The Little Brown Church in the Vale - Victor Male Quartet (1915)

"The Little Brown Church in the Vale" also called "The Church in the Wildwood"

Victor Male Quartet

Victor 17982

1915

Song by Will­iam S. Pitts.

W. S. (William Savage) Pitts was born in 1830. He died in 1918. He wrote, "One bright af­ter­noon of a day in June 1857, I first set foot in old Brad­ford, Io­wa, com­ing by stage from Mc­Gre­gor. My home was in Wis­con­sin. The spot where the Lit­tle Brown Church now stands was a set­ting of rare beau­ty. There was no church there, but the spot was there wait­ing for it. When back in my home I wrote the song ‘The Lit­tle Brown Church in the Vale.’ I put the ma­nu­script away. In the spring of 1862 I re­turned to Io­wa and set­tled at Fred­er­icks­burg…In the years of 1859 and 1860 the good peo­ple of Brad­ford were de­ter­mined to build a church…By the ear­ly win­ter of 1864 the build­ing was rea­dy for de­di­ca­tion. While I was hold­ing the sing­ing school, near its close in the spring, the class went one ev­en­ing to the church. It was not then seat­ed, but rude seats were im­pro­vised. My ma­nu­script of the song I had brought with me from Wis­con­sin. It had ne­ver been sung be­fore by any­one but my­self. I sang it there. Soon af­ter­wards I took the ma­nu­script to Chi­ca­go [Il­li­nois], where it was pub­lished by H. M. Hig­gins. It won a speedy re­cog­ni­tion lo­cal­ly and with the years won its way in­to the hearts of the peo­ple of the world."

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.

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.

How sweet on a clear, Sab­bath morn­ing,
To list to the clear ring­ing bell;
Its tones so sweet­ly are call­ing,
Oh, come to the church in the vale.

There, close by the church in the val­ley,
Lies one that I loved so well;
She sleeps, sweet­ly sleeps, ’neath the wil­low,
Disturb not her rest in the vale.

There, close by the side of that loved one,
To trees where the wild flow­ers bloom,
When the fare­well hymn shall be chant­ed
I shall rest by her side in the tomb.

From the church in the val­ley by the wild­wood,
When day fades away in­to night,
I would fain from this spot of my child­hood
Wing my way to the man­sions of light.