The FATHER of Southern Gospel

Every day I was in business for the 30 years prior to going into full time ministry I found myself consciously or otherwise waking up either saying, “I can’t wait to get into the day today!” or asking myself, and/or God, “Am I where I’m supposed to be if I’m not very excited about today? When Mona and I went into full time ministry I know we both asked God AND each other that question, sometimes several times a day.  Not second guessing our ministry, but wanting to be sure we were in God’s Will.

Ever since we hit the road running on the afternoon of Sunday June 8^th after that wonderful Hope Church send-off we haven’t asked the question aloud because we have yet to wake up wondering if we are where we should be. God has put us in places every single day where we have met people, situations, and learned so much that we are sure we will use as we continue to grow in Him.

For example…did you know that the ‘Father’ of all Southern Gospel Music was born in Tennessee and built his Southern Gospel Empire right here, in the quiet town of Lawrenceburg, TN?  That’s right. Today we learned that James David Vaughn created his Vaughn’s music school, radio station, record pressing and songbook publishing business.

At its height, Vaughn managed over 20 different Southern Gospel Quartets who traveled all over the United States in his own fleet of 1920’s Plymouths sharing evangelistic music in churches small and large, schools, public arenas and everywhere to grow his business to the Glory of God.

Today we visited the Vaughn Museum, and found out that some of the groups our former Hope Church Praise Team Leader,

 Dorrell Lentz, brought to Hope, like the Blackwood’s, were first under contract with Vaughn’s in the 1950’s and 60’s.

The docent in the museum today was Tom, and he showed us around explaining the amazing story of the very beginnings of Southern Gospel from the early 1920’s to the 60’s, when this company finally closed its doors. 

It was then that God found others, like Bill and Gloria  Gaither, to take Southern Gospel to entirely new levels in a totally different Christian music environment. But every gospel great of today owes it all to Jesus, and James David Vaughn, and I believe they know it.

Step outside the Vaughn Museum, which, incidentally, is in a former bank built on the original site of the Vaughn School and Publishing House, and the first thing you will notice is the bigger than life statue of David Crockett in the town square, right where the old courthouse used to stand at the time of the Civil War. 

David was born in Northeastern Tennessee but it was in Lawrenceburg that he got his political boost and ended up going to Congress to represent his state and district.

Lawrenceburg is also where he lost his seat in Congress and left for that fateful trip to Texas to try to restart his failing financial life for his wife Elizabeth and children. In fact, the church we are parked behind now in the village of New Prospect was a log Methodist chapel near Shoal Creek where David had three water related businesses, a grist mill, lumber mill, and gun powder mill. All three were destroyed in a flood at the same time while he was 

                                                away in Washington, DC.

Two blocks from the square is a reconstruction of the log office David opened for himself in Lawrenceburg and a small museum of artifacts.  But there is very little left in the way of ‘things’ from this pioneer/politician’s life.  He was too poor to acquire much, and most of his homes were tenant farms, not his own property. They are all moldered back into nature.

We drove out of Lawrenceburg north on rte 43 into Amish Country. These Amish are a bit more independent than the Lancaster, PA folk we have come to know. They do not choose to place any battery operated flashing lights or reflecting triangles on their wagons or buggy’s, which are a bit larger than the ones we have found in Pennsylvania. As a result, I was told this evening by Ernie, a Sunday School teacher at New Prospect UMC, tragic accidents with autos happen all too frequently. 

We drove through some beautiful and very rustic farm country to get to Pulaski, Tennessee, on route 43 to the east of New Prospect and Lawrenceburg, and found signs of Anabaptist, Baptist, and Church of Christ congregations everywhere.

 

And BEES!

The town of Pulaski is the scene of what former Confederates call a travesty of military justice. Its here that a statue is raised to Sam Davis, a teenager who was caught by Union soldiers with important information on him ostensibly behind enemy lines.  He was summarily hung as a spy.

Sam is sometimes called the South’s ‘Nathan Hale’, the Revolutionary American spy who was hung by the British (‘My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country’).

Back at home at New Providence UMC we met Rev. Billy Beal who has been appointed here and to the Mars Hill UMC, just five miles distant, for the past 13 years.  We also met his grandson Levi as PopPop was giving him a non-mowing ride on his Hustler.

Then tonight we joined Pastor Billy and his Bible study of about 15 up at Mars Hill Church which is growing by leaps and bounds.  In fact, they just broke ground on a new 110 space parking lot. May God give the increase!

Tomorrow we hook up TOAD and drive farther east to Manchester, Tennessee, where cousins Myra and Dave Kline await us for a couple days of meeting their big family and touring the area.  They are letting us park FROG in their circular concrete driveway. We promised NOT to dump our tanks on their front lawn.  J

-Ken

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