The Church in the Wildwood

 

 

“There's a church in the valley by the wildwood, No lovelier spot in the dale;

No place is so dear to my childhood as the little brown church in the vale.”

 

 
I grew up in a one room, white church situation on the top of the hill, and this song was a favorite of the small congregation that attended Rolls Hill. Except we always sang it as “the little white church on the hill.”

 If you're not familiar with the song click here for country music star Dolly Parton's rendition of the hymn. 
 

Recently I learned the story behind this song while searching for the words to write a hymn-based musical devotional on the song. I thought the research interesting enough to share.

 

“The Church in the Wildwood”, often referred to as “The Little Brown Church in the Vale”, was written in 1857 by Dr. William S. Pitts about a church that didn’t even exist at the time he penned the song. While on a stagecoach ride to visit his fiancée in Fredericksburg, Iowa, the coach made a stop in Bradford, Iowa. Dr. Pitts disembarked and took a walk around the area where he spotted a wooded valley near the Cedar River. Pitts imagined the spot to be a perfect place for a church. Unable to get the vision of the church from his mind, when he returned home he wrote the song “The Church in the Wildwood.”

 

In 1855, the First Congregational Ecclesiastical Society of Bradford founded a church, meeting in storefronts and homes as new churches do while waiting for a building. Upon Pitt’s return to the area in 1862, he discovered a church had being erected where he had imagined it five years earlier. The church was even painted brown. The congregation hadn’t heard of Pitt’s song, they just used the cheapest color of paint, which happened to be brown.

 

photo from Wikipedia

At the dedication of the church in 1864, Pitts had his singing class perform the song. This was the first time anyone, besides Pitts, had sung “The Church in the Wildwood.”

The song was later sold to a music publisher for $25. Pitts used the money to pay for his enrollment in Rush Medical College. The song was forgotten for years until the 1920’s when the Weatherwax Quartet used it as their trademark song. During their travels, they often talked about the little church, which was having a revival of its own after the Society for the Preservation of The Little Brown Church was founded. The church had closed in 1888 due to the town’s decline, but by 1914, services were again held in the building.

By the mid-1920s, as the song grew in popularity and the US Highway system made travel easier, many visitors came to the newly reopened little church. By 2005, 72,000 weddings had been performed in the church and 60,000 visitors annually had visited "the little brown church in the vale."

I’ve sung this song ever since I was a child, with the modifications mentioned above. Every time I do, it brings back fond memories of growing up with God-fearing, loving Christians who guided me toward an awesome God and eternal life. Today the song isn’t sung much as schools feel it is too religious and churches think it doesn’t give God glory. But for me it has memories of times spent praising the Lord, learning his word, seeing friends come to Christ, and fellowshipping with his children, young and old. After all, isn’t that what the church is all about?

Do you have a special hymn that you love with an interesting history?

 

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Catherine Castle has been writing all her life. Before beginning her career as a romance writer she worked part-time as a freelance writer. She has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit, under her real name, in the Christian and secular market. Besides writing, Catherine loves traveling with her husband, singing, and attending theatre. In the winter she loves to quilt and has a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) in her sewing case. In the summer her favorite place to be is in her garden. She’s passionate about gardening and even won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club.

 

Her debut inspiration romantic suspense, The Nun and the Narc, from Soul Mate Publishing was an ACFW Genesis Finalist, a 2014 EPIC finalist, and the winner of the 2014 Beverly Hills Book Award and the 2014 RONE Award. Her newest book, a romantic comedy with a touch of drama, entitled A Groom For Mama, is due out September 2017, from Soul Mate Publishing. You can follow her on Twitter @AuthorCCastle, Facebook or through her blog Romance for the Ages.