A
young music teacher named William Pitts was traveling by stagecoach
from Wisconsin to Iowa when he saw the empty lot where the church now
stands. The thought came to him of what a charming setting the spot
would make for a church. Returning home, he wrote the poem “Church in
the Wildwood,” and later set it to music. He put it away in a drawer
and forgot it. Meanwhile, church members began making plans to build a
church.. The Civil War slowed the work, but one family gave
trees and another sawed the lumber, and the work never really ceased.
By 1862 the building was enclosed and not a penny had been spent. When
it came time to paint the building, the cheapest paint to be found was
Ohio Mineral Paint, which would protect the wood but which was
unhappily brown.
Mr. Pitts had married and was living in Wisconsin. In 1862 the couple
moved to Fredericksburg, IA and Mr. Pitts was hired to teach a music
class at the Bradford Academy. Imagine his surprise when he saw a
little brown church nestled in the very trees where he had stood some
years before. He went home and found the song and taught it to his
class who sang it at the dedication service of the church. Pitts had
written a song for a church that wasn’t there. The congregation had
painted their little church brown without ever hearing of the song.
History took another turn when the Weatherwax Quartet traveled
throughout Canada and the United States between 1910 and 1921. Their
theme song was “The Church in the Wildwood” and they talked about the
little church. Over 70,000 couples have been married there
and they have an annual reunion.
