Pap and Granny, ca. 1965

As the world gets ready for this week of Valentines Day I started thinking about my favorite love song. I immediately thought of “When You and I Were Young Maggie.”

There’s certainly something to be said for those first days of courting. From the flip-flop your heart does every time your eyes rest on your beloved to the electric energy you feel between the two of you-it’s all heady important stuff.

Yet as one grows older the thought of love takes on a different sort of meaning.

One of my first bosses told me and the other young girls who worked for her “You don’t need a good looking boy with a fancy truck you need a boy who’ll rub your feet at the end of a long tiring day and clean up your puke when you’re sick.” I’m sure she felt the need to share her wisdom with us because as teenage girls often do we talked about the cutest boys in town pretty much all the time.

A quick google search gave me the history of the song. Apparently a lot of folks list the song as a traditional Scottish tune, but that isn’t where the song was born. The song was written by a Canadian, George Washington Johnson.

The Glandbrook Heritage Society website tells the story of the song:

In 1859, George Washington Johnson, recently graduated from the University of Toronto, came to teach at S.S. #5, Glanford. A native of the adjacent community of Binbrook, George, twenty-one, dark and handsome, soon found himself in love with his student, the fair Maggie Clark who was just eighteen.

She reciprocated his affection and the two shared many hours together. Fond of music they would often sing together at the Clark homestead or in the local Glee Club of Glanford; and frequently summer strolls along the maple lined banks of Twenty Mile Creek took them to her father’s mill, a short distance north of the Clark homestead. It was on one these romantic walks that George Johnson was inspired to begin a volume of verses entitled “Maple Leaves” which would contain the poem “When You and I Were Young, Maggie”.

Much in love, the couple became engaged. However, a storm loomed on the horizon. Maggie who had contracted tuberculosis, then known as the “Great White Plague” made both aware of the threat it held for their future.

During one of his finance’s more serious periods of illness, George made a solitary walk to the hill which overlooked the mill. Here in the “green grove – where first the daises sprung”, George Washington Johnson composed the verse that would provide lyrics for the song.

Unfortunately, they would not grow old together. Whether the lyrics were a denial of reality, a touching pretense or an expression of faith in their future, the couple made plans for marriage.

But first there was a period of separation. Maggie went to the Wesleyan College in Hamilton and George to study at the Fort Edward Institute on the Hudson River in New York State. Distance only increased their love and on October 21, 1864 they were married at the Methodist Church in Glanford Township.

George had now settled on a career of journalism with the “Courier” in Buffalo, New York. His ability as a journalist soon became recognized and he was offered a position with the Cleveland, Ohio, “Plain ‘ Dealer”. Once he was secure in his new post, George and his bride took up residence in Cleveland. Then suddenly, the tragedy they had feared struck. Maggie’s tuberculosis failed to respond to medical treatment. She passed away on May 12, 1865, at twenty-three, less than a year after their marriage. She was laid to rest at the family plot in White Church cemetery near Mount Hope. Overwhelmed by his loss, George resigned from the “Plain Dealer” and returned to Canada and to teaching.

The following year, George visited an old friend in Detroit, Michigan, J.C. Butterfield, who at his request, set the words of “When You and I Were Young, Maggie” to music.

When I read the information regarding the song on the Glandbrook Heritage Society website I was surprised to learn the song wasn’t written exactly for the reason I had in my mind. I thought “Well there was no aging couple who’d spent the last 60 years of their lives together.”

But then I reminded myself, songs mean different things to different people. There’s no doubt Johnson wrote the song thinking of his deep love for his Maggie and there’s no doubt the words do fit perfectly for couples who last through the test of time.

The words below are the ones Pap and Paul sung, to see Johnson’s original words go here.

When You and I Were Young, Maggie written by George Washington Johnson

I wandered today to the hill, Maggie,
To survey the scene below,
To see the creek and the creaking old mill, Maggie,
As we used to, long ago.

But the green grass is gone from the hill, Maggie,
Where first the daisies sprung;
And the creaking old mill is still, Maggie,
Since you and I were young.

They say I’m feeble with age, Maggie,
My steps less spry than then,
My face is a well-written page, Maggie,
And time alone was the pen.

But the green grass is gone from the hill, Maggie,
Where first the daisies sprung;
And the creaking old mill is still, Maggie,
Since you and I were young.

They say we are old and grey, Maggie,
Our trials of life nearly done
But to me you’re as fair as you were, Maggie,
When you and I were young.

I suppose part of the reason I like the song so much is because it reminds me of Pap and Granny. They dated a mere three months before embarking on a marriage that would produce three children and last just over 50 years. If Pap had lived this year would mark their 54th year of marriage.

The song also reminds me of a real life Maggie who lived just down the road from here. You can go here to read about her life and discover the reason her name is still called forth in this community all these years later.

Tipper

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