- About
- Contact Us
- Collections
- Finding Aids
- Exhibits
- Additional Digitized Content
- This Week in Mars Hill History
- Liston B. Ramsey Center for Appalachian Studies
-
Lesson Plans
-
North Carolina History Lesson Plans from the Southern Appalachian Archives
- North Carolina History Lesson Plans: Precolonial
- North Carolina Era 2 – Colonial 1600 - 1763: Migration Push/Pull Lesson
- North Carolina Era 3 – Revolution 1763 - 1789: Regulator Songs Lesson Plan
- North Carolina Era 4: Early National – 1789-1836: Family Histories Lesson Plan
- North Carolina Era 5: Antebellum - 1836 - 1860: Rip Van Winkle in contemporary writing lesson plan
- North Carolina Era 6: Civil War and Reconstruction - 1860 - 1876: Views of the Civil War Lesson Plan
- North Carolina Era 7: New South – 1876 - 1900: Subscription Schools in Western North Carolina Lesson Plan
- North Carolina Era 8: Early 20th Century – 1900 - 1929 Lesson Plans
- North Carolina Era 9: Depression and War (1929-1945)
- North Carolina Era 10: Postwar (1945-1975): Post-War Political Cartoons Lesson Plan
- North Carolina Era 11: Recent (1975-2010) Lesson Plans
- Land Use in Western North Carolina Lesson Plans from the Southern Appalachian Archives
-
North Carolina History Lesson Plans from the Southern Appalachian Archives
- "Feast and Farmin': A Celebration of Western North Carolina Agricultural History"
The Old Churchyard
Dublin Core
Title
The Old Churchyard
Subject
Hymns
Description
This is a hand-transcribed version of the hymn, "The Old Churchyard." A note at the end of the transcription says that this was Maw Maw Phillips's favorite meeting house song.
Creator
Bobby McMillon
Source
Bobby McMillon Collection, Southern Appalachian Archives, Mars Hill University
Publisher
Southern Appalachian Archives, Liston B. Ramsey Center for Appalachian Studies, Mars Hill University
Date
1980-10
Rights
This item may be viewed, downloaded, and printed for personal and educational use, but any commercial use is prohibited without permission from the Southern Appalachian Archives, Mars Hill University. Questions may be directed to the Archivist at (828) 689-1262 or archives@mhu.edu.
Language
English
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
The Old Churchyard
Oh come, come with me to the old church yard
I well know the path thru the soft, green sward.
Friends slumber there we were wont to regard
and we'll trace out their names in the old church yard.
Oh mourn not for them, their grief is o'er
weep not for them, they weep no more.
For deep in their sleep, tho cold and hard
their pillows may be in the old church yard.
I know it seems vain when friends depart
to breath kind words to a broken heart.
I know that the joys of life seem marred
when we follow their steps to the old church yard.
But were I at rest beneath yon tree
's why should you weep dear friends for me?
s' I am wayworn and sad, oh why then retard
the rest that I seek in the old church yard?
It's our friends linger there in the sweet repose
released from the worlds sad bereavements and woes.
And where should I rest with the friends they regard?
in the quietude sweet in the old church yard.
or (and who would not rest)
s' We'll rest in the hope of that bright day
when beauty shall spring from the prisons of clay
When Gabriel's voice and the trump of the Lord
shall awaken the dead in the old churchyard.
[second page of song]:
The Old Church yard 2
s' oh weep not for me for I'm anxious to go
to that heavenly rest where no tears ever flow.
s' fear not to enter that dark, lonely ward
for soon I shall rise from the old church yard.
Yes soon I shall join that heavenly band
of glorified souls at my Saviours right hand.
Forever to dwell in bright mansions prepared
for saints who shall rise from the old church yard.
I was working on this notebook in October, 1980 and had written the words to the "Old Churchyard" when a few days later my cousin Janette McMillon called to tell me that Maw Maw had died. She was in the Maryville, Tennessee hospital when while going to the bathroom she fell in the floor. A blood clot set up and in a few minutes she had a heart attack. She was crying "the bees are stinging." It was the pain in her left arm which I'm sure in Maw Maws mind she thought se was being stung. It seems ironic that this happened just after I had written this song, for it was her favorite of all the meeting house songs. They asked me to sing at her funeral but I could [not?]. This is February 28, 1984 and the memory of Maw Maw is still so sweet and sad that I often feel like crying.
Oh come, come with me to the old church yard
I well know the path thru the soft, green sward.
Friends slumber there we were wont to regard
and we'll trace out their names in the old church yard.
Oh mourn not for them, their grief is o'er
weep not for them, they weep no more.
For deep in their sleep, tho cold and hard
their pillows may be in the old church yard.
I know it seems vain when friends depart
to breath kind words to a broken heart.
I know that the joys of life seem marred
when we follow their steps to the old church yard.
But were I at rest beneath yon tree
's why should you weep dear friends for me?
s' I am wayworn and sad, oh why then retard
the rest that I seek in the old church yard?
It's our friends linger there in the sweet repose
released from the worlds sad bereavements and woes.
And where should I rest with the friends they regard?
in the quietude sweet in the old church yard.
or (and who would not rest)
s' We'll rest in the hope of that bright day
when beauty shall spring from the prisons of clay
When Gabriel's voice and the trump of the Lord
shall awaken the dead in the old churchyard.
[second page of song]:
The Old Church yard 2
s' oh weep not for me for I'm anxious to go
to that heavenly rest where no tears ever flow.
s' fear not to enter that dark, lonely ward
for soon I shall rise from the old church yard.
Yes soon I shall join that heavenly band
of glorified souls at my Saviours right hand.
Forever to dwell in bright mansions prepared
for saints who shall rise from the old church yard.
I was working on this notebook in October, 1980 and had written the words to the "Old Churchyard" when a few days later my cousin Janette McMillon called to tell me that Maw Maw had died. She was in the Maryville, Tennessee hospital when while going to the bathroom she fell in the floor. A blood clot set up and in a few minutes she had a heart attack. She was crying "the bees are stinging." It was the pain in her left arm which I'm sure in Maw Maws mind she thought se was being stung. It seems ironic that this happened just after I had written this song, for it was her favorite of all the meeting house songs. They asked me to sing at her funeral but I could [not?]. This is February 28, 1984 and the memory of Maw Maw is still so sweet and sad that I often feel like crying.
Original Format
Handwritten text in a brown spiral-bound notebook.
Files
Collection
Citation
Bobby McMillon, “The Old Churchyard,” Southern Appalachian Archives Mars Hill University, accessed June 7, 2023, https://southernappalachianarchives.org/items/show/947.