The Commandments / In the Leafy Treetops / Smiles / Be Happy / The Handcart Song
The Commandments
Text: Isaac Watts, 1715; alt. 1982
Music: Charlene Anderson Newell, 1982
“The Commandments” is a rhymed paraphrase of the ten commandments. The original words are as follows:
Thou shalt have no more gods but me.
Before no idol bow thy knee.
Take not the name of God in vain.
Nor dare the Sabbath Day profane.
Give both thy parents honor due.
Take heed that thou no murder do.
Abstain from words and deeds unclean.
Nor steal, tho’ thou art poor and mean.
Nor make a wilful lie, nor love it.
What is thy neighbor’s, dare not covet.
It is not surprising to find this song grouped together with other similarly themed songs in The Children’s Songbook (The Articles of Faith,” “The Books in the Old Testament,” “The Books in the New Testament,” “The Books in the Book of Mormon,” etc.). What is surprising is the identity of the text’s author. Although The Children’s Songbook lists the text as anonymous, it has been recently discovered that the words were written by the great Isaac Watts, author of such celebrated hymns as “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” “Joy to the World,” “Sweet is the Work,” and many others. “The Commandments” was first published in his Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children (1715), a widely popular (and widely parodied) collection of verse for children. [1]
“The Commandments” was first published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1882. The words were included in Eliza R. Snow’s Recitations for the Primary Associations, in Poetry, Dialogues and Prose, Book 2 (1882), as “The Ten Commandments.” [2] Also in 1882, the words were published in the Juvenile Instructor, August 1882, set to a tune by Latter-day Saint composer Adam Craik Smyth. It was retitled “Double Chant: The Ten Commandments.” [3] This “Double Chant” was reprinted in the Deseret Sunday School Union Music Book (1884), [4] but this was the last Church music collection to include these words for over a century.
The words were republished in the January 1927 issue of the Juvenile Instructor, [5] but weren’t added back to the primary songbook until the 1980s. A rewritten version of the text was later set to music by Charlene A. Newell and published in the October 1982 issue of the Children’s Friend. [6] This is the version of the song that was included in The Children’s Songbook (1989).
In the Leafy Treetops
Text: Clara Louise Kessler, 1936
Music: Austrian Folk Tune
This children’s song was first published in Rhythms and Rimes (1936) in the World of Music series. It was titled “How Do You Do.” The words were attributed to Louise Kessler, and the music is credited as an Austrian folk tune. [7]
The author’s name was given in full as Clara Louise Kessler in The World of Music: Singing Days (1944). [8]
Clara Louise Kessler (1893-1968), who usually went by her middle name Louise, was born in Warren, Illinois on September 5, 1893, the middle child of Samuel and Martha Kessler. Her father, a pharmacist, moved the family to Normal, Illinois in 1898, and to Bloomington, Illinois, in 1903. Kessler attended Franklin School and graduated from Bloomington High School in 1912. After graduation she attended Illinois State Normal University (now Illinois State University). In 1915 she began teaching kindergarten at the Day Nursery in Bloomington, where she taught for four years. In 1919 she was hired as the head children’s librarian at Wither’s Public Library (now known as Bloomington Public Library). She worked there for 33 years.
Kessler was always interested in music and writing, and in 1918 published a small pamphlet of verse, War Poems for Children. She frequently contributed to the local Bloomington newspaper, the Daily Pantagraph, and some of her works were published in St. Nicholas, and other national children’s magazines. Around fifty of her song lyrics were included in The World of Music series, and twenty-five more in the anthology Music For Living. Kessler died on May 13, 1968, in Bloomington, Illinois. [9]
More research is needed to determine if the tune is really an Austrian folk tune.
