One fascinating document that has been submitted to the Saints of Alberta Project (SAP) is this page of lyrics for a folk hymn composed by “H. Garner” on April 17, 1884, titled “Wait till the clouds roll by Zion”:
composed by H. Farmer April 17, 1884
Wait till the clouds roll by Zion
Zion oppressed and burdened
By evil angry men
Who show their spite and malice
Both by the tongue and pen
Frame laws to agravate the Saints
And take away their legal rights
But daylight allways follows
The very darkest nights
(Chorus) Wait till the clouds roll by Zion
Wait till the clouds roll by
Then up and shine in splendour
Wait till the clouds roll by
The plant is firmly rooted
Twas planted by the Lord
[this line is on the fold of the paper]
neither by fire or sword
yea if we ourselves should falter
Loose faith and hope and turn away
The Lord could raise up others
Who would his laws obey
(chorus) Wait till the clouds [etc?]
Courage saints stand firm and true
Fear not what man can do [1]
There seems to be more text following the last line of the lyrics, but I have yet to confirm this with the submitter, Mel Van Zeben. Through a bit of research I found the song is an adaptation of the popular parlor tune (composed between 1880-1890) “Wait Till the Clouds Roll By Jenny,” words by J. T. Wood and music by H. J. Fulmer.[2] Here is a old recording of that song with what was likely the same tune used by the Alberta saints with the lyrics above:
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[1] My transcription of the scan hosted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/saintsofalberta/7648121238/in/photostream/
[2] http://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/16339/transcript/1
Cool stuff, Tod. And way to hunt down the tune and original lyrics.
Reminds me of a poem composed in Denton, Texas that I posted about a while back.
Comment by Jared T — July 31, 2012 @ 11:13 pm
Very cool, Tod. Thanks.
Comment by Christopher — August 1, 2012 @ 8:26 am
One dumb question: what’s the connection to Alberta? The song predates the settlement of Cardston by three years, so I think we can be quite sure it wasn’t written up in Canada. Perhaps H. Garner did move to Alberta later, or maybe the song was just in the possession of someone else who did.
Comment by Mark B. — August 1, 2012 @ 2:46 pm
Mark,
Not dumb at all. This scan came as a submission by Mel Van Zeben as part of a collection of other documents/images having to do with Beazer, AB. I’ll follow up on the provenance and get back to you. Thanks!
Comment by Tod R. — August 2, 2012 @ 10:15 am