Benjamin Lloyd and His Primitive Hymnal and His Grandson's Writings

 

I do not know very much about my 4th Great Uncle, other than he was the 5th son and older brother to my Joseph Walter Lloyd. I will have to find out more about him. In reading the Lloyd history by Oliver Weaver, he mentioned this hymnal put together by Benjamin. I had no idea it would be identified over time as a piece of museum quality folk music history. 

This is an article from the Folklore section of the Encyclopedia of Alabama online - Click Here

Information from the article states, "Benjamin Lloyd, a successful businessman from Chambers County and later a public official in Greenville, was a prominent Primitive Baptist elder. He saw the need for a hymn book with selections that expressed—or at least did not conflict with—the beliefs of the new denomination. Thus he selected 535 hymns from other popular hymn books and published the words, without musical notation, in palm-sized books under the title The Primitive Hymns: Spiritual Songs and Sacred Poems, Regularly Selected, Classified and Set in Order and Adapted to Social Singing and All Occasions of Divine Worship."

Something else popped up in a search for Lloyd on this website, Benjamin's grandson, Francis Bartow Lloyd was a politician and author of published articles about life at that time. He wrote under a false name - Rufus Sanders. He was shot and murdered by a man who, after a judgement from the state supreme court was found not guilty! Whoa! 

"Francis Bartow Lloyd (1861-1897) is remembered primarily for Sketches of Country Life: Humor, Wisdom, and Pathos from the "Sage of Rocky Creek," a posthumous collection of his syndicated newspaper columns depicting rural life and featuring his alter-ego Rufus Sanders. Lloyd was a politician, a talented newspaperman, and an accomplished orator who spoke all over the South. Lloyd was murdered at age 36 in a case that drew media attention from across the state."

Through the efforts of his wife and others, his Rufus articles were published as a collection. Another book I need to add to my Family history library!  Here is the article on Francis - Click Here