John Sanders, Baptist singing school teacher

The obituary below is from a scrapbook belonging to my Mother & Father. I believe it is a memorial that was adopted by the Oak Flat Singing Class (since it references singing but not church). I suppose it was printed in a local newspaper, but do not know which one.

John Sanders was the son of Edmond Harris Sanders and Nancy Hinson. He was born in Mississippi, May 5, 1865, a few years before the family left for Texas. The Harris Sanders family is recorded in the 1870 Sabine Parish, Louisiana census. E. Harris and Nancy Sanders joined Smyrna Baptist Church in Rusk County, Texas by letter May 20, 1876. He was received as a deacon, becoming the 4th deacon of Smyrna Church.

John Sanders joined the Smyrna Baptist Church by experience and baptism – possibly between October 16, 1880 and October 19, 1881, based on where his name is written in the church roll (but possibly before May 5, 1880, based on the age mentioned in his obituary). At the time of his death, February 18, 1926, he was a member of Rock Creek Baptist Church in Parker County, Texas (org. 1884). Interestingly, John Winfield Isbell preached his funeral service. J. W. Isbell was a nephew of John Birdwell Isbell, John’s pastor at Smyrna 1889-1893. 

John Sanders was an active singer and teacher of Sacred Harp. He moved away from East Texas looking for a climate more conducive to improving health issues from which he suffered.

In Memory of John Sanders.

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Who was once a member of the Oak Flat Singing Class, a strong supporter, and also a teacher of Sacred Harp. He has been gone from us for twenty years, having moved west in 1906. Though his works with us still remain. He surely did enjoy singing those sacred songs.

Soon after his death which was February 18, 1926, his dear daughter of 13 years wrote us that she could almost hear him sing:

Jesus lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly;
While the raging billows roll,
While the tempest still is high;
Hide me oh, my Savior hide,
'Til the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide
Oh receive my soul at last.

We feel sure that this dear friend and brother has realized an answer to this prayer in song and as he did so frequently sing:

How happy are the souls above
From sin and sorrow free;
With Jesus they are now at rest
And all his glories see.

He is gone but not forgotten. May we follow his example and still sing until we too can join that heavenly host in singing Hosanna’s to the Lamb of God which was and is to come.

So sweet are the memories of his past life in singing and teaching these sacred songs, and how sweet the thought that soon we will meet him in that home over there by the side of the river of life, where the saints all immortal and fair, are robed in their garments of white.

Read and approved September 26, 1926.

Charles Pruitt, Chairman,
M. L. Vaughn,
E. F. Scruggs,
Committee.

The next writing about John Sanders is by his granddaughter, Nancy Norene Sanders McConnell – daughter of Hubert Sanders and Billie Sue Harris.

John passed on before I was born; however, I heard many descriptions of him from my father, aunts, and uncles. By all accounts he was a fairly quiet man, a disciplinarian, a music teacher/leader, and a Bible Literalist. My father (Hubert) said of his father, “He never raised his voice to us. If we were misbehaving, he would call our names, give us a stern look, and that was all that was usually needed to straighten us up. However, if more was needed he would tell us to ‘get a switch’ and we knew exactly what he meant.” He believe the Bible to be a primer for life and taught this to his children. He organized and conducted “church singings” and encouraged his children to participate. John was a farmer by occupation. He was ill most of the last ten years of his life. In letters to his father (E. Harris Sanders) he referred to his illness as palegra. He also wrote often to his father of his desire to go back to Mt. Enterprise for a visit, but did not feel strong enough to make the trip. In the 1910 Parker Co. census it lists John as being married twice, his marriage to Martha Columbia Haskins being the second marriage. After polling all the relatives that may have knowledge of this, the consensus is that his first wife died of unknown causes and there were no children born in the marriage.

Note 1: Harris Sanders, the father of John, was a Sacred Harp singer. He was born in Morgan County, Georgia, and grew up in Meriwether County. Meriwether is a neighoring county to Harris County, Georgia, where Sacred Harp composer and compiler B. F. White lived. It is in the realm of possibility that Harris Sanders was taught by B. F. White, and this deserves some future research.

Note 2: The first wife of John Sanders was Mary Elizabeth Holleman, a sister of my maternal grandmother. They married in 1888, and she died that same year. In 1890 John Sanders married Martha Columbia Haskins, and they had 14 children.

Note 3: Pellagra is a nutritional disorder caused by niacin deficiency, which seems to me sort of an odd diagnosis for the 1920s, but probably not. The immediate cause of John’s death was pneumonia, and some people have believed his primary medical problem was asthma. I seem to remember my father saying something about him being bitten by something, so perhaps it was an asthmatic condition brought on by an allergic reaction to something. I do know from stories repeated here and among his more immediate family that John Sanders moved trying to find a better climate for his health.

The Weatherford Democrat, October 11, 1992, p. 10