed that a local business was having a flea-market type sale for charity so he stopped in.  One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center.  It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall.   He bought it and headed back to the church.  By this time it had started to snow.  An older woman was running from the opposite direction,trying to catch a bus.  She missed it.  The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus, 45 minutes later.  She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. 

The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area !

Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle.  Her face was very pale.  "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?"   The pastor explained.  The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials,  "EBG" were crocheted into it there.  They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. 

The woman was stunned as the pastor told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth.  The woman explained that before the war, she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria.  When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave.  Her husband was going to follow her the next week. She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again!

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth;  but she made the pastor keep it for the church.

To thank her for her beautiful gift,  the pastor insisted on driving her home,  that was the least he could do.  She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a house-cleaning job.  He then hurried back to prepare for the evening's duties. 

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve!  The church was almost full.  The music and the spirit were great!  At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.  But one older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving.  The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall, because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago, when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike?

He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety, and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison.  He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between. 

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier.  He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and witnessed the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine! 

A True Story - submitted by Pastor Rob Reid

Journey - The Shelter Quilt is Home.

UPDATE  Winter Holiday 2017  - to inspire the public to support their local shelters:

LIfelong arts and response work with red cross and others, my experience of Operation Hope Shelter for Homeless, in Fairfield Connecticut USA  1991-1996,  was unique.   Among other things, at the end of my involvement there, there was this quilt.   And it's story.

The Quilt was made from "Bits and Pieces" - remnants of fabrics used to decorate the place or alter clothing for the temp shelter residents, for a nice appearance on job interviews etc. that would allow them to get on with their lives, self-directing and well. 

The Shelter Quilt, to me, became a symbol of the shelter itself, which through its services, makes lives whole again - lives that were once in " bits and pieces"  - as life will do.

The  symbolism of the Shelter Quilt and its being were so intense that  it found its home with the project founders  no sooner than December 2016, TWENTY years after it was made.   May it be a light and inspiration to all who see it.   It's even soft and huggy.

 

For the story - READ ON:

 Recovering by helping others, from sudden and early widowhood and then our children's empty nesting, I was  Injured in an accident, right after my return from Redcross'  ARCODS Assistant Station Manager service.    It was so strange, after years of seeing to the emergencies of others, to BE the emergency, myself !   Several short term living arrangements happened while waiting for setup for my care needs.   One day, I was the helper, the next day, the helped.    Very odd.    My background was lovely and my works fine and often above average,  but things were barely in hand, after sudden and too-soon widowhood,  when the recession hurt our money, so I rescued what I could of the money and paid it to our children to protect them up to their majority.    Back home in Connecticut, felt I'd have no problem finding nice new work. But then the  injury reduced me to poverty.     But my background was very honored,  and I proved it , and won a good care setup, and so, I saw that I could still help others,  specially, though disabled.  
 

I served at the shelter:  scrubbed and disinfected, and lead singing and beauty and computer intimidation and art and resume classes and more. The Redcross work gave confidence and skills.   Fine memory gave the LOVE and loving insights and powers.

The quilt :  Our Shelter was in a wealthy area, so the clothing donations were smashing but often ill-fitting.   So I made clothes or altered them for at least a dozen;  made chintz type slipcovers for the shelter furniture and more.

This I did right through the "moments" at  shelter - my own injuries' discomforts,  plus the "moments" of the others:  anguish, crisis, tears, occasional fights, thefts, and the one time I helped remove a very large knife from a heartbroken desperate young wife and mother with drug issues, and ideas to end it all.  

There were also the social NIMBI things all shelters suffer;  thankfully, these were offset by community and church support.  

The Town Food Pantry Garden was across the street from the quite and green town shelter and we, the injured, had been hauling hose across the street daily in the hot weather , to keep it watered and growing.  But then,  a few yards away the firehouse next to the garden brought the fun fix:   the men were cleaning their hoses and simply smiled and told us to get out of the way....ta dahhhh!   They simply aimed the firehose over the fence and did so daily afterward.   Best garden in town!    

There were the gifts from the people in the community - food, music and invitations to join in the nice social events, and famiy fun, to make those at the shelter feel less like social lepers...so much good was done!

For some reason, when I did the sewing there,  I saved all the fabric scraps from it,  and, when my disability arrangements were made I  moved on.   One day, I found the scrap bag and thought , philosophically:  wow! this would  make "Quite a Quilt" -   I cried and laughed as I pinned and sewed, and sometimes shook with fear, remembering - all alone in my lovely new bungalow.    

"Bits and Pieces" I named it from the comments of one of the women at the time, referring to the famous old rock song of the same name. Seemed right.   Then , to be sure to get on with it, I labelled some of the remnants on the quilt - this was from a woman's  new work uniform, and that one from a man's  slacks alteration...etc.   .... and folded it up and packed it carefully AWAY.  End. Resolved. Done.  AWAY. 

Every few years I'd  pull it out and see how I was doing - I am so much more than fine!  Busy happy and in the shows and regaining cash after all that injury before I am too old. 

Thank you so much!   I have donated cash and work to surpass my expense, using my artwork, to show my thanks in help to others.

And today, I am sending this on to the place where the fabrics were born - Faifield Connecticut's Operation Hope.  They are still  there, and helping over twenty years later!  

It was presented to one of the founders as a wall-hanging from the loops I thought to include.      I am so proud of its message.    Few of us make the journey unscathed, but there was the feeling that , if I COULD make that quilt, it was one more sign:   THE HOUSE WAS GOOD -  and probably still is! 

The communications with Operation Hope,  after all these years, did not really hold, but  the gift was arranged and the quilt shipped. I live on the other side of the state now.   And there was reply, when all was done.   In accepting the Quilt, last year,  this closure was in my emails:

"Hi Elle:

We did receive your beautiful quilt and, as I mentioned, I am going to be presenting it to Reverend David Spollett, our founder, as a 30 year anniversary gift.     We are so grateful for this gift.  Please know it has sentimental value for us as well.

Sincerely,  Carla"

My message - NEVER GIVE UP -   there IS redemption and the "Great day in the morning!"   Begin.

ESF At OH 1995

- elle