Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Since I’m not good at mailing out cards, I am sharing one of my favorite carols with you. I Wonder as I Wander is a beautiful Appalachian carol. The story behind it is quite interesting, too.

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I Wonder as I Wander

In the summer of 1933, John Jacob Niles visited a meeting of evangelicals outside of Murphy in Appalachia North Carolina. They had been forced by police to leave the town and this was a fundraising meeting. During the meeting, a young girl described by Niles as disheveled and dirty but beautiful, sang a hauntingly beautiful verse to an Appalachian carol. (Some stories say 3 verses) Niles gave her a quarter for each of the 7 times she sang it, then he left with a verse and an idea that became the beautiful carol we know today. He originally published the song in Songs of the Hillfolk in 1934.