Smiles
Text: Daniel Taylor, 1923
Music: Helen S. Leavitt, 1923
“Smiles” is better known by its first line “If you chance to meet a frown.” In The Children’s Songbook, the words are credited to Daniel Taylor, and the music is anonymous. This song was first published in Introductory Music (1923), with the words and melody only. In this collection the words are credited to Daniel Taylor, the music to Helen S. Leavitt. [10]
Helen Sewall Leavitt (1880-1958) was a nationally known music educator, She was born July 11, 1880 in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Burke Fay Leavitt and Lucina Day Leavitt. She attended Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and later studied at Harvard, Boston University, and the New England Conservatory of Music. From 1937 to 1951 she was manager of the music editorial department of Ginn and Company publishers and helped to create the twenty-seven volume The World of Music series and the six-volume Making Friends With Music. She died at Brookline, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1958. Her brother was the Rev. Dr. Ashley Day Leavitt, minister emeritus of the Harvard Congregational Church, in Brookline. [11]
Hymnary.org credits the words of “Smiles” to Daniel Thompson Taylor (1823-1899), an Adventist Christian hymnist. [12] However, this seems unlikely, as it is very different from any of Taylor’s other works. It also hasn’t been found before 1923, and Taylor died in 1899, twenty-four years earlier. It is more likely that the Daniel Taylor who wrote the words to “Smiles” is a different man than Daniel Thompson Taylor, and he probably lived in or near Boston, where composer Helen Leavitt lived.
“Smiles” was first published by the Church in the Children’s Friend for February 1929, [13] and reprinted in the 1939 edition of The Primary Song Book. [14] Interestingly, in both of these instances the music is credited to “H. S. L.–E. H.” Obviously, “H. S. L.” is for Helen S. Leavitt, but “E. H.” remains a mystery. These are probably the initials of the individual who created the harmonization, as the 1923 book in which it first appeared printed only the melody. A few other songs in the 1939 edition of The Primary Songbook have similar attributions. See for example, “The Rain,” by Mary Rose Jack, no. 38 (first published in Children’s Friend September 1927), which has the words attributed to “M. R. J.” and the music to “M. R. J. – E. H.” Mary Rose Jack was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so it stands to reason that “E. H.” likely was, as well. [15]
Be Happy
Text: Alice Jean Cleator, 1914
Music: J. Lincoln Hall, 1914
“Be Happy” is not a song that is often sung today. The first line is “Be happy like the little bird” (originally “Be happy sings the little bird”). This song was first published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1920 edition of The Primary Song Book, and if it weren’t for the copyright information at the bottom of the page, nothing would be known of its origins. [16] Neither author or composer were members of the Church, and yet their song has only been found in collections published by the Church. The copyright notice reads: “Copyright MCMXIV [1914] by Adam Geibel Music Co. International Copyright Secured.”
“Be Happy” in The Primary Song Book (1920)
This original 1914 printing has not yet been found. It was likely a small pamphlet that wasn’t widely used.
The words were written by prolific writer Alice Jean Cleator (1871-1926), who was also an animal advocate. She was born on January 10, 1871 at St. Thomas’ Walk, Douglas, Isle of Man. When she was just one year old, her parents John and Ann Cleator, immigrated with their six children to the United States. They settled in East Claridon, Ohio. Alice lived in East Claridon the remainder of her life. Some recent sources say that she taught school in New York, retiring in 1915, but this is likely incorrect. There is no evidence that she ever lived in New York. [17] She was a frequent contributor to Our Dumb Animals, a monthly periodical published by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She also contributed poems and stories to the Ohio Farmer, the Ladies Journal, and other popular magazines and newspapers. Little else is known about her life. A short death notice in Our Dumb Animals indicated that Cleator “was especially interested in the prevention of cruelty in connection with trained animal arts.” [18] She died on April 27, 1926, at Windsor hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. The cause of death listed on her death certificate was “manic depressive psychosis.” [19]
The music is credited in The Children’s Songbook to Arthur Wilton, but according to the Catalog of Copyright Entries, this is a pseudonym used by J. Lincoln Hall. [20] J. Lincoln Hall (1866- 1930) was a well-known nineteenth century gospel songwriter, who with Irvin Mack founded the Hall-Mack publishing company in the late 1890s. None of Hall’s other songs have appeared in any other Latter-day Saint song collections.
