
W. S. Pitts
William S. Pitts (1830-1918) was an American physician and composer who wrote the well-known song "The Church in the Wildwood" in 1857. William Savage Pitts was born at Lums Corners within the town of Yates in Orleans County, New York on August 18, 1830 to Charles Pitts and Polly Green Smith Pitts who were descended from New England Puritans of English and Scottish ancestry. Pitts was the eighth of nine children and had musical ability from an early age, taking formal music lessons from a graduate of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society. At age nineteen Pitts traveled with his family to Rock County, Wisconsin where he worked as a rural schoolteacher. In 1857 Pitts traveled to Fredericksburg, Iowa to visit his fiancee, Ann Eliza Warren, a teacher, and along the journey he stopped in Bradford, Iowa. Pitts found particular beauty in a wooded valley formed by the Cedar River. While viewing the spot, Pitts envisioned a church building there and could not seem to ease the vision from his mind. Returning to his home in Wisconsin, he wrote "The Church in the Wildwood" for his own sake, eventually saying of its completion, "only then was I at peace with myself." By 1862 Pitts was married in Union, Wisconsin, and he and his wife moved to Fredericksburg to be near her elderly parents, and they remained there forty-four years and had three children. Upon his return to the Iowa, Pitts was surprised to find a church being erected where he had imagined it five years before. The building was even being painted brown, because that was the least expensive color of paint to be found and became known as The Little Brown Church. During the winter of 1863-64 he taught a singing class at Bradford Academy. Pitts had his class sing the song at the dedication of the new church in 1864. This was the first time the song was sung by anyone apart from Pitts himself. |
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Birth and Death Data: Born 1830, Died 1918
Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1914 - 1932
Roles Represented in DAHR: composer, lyricist
= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.
Recordings
Company | Matrix No. | Size | First Recording Date | Title | Primary Performer | Description | Role | Audio |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Victor | B-16099 | 10-in. | 6/14/1915 | The little brown church in the vale | Victor Male Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with organ | lyricist, composer | |
Victor | B-25474 | 10-in. | 8/29/1921 | Die kleine Kappelle im Tal | Methodist Ministers Quartet | Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied | composer | |
Victor | BVE-37907 | 10-in. | 2/16/1927 | The church in the wildwood | Calhoun Sacred Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with piano | composer | |
Victor | BVE-47158 | 10-in. | 10/6/1928 | The church in the wildwood | Gentry Family | Male vocal quartet | composer | |
Victor | BVE-56145 | 10-in. | 9/24/1929 | The church in the wildwood | Tietge Sisters | Female vocal trio, with piano | composer | |
Victor | BS-59028 | 10-in. | 10/13/1932 | The church in the wildwood | Carter Family | Mixed vocal trio, with guitar and autoharp | composer | |
Victor | BVE-67746 | 10-in. | 12/30/1930 | The little brown church | Ralph Crane | Male vocal solo, with instrumental quintet | composer, lyricist | |
Columbia | 39482 | 10-in. | 7/8/1914 | The church in the wildwood | Chautauqua Preachers’ Quartette | Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied | composer | |
Columbia | W150285 | 10-in. | 4/18/1930 | The church in the wildwood | Smith’s Sacred Singers | Male vocal ensemble, with piano | composer | |
OKeh | 8726 | 10-in. | Aug. 1924 | The church in the wildwood | Jenkins Family | Mixed vocal trio, with organ | composer | |
OKeh | W80661 | 10-in. | 3/23/1927 | The church in the wildwood | The Jenkins' Sacred Singers | Mixed vocal trio, with bell and organ | composer | |
Brunswick | 3369 | 10-in. | approximately Dec. 1919 | Church in the wildwood | Criterion Male Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with chimes | composer | |
Brunswick | 3669 | 10-in. | approximately Feb. 1920 | The church in the wildwood | Criterion Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with orchestra | composer | |
Brunswick | E20176-E20177 | 10-in. | 9/16/1926 | The church in the wildwood | Criterion Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with organ | composer | |
Brunswick | E20471-E20472 | 10-in. | 10/21/1926 | The church in the wildwood | Criterion Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with organ and chimes | composer | |
Edison | 5305 | 10-in. | 1/19/1917 | The church in the wildwood | Apollo Quartet of Boston | Male vocal quartet, with organ | composer | |
Edison | 9521 | 10-in. | 5/19/1924 | The church in the wildwood | Aida Brass Quartet | Brass quartet | composer |
Citation
Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Pitts, W. S.," accessed February 8, 2023, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/104782.
Pitts, W. S.. (2023). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved February 8, 2023, from https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/104782.
"Pitts, W. S.." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2023. Web. 8 February 2023.
DAHR Persistent Identifier
External Sources
Wikipedia: William S. Pitts
Linked Open Data Sources
LCNAR: Pitts, W. S. (William Savage), 1830-1918 - http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85009926
Wikidata: William S. Pitts - http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q8018001
Wikipedia content provided under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-SA license
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