Fr Hedwig Lewis SJ –
James L. Pierpont composed “Jingle Bells”, perhaps the most famous secular Christmas song, in 1850. The origins of this song are quite interesting.
James was born in 1822 in Massachussetts, New England (USA). His father John Pierpont was a clergyman of the Unitarian Church and a staunch believer of the abolition of slavery. James developed rebellious attitudes from his childhood; when he was 14, he ran away from home and served as a deck hand on a ship called Shark in the Pacific Ocean. Eventually returning, he headed to California (USA-West) during the Gold Rush.
In 1846 James was back in New England where he married Millicent Cowee of Troy, New York State. They settled in Medford, Massachussetts, and had three children. In Medford a lot of the sleigh races were held. In 1853 Millicent died prematurely and James went to Savannah, Georgia (USA-Deep South) to visit his brother John Pierpont Jr., rector of the Unitarian Church at Troup Square, and settled there. Eventually taking the position of organist and music director in the church, James tried to piece his life back together.
In 1857 he married Eliza Jane Purse, daughter of wartime Savannah mayor Thomas Purse. The same year he obtained a copyright for his song “The One Horse Open Sleigh”. which later became “Jingle Bells”.
Patriotic inspirations
Apparently, his father-in-law had a significant impact on James. In April 1862, James enlisted as a clerk in the First Georgia Battalion, which soon became part of the Fifth Georgia Volunteer Cavalry, C.S. Army taking up arms against his native state during the Civil War. It is likely that James saw limited action during his war years. He composed several patriotic songs during his war years, among them, “We Conquer Or Die”, “Our Battle Flag”, and “Strike for the South”. Before he wrote the song Jingle Bells, the Boston Music Publisher published most of his other songs, among which were Ring The Bell Fanny (1854) and The Starlight Serenade (1855).
After the war, James spent time in Valdosta and Quitman and eventually became a music professor at Quitman Academy. His last years were spent at his son’s home in Winter Haven, Florida. “In spite of its success, James never witnessed the enormous popularity of “Jingle Bells”, enjoying neither fame nor fortune. He died in 1893 as a footnote in history, his accomplishments largely unrecognised. He was buried in Florida, but his body was moved less than a year later to Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, according to his wishes.
Controversies
There has been a fierce controversy over where Pierpont actually composed Jingle Bells: Medford or Savannah. According to one story, on a very cold winter day James went to the home of Mrs Otis Waterman, because there was the town’s only piano there. The piano belonged to William Webber, who was boarding at Mrs Waterman’s house and ran the local singing school in West Medford. When James arrived, he is reported to have said to Mrs Waterman: “I have a little tune in my head,” and sat down at the piano to play it for her. Mrs Waterman’s remarked that it sounded as a very merry little jingle, and people would like it. That remark gave the song its title – Jingle Bells. The mayor of Medford erected two bronze plaques to establish the birthplace of the song.
Soon, James moved to Savannah, and in 1857 obtained copyrights for his song. The people of Savannah began to claim that James wrote Jingle Bells there – as he fondly remembered the merry sleighing races from his childhood in Medford. Savannah tried to confirm its claim to the song’s origin by setting up a memorial up.
In 1946 the Boston Globe newspaper carried an article by Mrs Stella Howe of Medford, the grand-daughter of Mrs Waterman, which confirmed the story about James visiting her grandmother and playing the song. She said that sleighing races at that time from Medford Square to Malden Square were very popular, and the song was often sung while racing. Mrs Waterman recorded in her diary that she actually helped James to write the chorus of Jingle Bells.
The 1994 the Medford Citizen, a local newspaper, stated that “as you’re stopped at yet another traffic light on Salem Street this winter, watching your wipers fight a losing battle through a course of brown slush, think of the ghosts gliding by on horse-drawn sleighs, bells on bobtails ringing, making spirits light… What fun it would be to sing a sleighing song tonight.”
An author, Margaret DeBolt, who has studied and written extensively about Pierpont, remarks: “The controversy remains and both cities have markers that claim Pierpont’s song as their own. Yet, a few facts are constant: Both agree that the song originated from Pierpont’s remembrance of his childhood days spent sleighing in the New England snow, and “Jingle Bells”, no matter where it was written, has been a holiday favorite for over a century.”
Fr Hedwig Lewis SJ is the author of “Christmas by Candlelight”. Published by [email protected]