The Handcart Song
Text: John Daniel Thompson McAllister, 1856; Lucile Cardon Reading, 1969
Music: John Charles White, 1815
“The Handcart Song” originated in pioneer days. Its author, John Daniel Thompson McAllister was born in the United States, in Delaware, in 1827, and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1844, at the age of seventeen. He crossed the plains to Utah in 1851, and shortly afterward was called as a missionary to Great Britain. [21]
The exact date that McAllister wrote “The Handcart Song” is not known. It may have been written when he was still serving his mission in England. The earliest mention of it is in a letter published in The Mormon from J. H. Latey to John Taylor, dated August 14, 1856, from Florence, Nebraska Territory, in which he writes: “The first and second companies of emigrants by hand carts, under the care of Captains Edmund Elsworth and David D. McArthur, assisted by Elders J. Oakley, William Butler, Truman Leonard, and S. W. Crandall, piloted by Elder John Frances, who acted as agent and Commissary, arrived in Camp on the 17th of July, in fine health and spirits, (singing, as they came along, Elder J. D. S. [sic[ McAllister’s noted hand cart song— ‘Some must push and some must pull,’ &c.).” [22]
Some sources claim that on the return from his mission to Great Britain, McAllister went to Iowa City to help organize the handcart companies there, and that while there he taught his “Handcart Song” to the immigrating saints as a rallying cry. This is certainly possible. The first handcart companies sailed from England to Boston in March 1856, and from there they traveled to Iowa City, where they stopped to prepare for their journey across the plains. From Iowa City they traveled to Florence, Nebraska, and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September 1856.
John McAllister copied an early version of this song into the Journal of William Burton (1809-1851) on December 25, 1856:
“Hand Cart Song.”
Ye Saints who dwell on Britain’s shore,
Prepare yourselves with many more,
To leave behind your native land,
For sure God’s judgements are at hand.
But you must cross the raging main
Before the promised land you gain,
And with the faithful make a start
To cross the Plains with your Hand Carts.
Chorus
For some must push and some must pull
As we go marching up the hill,
So merrily on the way we go
Until we reach the Valley O!
The land that boasts of so much light,
We know are all as dark as night,
Where poor men toil and want for bread,
And rich men’s dogs are better fed.
The land that boasts of liberty
You never again will wish to see
When you from it can make a start
To cross the Plains with your Hand Carts.
Chorus
As on the way the carts are pulled,
‘Twill very much surprise the world
To see the old and feeble dame
Lending her hand to push the same.
And maidens, too, will dance and sing,
Young men more happy than a king;
And children they will laugh and play,
Their strength increasing day by day.
Chorus
But some will say this is too bad
The Saints upon the foot to pad,
And more than that to push a load,
As they go marching on the road.
But then we say this is the plan.
To gather out the best of men
And women too, for none but they
Will ever gather in this way.
Chorus
But long before the Valley’s gained
You will be met upon the Plain
With music sweet and friends so dear,
And fresh supplies our hearts to cheer.
And then with music and with song
How cheerfully we’ll march along,
And thankful that we made a start,
To cross the plains with our hand carts.
Chorus
When you get there among the rest,
Obedient be and you’ll be blessed,
And in your chambers be shut in
While judgements cleanse the earth from sin.
For we all know it will be so,
God’s servant spoke it long ago.
They say it is high time to start.
And cross the Plains with our hand carts.
For some must push and some must pull
As we go marching up the hilll.
So merrily on the way we go
Until we reach the Valley O!
(Original) Copied for R. Burton, by his loving brother, Mac.
