Gospel Train: A Song History

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"The Gospel Train," often called by its refrain "Get On Board, Little Children," is a spiritual that appeared in print in the 1870s among the songs of the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University. The Nashville school sent the student singers out in 1871 to raise money it badly needed; they toured several northern states and New England, then Britain in 1873, where they sang for Queen Victoria[1]. Their first songbook, Jubilee Songs, published in New York by Biglow & Main with music transcribed by Theodore F. Seward from the group's own performances, does not include the song in the copy consulted here[2]. It does appear in the enlarged Jubilee Songs: Complete, entered for copyright in 1872, whose introduction, dated October of that year, says the new edition adds fresh material[3]. It was printed again in Gustavus D. Pike's 1873 account of the singers' fund-raising campaign[4] and in J. B. T. Marsh's The Story of the Jubilee Singers; with Their Songs, in the 1881 edition consulted here[5].

Hand-colored lithograph of a steam locomotive pulling a train of passenger cars through open countryside

Charles Parsons, The Express Train, hand-colored lithograph, 1859. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). A train of the song’s era, shown for atmosphere; it has no connection to the spiritual.

Who first made the song is less clear. The Traditional Ballad Index notes that several sources credit a "Gospel Train" to John Chamberlain (1821–1893), including an undated printed sheet titled "Rail Road Hymn," and adds that it is unclear whether he wrote the music[6]. A regimental history of the 12th New Hampshire Volunteers recalls Elder John Chamberlain preaching to the troops on 26 April 1863 and singing his hymn, calling him "the author of the celebrated 'Railroad Hymn'"[7], and a 1906 register of New Hampshire clergy credits the Free Baptist minister with a hymn about the railroad called "Gospel Train"[8]. In the sources consulted here, though, nothing settles whether his hymn and the Fisk singers' spiritual are the same song or related pieces on a shared theme, so the question is best left open.

The spiritual has been recorded many times. The Ballad Index lists versions from the 1910s through the 1940s by jubilee groups, preachers and other performers, T-Bone Walker among them[6]. Two early discs can be confirmed in the Discography of American Historical Recordings: Harry C. Browne with the Knickerbocker Quartet recorded "De Gospel Train Am Comin'" for Columbia in New York on 21 December 1916[9], and Clara Smith recorded "Get On Board," with Porter Grainger at the piano, on 23 November 1926[10]. It has also been taken up in church use: Hymnary.org records it in seventeen hymnals[11].

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Sources

  1. Tennessee Encyclopedia (Reavis L. Mitchell Jr.): "Jubilee Singers of Fisk University".
  2. Internet Archive (Boston Public Library copy): "Jubilee Songs: As Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University" (Biglow & Main, 1872).
  3. Internet Archive: "Jubilee Songs: Complete" (Theodore F. Seward, Biglow & Main, 1872).
  4. Internet Archive (Cornell University Library): Gustavus D. Pike, "The Jubilee Singers, and Their Campaign for Twenty Thousand Dollars" (1873).
  5. Internet Archive (Cornell University Library): J. B. T. Marsh, "The Story of the Jubilee Singers; with Their Songs" (1881).
  6. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Get On Board, Little Children".
  7. Internet Archive (Cornell University Library): Asa W. Bartlett, "History of the Twelfth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion" (1897).
  8. Internet Archive: N. F. Carter, "The Native Ministry of New Hampshire" (1906).
  9. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix 47250. De gospel train am comin' / Harry C. Browne; Knickerbocker Quartet".
  10. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix W143143. Get on board / Clara Smith".
  11. Hymnary.org: "The Gospel Train" (text).