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The Church In The Dale
The Church In The Dale
There'a church in the valley
By the wildwood,
No lovelier place in the dale;
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the vale.
Oh, come, come, come, come,
Come to the church in the wildwood,
Oh, come to the church in the vale;
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the vale.
Oh, come to the church in the wildwood,
To the trees where the wild flowers bloom;
Where the parting hymn will be singing,
We will weep by the side of the tomb.
Oh, come, come, come, come,
Come to the church in the wildwood,
Oh, come to the church in the vale;
No spot is so dear to my childhood,
As the little brown church in the vale.
From the church in the valley
By the wildwood,
When day fades away into night,
I would fain from this spot of my childhood
Fly away to the mansions of light.
Oh, come, come, come, come,
Come to the church in the wildwood,
Oh, come to the church in the dale;
No spot is so dear to my childhood,
As the little brown church in the vale.
Oh, come, come, come, come,
Come to the church in the wildwood,
Oh, come to the church in the dale;
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the vale.
You probably don't know the origins of that song, and
obviously the folks of Green Mountain Falls, Colorado
don't either.
It must be the high altitude that makes them want to
lay claim to the little brown church in the vale.
Or perhaps those GMF folks can't believe that a song
could be written about a place of incomparable beauty
unless it was written about Green Mountain Falls
( No lovelier place in the dale.)
The Truth Is:
The inspiration of that song is an area near Nashua, Iowa.
It seems a young man by the name of William S. Pitts, a music
teacher, was traveling through Iowa in 1857 on his way to
Wisconsin to be with a young woman he was in love with.
He stopped to rest at a little spot that he thought would be
perfect for a church. When his journey was over, he wrote the
poem that was to become the song. Pitts, set the poem to music.
He later moved to Nashua to teach music, and was pleased to
see that other folks had felt the same way about the area where
he had first rested and been inspired. People with very little
money but a lot of faith, had built a small church on the site.
The quaint, tiny church was brown because brown paint was cheaper
than white paint. It remains brown to this day.
Pitts went on to sell the song to a music publishing company
for the grand price of twenty-five dollars, which he used
toward his endeavor to become a medical doctor. After medical
school, Dr. Pitts returned to the area to practice medicine.
You can’t blame the folks of Green Mountain Falls for laying
claim to something as nice as Dr. Pitts’ hymn, but keep in mine
GMF and The Church in the Wildwood located there don’t need to
bolster their reputation by falsehoods.
The little Colorado hamlet and its church seem to be right
out of a storybook. The mountains do offer peace to those
who are lucky enough to live there or visit there. The wind
rustling the trees and the water splashing against the rocks
in the creeks in that area create a hymn on their own.
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Music by JIM ED BROWN
Background and picture by
Stationery Heaven
