Celebrating Our Heritage: Singin' Billy Walker

Though it seems we often find ourselves far from home when we explore some bit of church history, we were pleased recently to discover a little bit of church history right in our own back yard (at least, not very far from it). Our very own hometown Spartanburg also served as home to musician William Walker (1809-75), who is important to church history most especially for the contribution of The Southern Harmony, a shape-note collection of Gospel songs and hymns. It was in this collection that the words and music of what has since been dubbed “the spiritual anthem of America” first appeared together in print. Walker probably derived the tune we now connect only with this great hymn, “Amazing Grace”, from the African plantation slaves. Though unconfirmed, some have surmised that Walker may have added the last verse (“When we’ve been there ten thousand years …”) to this famous hymn text by John Newton. It was Walker’s passion to educate the common man in the art of music, and it was his tunebooks (800,000 copies of The Southern Harmony were sold) which popularized Newton’s classic hymn.

We recently visited Walker’s grave in Magnolia Cemetery (pictured here), located barely more than a mile away from our present home at the parsonage of Cleveland Park Bible Church. It was “amazing” to stand there and consider that we were so near the spot where that famous hymn may first have been sung in the form in which we know it today, but it’s even more amazing to consider the amazing grace of God which that song extols.