He was a small-town fellow, yet with a big-time output and a
view of a larger world. He had a unique name also - Eden – that might have
spurred his bigger-world perspective. There are not too many Edens, though Eden
Reeder Latta probably wasn’t that unusual for where he was born, near the
village of Eden in east-central Indiana. (He was actually born in nearby Haw
Patch, which apparently doesn’t exist today. Maybe he thanked his parents for
naming him after the next-nearest village, and not his actual birthplace! [No
offense intended for anyone name Hawpatch out there!]) This Eden evidently thought
a lot about his creator, and probably some about the Garden in a faraway place
that’s associated with his given name too. “Live for Jesus” could have also
been encouraged by one of his Indiana boyhood friends and the experience that
these boys’ upbringing provided for this song’s development decades later.
Latta was born, lived, and died in small-town Middle America,
though his connection to a larger world was present in those areas. Eden today
has just 80 citizens, and after his family moved to Iowa, Eden Latta lived much
of the rest of his life in the small towns of Colesburg and Guttenberg (about
12 miles northeast of Colesburg) in northeastern Iowa, on the west bank of the
Mississippi River (see picture of Guttenberg here).Colesburg and Guttenberg
were both populated by just a few hundred people at or soon after the beginning
of the 20 th Century. During
his childhood, he was friends with another nascent composer, William Ogden, a
native Ohioan who would eventually return there. Given Latta’s and Ogden’s
contribution to hymnody, one can imagine these two stayed in touch as adults,
sharing musical ideas and their devotion to God, even if separated by several
hundred miles. Eden put together at least one book of hymns (The River of Life) and contributed to
another (Temperance Jewels), both of
which were published in Boston. It’s said that Eden taught school in Colesburg,
though how long is not known. But, he must have shared more with his students
than just textbook knowledge, as he is credited with over 1,600 songs in his
lifetime. Did his teacher’s role spawn some of his musical creations, perhaps
even “Live for Jesus”, which encourages hearers to adopt and maintain a
virtuous, Jesus-centered lifestyle – a message a teacher-mentor might deliver? He
wrote it in 1892 in his early 50s, perhaps as he considered the students, probably some of whom wanted to venture
outside of Iowa, and whose
paths he had tried to help steer properly. Even in small, pretty obscure places like northeastern Iowa,
wisdom for living in the larger world can emerge.
A small-town teacher like Eden Latta surely didn’t see
himself as a hick with nothing important to say. How big, or small, is the
world today? Some of us might answer this by how many electronic devices we use
– how many channels we watch. Latta shows me that’s not so important, although
it does enlighten me to see how others think and live. Eden Latta might advise
that my world needs focus, no matter how many miles I’ve flown, or the variety
of languages I’ve encountered. The focus
I need can go anywhere, Latta says.
See these links for various pieces of information on the
composer and places he lived:
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