‘I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go”

Mary Brown, author of the words, has  remained an enigma until Gene Claghorn, author of Women Composers and Hymnists: a Concise Dictionary was following up on a clue provided by hymnologist Frank J. Metcalf that Brown may have lived in Jewett City, Connecticut (which was later widely repeated by Baptist hymnologist William Jensen Reynolds in Hymns of Our Faith), Claghorn wrote a letter of inquiry to officials in Jewett City about Mary Brown and her hymn which was then forwarded to Lillian Cathcart, Griswold Municipal Historian. Cathcart’s response, as printed by Claghorn, is as follows:

I was given your letter at church yesterday as I had known Mary Brown. She and her family lived for many years in my grandfather’s two-family house and they were friends as well as neighbors. She was an active member of the Baptist Church and a Sunday School teacher. The Christian Endeavor Consecration hymn was first published by Silver Burdett & Co. 1892 in a songbook, Our Best Endeavor, with music by Charles E. Prior, a local organist, and the title “Go Stand and Speak.” In a 1904 hymnal it was titled “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go” with the tune by Carrie Rounesfell [sic]. I am sure Mary Brown would be happy to know that her little poem was still speaking to people after nearly a hundred years.

This Arrangement Uses: