Judge Henry H. Lovett, Sr.:
Big Singing Day’s Biggest Booster
Written By Justin D. Lamb
Judge Lovett (seated in the middle) during Big Singing Day practice in 1948 in the Marshall County Courthouse.
Also in the photo: Seated (l to r): Lucille Lilly, Judge HH Lovett, Daisy Hargrove.
Second row (l to r): Ethel Fiser, Mrs. Boone Hill, Nina McWaters, Margaret Heath, Mary Elen Lemon, Mayme Lovett, Coleman Duke Nichols
Back row (l to r): Boone Hill, Gus Fuqua, Ben Lomond Trevathan
(Photo courtesy of the Lovett family)
This weekend many will gather in the upstairs courtroom of the Marshall County Courthouse to participate in one of Marshall County’s oldest traditions—-Big Singing Day. Described as the oldest, indigenous musical traditions in the United States, singers of the southern harmony notation sing with no musical accompaniment and use only four notes (fa, sol, la, mi) which are characterized by their shape as well as their position on the scale. In order to make note reading easier, each of the four notes are associated with a shape: ‘fa’ has a triangular note head, ‘sol’ has a round note head, ‘la’ has a square note head, and ‘mi’ has a diamond shaped note head.
For years Judge Henry H. Lovett, Sr. was instrumental in the preservation and continuance of Big Singing Day. Born near Jonathan Creek in 1882, Judge Lovett attended every Big Singing Day in his lifetime with the exception of three. Lovett enjoyed a long career in Marshall County public life serving as Circuit Clerk, County Judge, Commonwealth Attorney, and Circuit Judge and between the years of these offices, Judge Lovett spent most of his time promoting the annual meeting of the Southern Harmony singers. A year before his death in 1971, Judge Lovett wrote an article for the Paducah Sun-Democrat and shared his knowledge and recalled his experiences with Big Singing Day. History is best taught by those who lived it firsthand, so here is the history of Big Singing Day in the words of Judge Henry H. Lovett, Sr.:
“The Old Southern Harmony Singing known merely as “Big Singing” has been going since 1884. It is a characteristic of Benton, since this is the only place in the world that holds this kind of event.
I’m a little older than the singing. I can’t remember the first one or the second one. I do remember three held outside of Benton prior to 1890. One was held at Briensburg, one at Olive, and one at Hardin. Since then I’ve attended all except three. Twice I was away in school. One I was sick.
I recall the year Big Singing was held at Hardin. That was in 1890. Hardin at that time was a new town. The railroad has just been built. There were no streets, graveled or paved. There were no sidewalks or anything else. It rained and rained and rained. There was more mud than you could imagine and when I got out of the conveyance I fell in the mud with my new pants on. That has stuck in my mind all these years. The singers met under a brush arbor because of the rain. I remember that very distinctly. Later the singings were held in Benton at the courthouse except in 1915. The courthouse burned and the singing was held in Paducah that year.
In 1884, Mr. James Lemon who brought the song book to this area thought it would be unique to have the old singers meet and sing the songs that their mothers and fathers used sing long, long time ago. He invited a number of people from Marshall County to meet in the old Union Church. What I mean by Union Church is one that was used by the Methodist, Baptist, and Christian denominations. That church was located here in Benton about where 13th and Olive Streets now intersect. That was the first Big Singing Day.
The Southern Harmony Song Book was first published in 1835 by Billy Walker of South Carolina. Billy’s father came from Wales, by way of Portugal. He was one of the dissenters or “Covenanters” who withdrew and left because of the imposition of the Church of England. If you recall, Henry VIII separated the Church of England from the Catholic Church when the Pope refused his consent to a divorce to Catherine of France in order to marry Ann Bolin. Several sects withdrew and called themselves by various names—-Separatists, Covenanters, and Puritans. Now a great deal of this music came with them from Wales.
The first publication of a songbook, together with those from another songbook from 1854, were used until 1937. At that time the Benton Young Men’s Progress Club decided to have the book re-published. The last publication came in 1962.
Some of the favorite songs are Holy Manna, Amazing Grace, Green Fields, The Lone Pilgrim, The Indian Convert, Alabama, and a number of others. Some of these old songs came to the American colonies long before the Revolutionary War.
In the early days of Big Singing, people would come from miles around on horseback, in buggies, and on foot. After the railroad was built, special trains were run. People came from various parts of the country by train, early in the morning and joined the others. Everyone brought their lunch and stayed all day. People came from all of the states in the Union.
Big Singing Day has two sessions, a morning and afternoon session. The morning session starts promptly at 10am. The only time it didn’t start promptly at 10am was in 1948 when I was supposed to open the session up, but I was late because I hadn’t finished teaching Sunday School at the Methodist Church across the street from the courthouse. That year it started at 10:30am.
I used to prepare the programs for Big Singing and act as master of ceremonies. I got a little too old for that, but when the fourth Sunday of May arrives, I hope to be there singing!”
—-Judge H.H. Lovett, Sr.
May 1970
Sources:
“Big Singing Day Event Is All By Itself” by Judge Henry H. Lovett; Paducah Sun Democrat; May 1970