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Matilda T. Durham

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A major-key version of "Promised Land", used as a congregational hymn

Matilda T. Durham, later Hoy (January 17, 1815 – July 30, 1901) was an American composer and hymn writer. She is remembered for her shape note tune "Promised Land", first published in 1835.[1]

Biography

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A native of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Durham was the daughter of George Durham and Susan Hyde Durham. Her grandfather, John Durham, had settled near Switzer in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, before 1800, and he and his wife Mary were among the first members of Green Pond Baptist Church. "Grand Sir Durham", as John Durham was known, was ordained as a deacon when Matilda was nine year old.[2] Matilda married Andrew Coan Hoy (1819–1890) in 1843; the ceremony was conducted by John Gill Landrum, who like her was a contributor to William Walker's Southern Harmony. She worked as a singing teacher, and in addition produced Baptist articles and tracts; these, though serious, displayed traces of wit as well. Durham married Hoy in Cobb County, Georgia on 19 October 1843. According to some accounts she moved to Cobb County after the American Civil War[3]. However, she and her husband were received into membership of Noonday Baptist Church in Cobb County in February 1851, and her husband was elected clerk of that church in March 1856.[4] She died in Cobb County and was buried in the Fowler-Hoy family cemetery. She had outlived her husband by nearly eleven years.[5]

It has been posited that Durham was personally acquainted with Walker, who moved to the Spartanburg area around 1830;[6] between 1835 and 1846 she contributed several tunes to his books.[3] Besides "Promised Land", she is known for "Heavenly Treasure", "Star of Columbia", "Heavenly Treasures", "Vale of Sorrow", and "Jordan". She is often credited as "Miss M. T. Durham" or "M. Durham".[7] Her talents as a composer and writer were once recorded as having been noted in her epitaph.[5]

"Promised Land" has, since its publication, been adapted to a major key and, with an added refrain, become popular as a congregational hymn.[8]. Actually, the refrain, which first appeared in Durham's 1835 version, is of special interest because the words may have been written by Durham. These words are not in the rest of the hymn as written by Samuel Stennett.[9] The question in the refrain, "O, who will come and go with me?" caught on to the extent that it appears in at least three songs of later origin.[10]

References

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  1. ^ "William Walker: Carolina Contributor to American Music | The Sacred Harp Publishing CompanyThe Sacred Harp Publishing Company". Originalsacredharp.com. 2013-12-31. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  2. ^ Kimberling, Clark (Summer 2016). "Two Early American Women and Their Hymns: Elizabeth Ann Seton and Matilda Durham Hoy". The Hymn. 67: 18–22.
  3. ^ a b David Warren Steel; Richard H. Hulan (2010). The Makers of the Sacred Harp. University of Illinois Press. pp. 114–. ISBN 978-0-252-07760-9.
  4. ^ Sarah Blackwell Gober Temple. The First Hundred Years: a Short History of Cobb County, in Georgia. Cobb Landmarks Historical Society. pp. 93-. ISBN 9780935265163.
  5. ^ a b "Matilda T. DURHAM b. 17 Jan 1815, Spartanburg County, South Carolina d. 30 Jul 1901, Cobb County, Georgia". Myfamilytapestry.com. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  6. ^ "Matilda Durham Hoy". The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  7. ^ "Miss M. T. Durham". Hymnary.org. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  8. ^ Discipleship Ministries. "History of Hymns: "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand" - umcdiscipleship.org". www.umcdiscipleship.org. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  9. ^ "Matilda Durham Hoy". The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  10. ^ George Pullen Jackson. White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands. Dover Pulications. pp. 220-.
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