The hymn below is an “occasional hymn,” not particularly a “church hymn.” It is written to express the last thoughts and words of a dying man. It clearly expresses hope in God, who “doeth nothing wrong.” It urges others to solemnly consider God and their own fate. The words were written by Kate Harris of Pascoag, Rhode Island, and printed in the New England Diadem and Rhode Island Temperance Pledge, February 9, 1850. According to Harris, the words were “Suggested on hearing read an extract of a letter from Captain Chase, containing the dying words of Brown Owen, who recently died on his passage to California.”[i];
At some point after that, Ball & Drinkard picked up the words and wrote the tune The Dying Californian. This was printed in The Sacred Harp in 1860 on page 410.[ii]
For my limbs are growing cold,
And thy presence seemeth nearer
When thine arms around me fold.
2. I am dying, brother, dying,
Soon you’ll miss me in your berth;
For my form will soon be lying,
’Neath the ocean’s briny surf.
3. I am going, surely going,
But my hope in God is strong;
I am willing, brother, knowing
That he doeth nothing wrong.
4. Tell my father, when you greet him,
How in death I prayed for him,
Prayed that I might only meet him
In a world that’s free from sin.
5. Tell my mother,—God assist her,
Now that she is growing old—
That her son would glad have kissed her,
When his lips grew pale and cold.
6. Listen, brother, catch each whisper
’Tis my wife I’ll speak of now,
Tell, O tell her, how I missed her
When the fever burned my brow.
7. Tell her she must kiss my children
Like the kiss I last impressed,
Hold them as when last I held them
Folded closely to my breast.
8. Give them early to their Maker,
Putting all her trust in God,
And He never will forsake her,
For He’s said so in his word.
9. Oh! my children, Heaven bless them,
They were all my life to me:
Would I could once more caress them,
Ere I’d sink beneath the sea!
10. ’Twas for them I crossed the ocean,
What my hopes were I’d not tell;
But they gained an orphan’s portion—
Yet He doeth all things well.
11. Listen, brother, closely listen,
Don’t forget a single word:
That in death my eyes did glisten
With the tears her memory stirred.
12. Tell them I ne’er reached the haven
Where I sought the precious dust;
But have gained a port called Heaven
Where the gold will never rust.
13. Tell my sisters I remember
Every kind and parting word,
And my heart has been kept tender,
By the thoughts its memory stirred.
14. Urge them to secure an entrance,
They will find their brother there;
Faith in Jesus and repentance
Will secure for them a share.
15. Hark! I hear my Saviour speaking,
’Tis—I know his voice so well;
When I’m gone, O don’t be weeping,
Brother, hear my last farewell!
The original poem contained eight 8-line stanzas (of 8s.7s. meter). R. F. Ball and (First Name Unknown) Drinkard used 4-line stanzas instead, and dropped the first half of the second stanza, creating fifteen 4-line stanzas for their tune. The missing half stanza is:
I have something I would say,
Ere the vale my visions darken
And I go from hence away.
Both of these composers continue to be something of an enigma. R. F. Ball served on the 1859 Committee that produced the 3rd edition of The Sacred Harp. He is credited with three songs: I Am Passing Away, The Dying Californian, and Valley Grove.[iii] Drinkard might be John Smith Drinkard (1808-1865), born in South Carolina, lived in Georgia, and lastly in Chambers County, Alabama. There were several men with the surname Ball in Troup County, Georgia, which is a neighboring county of Chambers County, Alabama.
Brown Owen (1820-1849) died somewhere in Panama and is interred there. A cenotaph in his memory was erected near his wife’s grave at the North Burial Ground in Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island. He married Elizabeth Potter Randall in 1845, and they had two children. Little is known of the Kate Harris who wrote the poetry.
[ii] In 1902, W. M. Cooper moved the song to 398b, added an alto, and reduced the text to the first three stanzas. The 1936 Denson added a rearrangement by Howard Denson. The text was reduced to four stanzas, an alto added, and the time signature changed from 4/4 to 3/2. The J. L. White edition of The Sacred Harp maintains the song in its original state. I sometimes sing “’Neath Oak Flat’s cold native earth” in place of “’Neath the ocean’s briny surf.”
[iii] J. S. James claimed that Absalom Ogletree said that R. F. Ball died during the Civil War in 1862.
