A tragic love story and an enduring song
Ballad sung around the world celebrates a love in twilight years that never happened
MOUNT HOPE — The inscription on the tall, weathered gravestone can only be read when sunlight strikes it from the side and reveals the lettering like some kind of lost message.
Margaret wife of G.W. Johnson Died May 12, 1865 Aged 23 years
But the epitaph in dark granite, at the Clark family plot in White Church Cemetery in Mount Hope, is not the only surviving written memory about a young woman better known as Maggie.
She was the inspiration for one of the most famous and enduring ballads from the 19th century. “When You and I Were Young, Maggie” — with words by George Washington Johnson (1839-1917) from Binbrook township — has been recorded by dozens of singers including Bing Crosby, Fats Waller, Gene Autry and John McDermott.
Its peak of popularity has long passed, but the song is still occasionally performed by folk musicians wistful of bygone days.
Yet, many who know the ballad don’t fully understand its tragic back story, a tale at odds with the narrative of the song.
Maggie tragically died of tuberculosis, 155 years ago today. On May 12, 1865, art and life went separate ways.
The song tells a heartwarming story of unfading love, imagining two lovers in their twilight years reflecting on their lives together. And now we are aged and grey, Maggie. The trials of life nearly done. Let us sing of the days that are gone, Maggie, When you and I were young.
But the real story was not so fortunate. Maggie would die within a few years of the poem being written and she never experienced the scene described in the words.
To appreciate this, it helps to look at the timeline.
In 1859, Johnson, then 21, was school master at Glanford School and fell in love with Maggie Clark, 18, of Glanford Township, who had been one of his students.
One day on a walk through the rolling fields, he took out a piece of paper and read his poem to her. “I wandered today to the hills, Maggie, to watch the scene below ...”
They later became engaged and seven months after their 1864 marriage, while living in Cleveland, Maggie developed complications from tuberculosis and died. Amid the terrible grief, her body was brought back home to be placed in the cemetery on White Church Road, just west of Highway 6.
Some months later, Johnson approached friend James Butterfield of Detroit, to put music to the poem that had been part of a book called “Maple Leaves.” The song was published in 1866 and became internationally popular, leading to numerous editions of sheet music, Edison cylinder recordings, and eventually vinyl, CDs and MP3s.
“I think the words really hold up to a closer scrutiny,” says McMaster University English professor Jeffery Donaldson. “The poem unfolds on a relatively simple level but it is profound at the same time.”
Johnson follows a classic ballad metering, Donaldson says, and uses a well-established style of presentation known as “prospect poetry” to tell his story.
The poem describes the scenery before him, a stream and an old mill among other things, and then transitions to the world of his imagination, reflecting on a passage of time with Maggie that has not happened yet.
But, is he singing to a lover who is with him, or one who has parted?
Johnson writes “we are aged and grey” but also makes references to “polished white mansions of stone,” and how the “young” and others have “each found a place of rest.”
Why all this talk about graves in a love song?
“It’s part of the genius of the poem that it accommodates both realities” of Maggie being there in life or only in spirit, says Donaldson.
Art French, of the Glanbrook Heritage Society, says years ago there was talk about buying Maggie’s old house on Nebo
Road and turning it into a museum to celebrate the song. But the idea was not financially feasible.
There was a heritage plaque near the house telling the story about the song, but previous owners of the home grew weary of tourists wandering their property. So the plaque was removed. These days, it can be found in storage at the Glanbrook Municipal Centre. French says he hopes someday it will be put on public display again because the song is the area’s greatest claim to fame.
And while the ballad has waned in the public imagination, a Google search will find all kinds of people referencing it. Check out my performance
When You and I Were Young, Maggie
I wandered today to the hills, Maggie
To watch the scene below
The creek and the rusty old mill, Maggie
Where we used to go long ago. The green grove is gone from the hill, Maggie
Where first the daisies sprung The old rusty mill is still, Maggie Since you and I were young.
A city so silent and lone, Maggie Where the young and the gay and the best
In polished white mansion of stone, Maggie
Have each found a place of rest Is built where the birds used to play, Maggie
And join the songs that were sung For we sang just as gay as they, Maggie
When you and I were young. They say I am feeble with age, Maggie
My steps are less sprightly than then
My face is a well written page, Maggie
But time alone was the pen. They say we are aged and grey, Maggie
As spray by the white breakers flung
But to me you’re as fair as you were, Maggie
When you and I were young. And now we are aged and grey, Maggie
The trials of life nearly done
Let us sing of the days that are gone, Maggie
When you and I were young.
— By George Washington Johnson
Note: There are different versions of the song with slightly different words. Often “creaking” is used instead of “rusty.” Sometimes in song versions the entire second verse is left out. of the song in a YouTube video that features numerous historical photos and other footage.
Another way to celebrate the song is to wander the hills of Glanford and Binbrook just like George Johnson and Maggie Clark did more than 150 years ago. Take in the backdrop of a song known around the world and marvel at how it grew out of the wellspring of our local landscape and history.
More at the thespec.com
> My music video of “When You and I Were Young, Maggie,” can be accessed through the online version of this story.
> There is also a link to a Google map that shows locations relevant to the song.