The first in a series of articles in Singing News magazine. . . .
 
The First 100 Years of Southern Gospel Music
a century being documented by Singing News

These four handsome gentlemen make up the original Vaughan Radio Quartet.  Left to right: Hillman Barnard, Otis L. McCoy, W.B. Walbert, and A.M. Pace. The photo was obviously taken during the era when WOAN Radio was one of the few broadcasting stations in the nation. The quartet in formal wear gives us a clue about James D. Vaughan's standards, especially if the four songsters were required to be well dressed to perform on the radio.

 
By John Crenshaw

The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of what we've come to know as Southern Gospel music. In honor of this auspicious birthday, Singing News will present a short history of gospel music during the year 2010. There is no way to present the entire history of this wonderful genre in the confines of these articles, but care will be taken to mention the major events and personalities that have made gospel music what it is today.

The obvious question is this: "What establishes the year 1910 as the birth of gospel music?'" I will attempt to answer this question as well as several others about the world of gospel music from 1910-1919.
James David Vaughan (1864-1941) is often referred to as the Father of Gospel Music. Not only was he a great musician, but he was also a man who exemplified outstanding Christian morals and principals in his own life. Vaughan began attending singing schools as a teenager. He became a star pupil and soon became a teacher himself. The singing schools of that day had an ongoing battle between teaching the standard round note system of music, or the more genre specific shaped note music where each note of the scale has a unique shape corresponding to the Do-Re-Mis of the tones. Shaped note singing soon won out, and became the norm for singing schools such as the Vaughan School of Music, which Vaughan established in 1911.
In addition to his musical abilities, Vaughan was a respected educator and school principal. He was also gaining self-confidence in his ability to write and publish gospel music. Around the turn of the century, Vaughan left his job as school principal and opened the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Vaughan started the company in the back room of the county register of deeds office where he was working as an office clerk. Singing schools and singing conventions began to take notice of the books published by James D. Vaughan Publishing Company. Slowly, the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company began to outgrow the confines of that back office and he moved the publishing company into an office building in downtown Lawrenceburg.
By this time, Vaughan was publishing at least one songbook each year. Ever the entrepreneur, Vaughan sought ways to promote his songbooks outside of his limited audience. In 1910, Vaughan released a new book entitled Voices for Jesus. In the spring of 1910, one of Vaughan's ideas came to fruition as he established the first professional traveling quartet. Their purpose would be to travel to singing schools, singing conventions, and churches to promote the latest songbooks from the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company.
There were no other professional quartets traveling the roads at this time, and the new Vaughan Quartet became quite popular in the area. They sang and promoted the latest Vaughan songbooks and the book sales soared along with the popularity of the quartet. The personnel of the first professional quartet were Charles Vaughan (brother of James Vaughan), George Sebren, Joe Allen, and Ira Foust. Even today, product sales are still an important part of any professional gospel quartet's livelihood.
Vaughan's experiment had worked well. Over the next ten years, the Vaughan company had as many as 16 quartets on the road. All were paid a salary paid by the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company, all were driving company cars, and of course, all were selling Vaughan products.
Other innovations by the Vaughan company included a monthly magazine which became known as the Vaughan Family Visitor. Although this homespun magazine was first and foremost about music, it also included news about the Vaughan organization along with poetry, stories, and information stressing family values. They also started the famous James D. Vaughan School of Music that taught not only sacred music but also a wide range of other types of musical styles.
We'll move into the roaring '20s next month, as the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company becomes the first company to record a "sacred quartet."

This historical marker is at the exact location of Vaughan Publishing Company where today stands an impressive SunTrust Bank branch office.   The bank has provided the top floor of their facility to The James D. Vaughan Museum as a community service to honor the legacy of the man and his facility of the era before.  The old Vaughn building is shown below.