MormonTimes.com: Original 'Poor Wayfaring Man' had different tune

Published: Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008 12:02 a.m. MDT
E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
New research has recovered the more upbeat tune John Taylor used when he sang "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" to Joseph Smith just before the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was murdered on June 27, 1844.

The tune had been lost to history. For 140 years, church members have sung the song to a different tune, one commissioned by Taylor himself.

A year before President Taylor died in 1887, he sang the song for composer Ebenezer Beesley the way he sang it at Carthage jail in Illinois before a mob stormed the building and shot and killed Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith and wounded Taylor and Willard Richards.

Read the full story and download a copy of the music at MormonTimes.com

Read all 26 comments

Recent comments

I'd really like to see a scanned copy of the original in addition…

Mark | Nov. 6, 2008 at 12:58 a.m.

A great discovery. It's confusing that this tune is referred to as…

Frans Heijdemann (musician) | Oct. 12, 2008 at 4:26 p.m.

Warren,
I believe I found the original tune to "The Spirit of God…

Kurt | Oct. 12, 2008 at 10:51 a.m.