G. S. L. City, December 25th, 1856. [23]
Although this song was popular with the Saints, it was not published in any songbooks until the 1930s and 40s. The earliest known printing of the song is in Pioneer Songs by Daughters of Utah Pioneers (1932) with the music arranged by Frederick Beesley. The first Church songbook to include it is Recreation Songs (1949). [24] There are slight variations in the words in different printings of the song, the most noticeable being in the first line, which today is usually printed as ‘Ye saints who dwell on Europe’s shore.” [25]
Lucile C. Reading (1909-1982) later rewrote the words to this song, keeping only the chorus from McAllister’s original text. Her version was first published in Sing With Me (1969), [26] and it was reprinted in The Children’s Songbook (1989).
The Children’s Songbook incorrectly attributes both the words and music to McAllister, but he only wrote the words. The tune is widely known and has been printed under many different names, including “King of the Cannibal Islands,” “Cumberland Reel,” “Nottingham Swing,” “Hilly-Go Filly-Go All the Way,” and many others. It was composed by John Charles White (1795-1845), a music seller from Bath, England, and first published in White’s Third Set of Quadrilles (1815), from one of these quadrilles, “Les deux rivales.” [27]
The earliest printing of the tune for “The Handcart Song,” from White’s Third Set of Quadrilles (1815), as printed in Anthony Bennett, “Rivals Unravelled: A Broadside Song and Dance,” Folk Music Journal 6, no. 4 (1993):438
White later adapted the tune as a country dance and renamed it “Vulcan’s Cave.” It was “introduced at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, performed at the Amicable Society’s Balls, Willis’s Rooms, and all Fashionable assemblies in London, Bath, Cheltenham, Brighton, etc.” [28] No other information has been found concerning John Charles White.
Notes:
[1] Isaac Watts, Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children (London, 1715). 39. The above link is for the second edition, 1716
[2] Eliza R. Snow, Recitations for the Primary Associations in poetry, dialogues and prose, Book 2 (Salt Lake City: Desret News Company, 1882), 41.
[3] Adam Craik Smyth, “Double Chant: The Ten Commandments,” Juvenile Instructor 17, no. 16 (August 1882), 256
[4] Deseret Sunday School Union Music Book (1884 ), 96
[5] “The Ten Commandments in Rhyme,” Juvenile Instructor 62, no. 1 (January 1927): 28
[6] Charlene Newell, “The Commandments,” Children’s Friend 12, no. 9 (October 1982): 22-23
[7] Maybelle Glenn, Helen S. Leavitt, Victor L. F. Rebmann, and Earl L. Baker, The World of Music: Rhythms and Rimes (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1936), 10
[8] Marguerite V. Hood, Glenn Gildersleeve, and Helen S. Leavitt, The World of Music: Singing Days (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1944), 110 [note: this book has a copyright of 1936, so may have been published earlier)
[9] Candace Summers, “Kessler, Clara Louise,” McLean County Museum of History, 2015. https://mchistory.org/research/biographies/kessler-clara-louise
[10] Thaddeus P. Giddings, Will Earhart, Ralph L. Baldwin, and Elbridge W. Newton, Music Education Series: Introductory Music (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1923 ), 89
[11] “Miss Leavitt, Former BU Teacher, Dies,” Boston Herald, August 26, 1958, 21
[12] “If you chance to meet a frown,” Hymnary.org, accessed October 1, 2023
[13] “Smiles,” Children’s Friend, February 1929, 74
[14] The Primary Song Book : Including Marches and Voluntaries (Salt Lake City: General Board of the Primary Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1939), no. 37
[15] The Primary Song Book : Including Marches and Voluntaries (Salt Lake City: General Board of the Primary Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1939), no. 38
[16] The Primary Association Song Book Including Marches and Voluntaries (Salt Lake City: General Board of Primary Associations, [1920]): 115
[17] The source of this misinformation appears to be The Cyber Hymnal website. They write:
“She was living in Claridon, Ohio, in 1880, & Geauga County, Ohio, in 1900, 1910, & 1920. She taught school in New York City, retiring some time before 1915.”
