Mansion Over the Hilltop -- Ira F. Stanphill

A little poverty-stricken girl and a businessman, probably unaware that their chance encounter would motivate a songwriter, met in a rural area near Dallas, and that’s where this multi-pronged story began to take shape. Their names remain unrecorded, but what they said was unforgettable to Ira Stanphill’s ears, as he thought one morning about a “Mansion Over the Hilltop” that the child and the businessman had mentioned on two different levels. That this song’s genesis involved three different people, each from a different circumstance, illustrates yet again how much like a fingerprint a song can be. A songwriter like Ira may often hear a story that captures his imagination, but the path each song travels is unique, allowing us as to appreciate that each one is special, with twists and turns not unlike the loops, whorls, and arches (forensic terms in the science of fingerprint analysis) that whet the appetite of a musical detective. Yum!

The circumstances that coalesced one evening when Ira Stanphill attended a revival are the fingerprint of ‘Mansion Over a Hilltop’. Ira was in his early 30s in 1945 when he was doing what a preacher, musician, and songwriter in the Gospel genre like himself would consider normal: He was attending a conference that he probably expected would stimulate his passion, and hopefully that of many others, for God. A businessman who’d had a rough time, but who’d also had an epiphany, was speaking. Business had been bad, and this struggling entrepreneur had sought some relief in a drive through a rural area. He found more than he’d thought he would, and unexpectedly from a small child, too. Her appearance perhaps reminded him of his own situation – a poor waif, with a broken doll, standing next to a ramshackle house she called home. Yet, she smiled. Why? Because she had hope, with her father building a brand-new home not far away, over the nearby hill. What a gift hope is, the downtrodden man thought, not just for what we might attain in this world to overcome destitution, but especially how this world’s cruelties will be overcome by what awaits the believer in the afterlife. ‘My mansion is secure’, the businessman reassured himself when he thought of his future with God. That spoke to Ira similarly, and after sleeping on the message he’d heard, he quickly wrote “Mansion Over the Hilltop”.

From a little girl’s hopeful answer, through one discouraged adult’s heart, and into the soul of a poet-songwriter who could put a musical exclamation mark at the conclusion of this episode, this account reiterates for us that He’s at work. Is it just coincidental how things happen for good, even in difficult times? The businessman noted as he related his story to Ira and the assembled crowd, that his heart was pierced by the unsuspecting girl’s hope-filled words. Could that, in fact, be God nudging you and me, as if to say ‘I’m here…and I haven’t forgotten you’? I’ve had at least one life episode in which I thought I felt that nudge. Coincidentally, the first one that I remember, like the businessman’s situation, involved my professional/vocational life. ‘Will I be a failure?’, I remember calling out to Him in my angst one day. He answered ‘No, you won’t be’, not too soon thereafter, and I skipped like a deer, rejoicing that He’d touched me that way. I’ve never forgot that He sent me on my way, to live my vocational dream, and to experience life in a kind of mansion for the last three decades. You and I just need to remember that another hilltop’s view will reveal an altogether different edifice – words cannot do it justice. Climb that hill!      

The primary source for the story on this song is the book Stories Behind Popular Songs and Hymns, by Lindsay Terry, Baker Book House, 1990. Also, see The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.

Hark! 'Tis the Shepherd's Voice -- Alexcenah Thomas

She was a teacher and must have felt she had some students that were like wandering sheep. Could it be that this 28-year old educator may have coaxed friends and other acquaintances to help redirect her students with the words “Hark! ‘Tis the Shepherd’s Voice I Hear”? Alexcenah Thomas  evidently taught or administered the education of youngsters in many places by the beginning of the 20^th Century, but seemed aware many years before then that waywardness was something she wanted to address. Not much else is known of Alexcenah, though she left some hymn poems, of which “Hark…” (also known as “Bring Them In”) is the most well-known. She also collaborated with a musical composer, William Ogden, who was a noted producer of children’s music. That common theme of children between Ogden and Thomas must have played a pivotal role in their partnership on ‘Hark…’.

