The Pine Tree Hymn is Written and Performed
In 1923, several of SFA's first faculty members started their lives in Nacogdoches in the Sarah Richardson House on Washington Square. The faculty members, including Lois Foster [later Blount], Miss Ida Pritchett, and Miss Ruth Mays, were residents in the house at 315 North Church at the time in 1924 of the soirée described below in the article by Miss Mildred Wyatt. Since the Austin Building was incomplete, when the grand piano arrived, President Birdwell assigned the instrument to the living room of the music teacher Miss Pritchett's house. "The Pine Tree Hymn" had it first performance on Washington Square in the Spring of 1924.
Mildred Vivian Wyatt, whose article appeared in the 1948 Daily Sentinel, came to SFA in 1930. She held many different positions in the Library, including Head Librarian, the position she was holding at the time she wrote the article. Miss Wyatt ended her career as the Director of the East Texas Room. She retired in 1971. In honor of her many years of service, the university named the conference room on the first floor of Steen Library in her honor. (JLJ)
The Daily Sentinel, October 12, 1948
'The Pine Treev Hymn' First Official Song of College
Twenty-five years ago, "the Pine Tree Hymn" has it beginning in a casual remark made by the college president to a poet.
Some people say the remark was made at a party in February or March of 1923 when the Cum Concilio Club of Nacogdoches entertained their husbands and friends at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sharp. Others say it was made at a reception at the Starr Avenue home of Miss Edna St. John. Nevertheless, during the evening A. W. Birdwell, President of the new College, remarked to Mrs. Karle Wilson Baker, a teacher and poet, that it would be nice if she would write a poem for the college. Some time later Mrs. Baker handed Mr. Birdwell some verses titled "The Pine Tree Hymn."
Mr. Birdwell like them so much that he asked Miss Ida Pritchett, head of the Music Department, to interest Texas musicians in competing for a small prize for the most appropriate music for the verses. When no acceptable music manuscripts had made their appearance by Christmas of 1923, the College administration asked Miss Pritchett to compose the music. During her Christmas holidays in San Marcos Miss Pritchett worked out the melody and harmonized it early in 1924 after her return to Nacogdoches.
About this time the grand piano arrived for the College Music Department, but the auditorium had not been completed, and the piano was temporarily put in the Barnett House on North Church Street where Miss Pritchett and a number of the other faculty members lived. This offered an excellent opportunity to try the new song and the new piano. The people who lived in the house and a few others met one evening to hear a double, mixed quartet present "The Pine Tree Hymn" for the first time.
Unfortunately, the names of those eight people are not positively known. It is believed, however, that Mrs. Ambrose, Mr. Eugene Blount, Mr. John Crawford, and Miss Grace Bailey, were four of the members.
Other guests at the small presentation were: Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Blount, Mr. and Mrs. T. E. Baker, Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Birdwell, Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose, Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Davis, the Deans of the College, Mr. Guy Blount, and Misses Lois Foster, Eleanor Atkinson, Ardath Ellington, Bernice Mallory, Loulein Harris, Dora Willingham and Ida Pritchett.
The same double quartet gave the first public rendition of "The Pine Tree Hymn" when the auditorium was completed in the Spring of 1924.
R. G. Upton of the faculty made a "to scale" copy of the manuscript so that it could be photographed for a plate from which copies of the song are printed. J. T. Cox, SFA band director, made an arrangement for the band.
Ernst Hoffman, director of the Houston Symphony, made an orchestration of "The Pine Tree Hymn" and presented it during the orchestra's concert of March 18, 1939.
"The Pine Tree Hymn" has the distinction of being the first official song of Stephen F. Austin State College. It came into being along with the College and has proved itself a worthy hymn.
[Miss Wyatt then goes on to talk about "Make Way for SFA," composed later by Fred Waring.]