The Church In The Wildwood
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.
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The Church In The Wildwood
William dismounted from the stagecoach while the horses were being changed. The young music teacher was traveling to Iowa to visit his fiancé. Rather than sitting and waiting, he wandered around the tiny town to see the what it had to offer. As he made his way down Cedar Street, he stopped at an empty piece of land that formed a small vale.
As he looked over the site, his imagination began to picture a small building. He thought, “What a beautiful setting for a church this would be.”
William made his way back to the stage and continued his journey, eventually returning to his home in Wisconsin. His mind, however, lingered on that pretty piece of land and a song began to form in his mind. He pictured a little church among the trees. A little brown church in the vale.
By now, you know the song. William titled it “Church In The Wildwood.” But what you didn’t know before is what was happening back in Bradford, Iowa. While William was at work teaching music and finishing his poem in Wisconsin, the people of Bradford, Iowa were also busy. They had been meeting in homes, offices and store fronts for so long that when their new pastor suggested a proper church, a family donated an unused piece of land and they began to build.
With donated lumber and labor, they finished their building without spending a cent. It was a beautiful little chapel, but they could only afford the cheapest color of paint: brown. So, perfectly situated on what used to be an empty lot on Cedar Street, their church was finally ready for use. Yes, it was that same lot and, yes, it now housed a little brown church in the vale.
In 1862, William returned to the area to teach at the Bradford Academy. To his utter shock, he found the little brown church built on the exact spot where he imagined it, years earlier. He retrieved his old song and taught it to his class who sung it at the church’s dedication service.
It was a beautiful song made for a beautiful moment. And to think, all of my life I assumed that the church existed before the song. I never imagined that it was a song written for a church that wasn’t there.
