Billups, Edward W. The Sweet Songster, A Collection of the most Popular and Approved Songs, Hymns and Ballads. Catlettsburg, KY: C. L. McConnell, by Authority of the Author, 1854. First Edition. [11098]
Black cloth with blind stamped lines, faint gilt title to spine, 12.5 x 9 cm (5 x 3 1/2 inches). Note in blue ink on the front paste-down. Lacks one front and both rear blanks. The binding is all of one piece, but only weakly attached at the front hinge; detached at the back. 350 pages, the text is complete. Some pencil notations, old stains, one leaf chipped in the margin with no loss of text. Fair. Hardcover.
285 hymns, 5 choruses, 6 additional hymns, a form of matrimony, and an index of first lines.
Edward W. Billups, born about 1799 in western Virginia, a Baptist preacher; his hymn book was used by the Old Regular Baptists. By 1860 he had moved to Ironton, Lawrence Co., Ohio, and lived next door to his son. The 1860 census lists his occupation as "book peddler." Ironton, Ohio, is only about ten miles from where the book was published, in Catlettsburg, Kentucky. - see R. L. Vaughn, Ministry and Music - Seeking the Old Paths, at baptistsearch blogspot online.
"The work contains hymns by such noted hymnists as Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and John Newton. The largest number of credited hymns belong to Billups himself, though he is often an arranger rather than the original author...[the hymnal] has retained popularity among the Old Regular Baptists..." - ibid.
With a signed provenance card from the music collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.