“Alice Jean Cleator,” The Cyber Hymnal, last updated March 23, 2023
*Hymnary.org repeats this misinformation without verifying facts. See “Alice Jean Cleator > texts,” Hymnary.org, accessed October 1, 2023
*However, Cleator’s writings indicate she was still living in East Claridon in 1911 and 1913, which doesn’t leave much room for her to have taught for several years in New York and then retired in 1915. See Alice Jean Cleator, “He was so kind,” Our Dumb Animals 44, no. 5 (October 1911): 67; See also National Humane Review (June 1913): 125
[18] “Alice Jean Cleator, ” Our Dumb Animals 59. no. 2 (July 1926):26
[19] Biographical sources for Alice Jean Cleator:
* “Isle of Man Parish Registers, 1598-2009,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XZRG-GZ9 : 2 March 2021), Alice Jane Cleator, 1871, Christening; citing Methodist Circuit, Douglas, Isle of Man, Manx National Heritage Library, Douglas.
* “England and Wales Census, 1871,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VFTR-VQ9 : 26 June 2022), Alice J Cleator in entry for John Cleator, 1871.
* “New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK9Q-JT33 : 13 August 2022), Alice Cleator, 1872.
* “Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X8JB-RDQ : 8 March 2021), Alice Jean Clintor [Cleator], 27 Apr 1926; citing Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, reference fn 22985; FHL microfilm 1,984,301.
* “Ohio Death Index, 1908-1932, 1938-1944, and 1958-2007,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VK5S-59J : 12 November 2019), Alice J Cleator, 1926.
[20] See “Children’s Day Helper” in Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series, Vol. II, Part , No. 1, Books and Pamphlets Including Serials and Contributions to Periodicals, January – June 1957 (Washington, D. C.: Copyright Office the Library of Congress, 1958), 698; see also “That Wonderful Night” in Catalogue of Copyright Entries. Part 3. Musical Compositions: New Series, Vol. 26, Pt 2, Last Half of 1931, nos. 9-12 (Washington, D. C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1932), 1334
[21] Andrew Jensen incorrectly gives the year of McAllister’s baptism as 1847 in Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia. However, in his own journal McAllister states that he was baptized in October 1844.
[22] “Correspondence from the Camp at Florence,” The Mormon, August 30, 1856, [2]. This was reprinted in the October 4, 1856 issue of the Millennial Star, but here McAllister’s name has been corrected to “J. D. T. McAllister.”
[23] “Journal of William Burton” [typescript copy], Archive.org, accessed October 3, 2023
[24] Recreation Songs (Salt Lake City: General Music Committee, 1949), 278. The chorus was also included in 1949 edition of Sunday Morning in the Nursery, reprinted from Pioneer Songs.
[25] For different variants of the text see:
* Levette J. Davidson, “Mormon Songs,” Journal of American Folklore 58, no. 230 (October-December 1945): 278-279
* Riley Shepard, The Master Book of American Folk Song (1983), 2466-2468
* Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 19 (Harford, Connecticut: Dustin, Gilman & Co., 1875), 217
[26] Sing With Me: Songs for Children (Salt Lake City:Deseret Book Company, 1969), E-7
[27] John Charles White, White’s third set of quadrilles, with their proper figures in French & English : as danced at the Bath Rooms & nobilities & assemblies : arranged for the piano-forte, harp or violin & dedicated to Mrs. Charles Rees (Bath: White’s Music Warehouses, 1815). See Anthony Bennett, “Rivals Unravelled: A Broadside Song and Dance,” Folk Music Journal 6, no. 4 (1993):420-445.
[28] Anthony Bennett, “Rivals Unravelled: A Broadside Song and Dance,” Folk Music Journal 6, no. 4 (1993):420-445. “The King of the Cannibal Islands,” probably the most popular song set to this tune, was written circa 1830 by A. W. Humphreys.
Latter-day Saint Hymnology 