Alexcenah Thomas was in various places over the last few decades of the 19^th Century when she pursued her career in children’s education, paired with writing a few dozen hymn poems. Though it is unknown where the paths of Alexcenah Thomas and William Ogden intersected, most likely it was their mutual Christian outlook and interest in musical endeavors that compelled their meeting. Alexcenah evidently was from Philadelphia and was educated in Chicago, followed by various stints as a teacher or principal in central Pennsylvania, Washington, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Georgia, and New York. Meanwhile, Ogden was reportedly in Ohio and various other places to pursue his passion to educate children musically. It was the year 1885 when the two cooperated to produce “Hark…”. Alexcenah’s poetry doesn’t explicitly mention children, but adults in God’s world would be children too, so her address to an audience to search for sheep and assist the ‘Shepherd’ could have been intended for either kids or grownups. We might presume that since Ogden worked with Thomas to write the music for the song, that he felt it was useful for the younger generation. Had they both experienced errant children in their professional endeavors, and thereby found a mutually resonant issue they wanted to emphasize? It would be hard to imagine individuals so deeply engaged in the lives of children who had not had some heartaches. Personal anguish is frequently a motivator for music and poetry, as the creators seek out some therapeutic salve to ease pain. Just consider William’s and Alexcenah’s ancestor, the great Psalmist David. He wrote to express his inner struggle. Did it help?

David’s words, and Alexcenah’s words many centuries later say something that doesn’t wear out or grow old. We contact each other, an unavoidable fact of being born. And, along the way I choose to walk, I either move toward or away from others. It can happen quickly. Or, more often, I can drift, bit by bit. Perhaps that was what Alexcenah saw – people she could sense were drifting away, unable to bring themselves to reverse course. Do those people want to be drifters? Or, do they just want a hand to reach out? What’s the Shepherd telling you?

The following website has a soundtrack for the song: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/b/r/i/bringthe.htm

See more information on the song discussed above in Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990.

See biography of hymn poetess here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/t/h/o/m/thomas_a.htm

See biography of her musical collaborator-composer here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/o/g/d/ogden_wa.htm

Sweet By and By -- Sanford Fillmore Bennett

He was 31 years old and owned a drugstore in Elkhorn, Wisconsin (see map here), and one day he filled a prescription that was perhaps the fastest and most unusual remedy for someone that he’d ever written. Sanford Bennett wasn’t even the first one to utter the phrase ‘by and by’, but when he added ‘Sweet’ in front of it, he felt it was a winner. It was a flash of brilliance that he received, Bennett would probably say, if he were here to respond. Those on the scene that day in Sanford’s apothecary also thought the hymn, concocted on the spot, was one that would endure. One depressed friend, who knew to whom he could go for help, and a friend who replied – that’s all it took for “The Sweet By and By” to enter hymnody’s record in 1868.

These two friends, Sanford Fillmore Bennett and Joseph Philbrick Webster, were apparently so well in tune with one another, that no words between the two were necessary for each to interpret the other’s mood. Each had a talent that the other accessed and augmented with his own. Sanford had been a poet for many years prior to the 1868 encounter in the drugstore, so he was no doubt accustomed to sparks of creativity. The 40-year old Joseph was a local musician, likewise with a long record of musical accomplishment already on his resume, from the East Coast to the Midwest, including in Elkhorn where he’d been since 1859. The two had known each other for about eight years, with Sanford arriving in Elkhorn in 1860, shortly after Webster had arrived, and not long before the U.S. Civil War commenced. The two were separated during Bennett’s military service during the war, but apparently renewed their friendship after it concluded. There were reportedly other occasions on which Bennett lifted his oft-depressed musician-friend’s spirits, so when Webster entered the druggist’s establishment one day, he needed a remedy he knew he could count on his buddy to produce. Reportedly, Sanford guessed Joseph’s mood, just by observing him, but immediately formulated the words for “Sweet By and By” after hearing his unhappy friend’s response to his greeting. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ was followed by a dismissive retort that included the three little words, ‘by and by.’ The druggist-poet’s stanzas flowed effortlessly in the next few minutes, his product was shown to the musician, and notes were spontaneously fused with words, so that just 30 minutes had elapsed in which the fruit of “Sweet By and By” gestated and ripened. Even customers in the store were seemingly taken with this duo’s musical invention, such was its innate appeal. It flowed, to put it simply.

Sanford’s words lifted Joseph’s emotional state that day in 1868, so swiftly that one might wonder if some chemical ingredient was included in the prescription he gave out that day. What’s evident in his words is something any believer might think is intoxicating, yet true. I’m headed for a beautiful place, according to Bennett’s refrain, one where I’ll reunite with others. This promise must have been one that was important to both men who helped craft “The Sweet By and By”, otherwise why would they have attached themselves to it so readily during a 30-minute episode in a Wisconsin drugstore? Fortunately, for them and us, words don’t reside just in their birthplace. These travel, don’t they? Yeh!        

     

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; 101 More Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; and Then Sings My Soul, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003. 

See this site for all three of the original verses, and also the brief story of the song: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/n/t/intsbab.htm