Will You Love Me Then As Now?

My Grandmother, Harriet (Shookman) Kenyon, kept a scrapbook* of special documents that she had accumulated through the years.  Pasted carefully into the book so that both sides could be read, was this handwritten page.  I thought the words were beautiful and with a little research found out that they were lyrics.  The song, "Will You Love Me Then As Now?", was written in 1853 by Charles William Glover.  Historically, it was a favorite romantic ballad which was popular over the many decades following and is today considered one of the "Songs of America" by the Library of Congress.  

The lyrics are the only ones included in her scrapbook and appear to have meant a great deal to Hattie, although they are not in her handwriting.  

Harriet placed most of the items in her scrapbook in a chronological order and based on that, estimates are that this was important in her life about 1912-1913.  At that time, Hattie was teaching at the Purdy Valley School in Greenfield Township, Monroe County, Wisconsin, having started there in September 1912, at age 17.  Harriet's future husband, Charles Martin Kenyon, then age 22, lived on the farm adjacent to the school.

Jim Kenyon, shared this tale in 2004 of how his parents, Charlie and Harriet, met:

I will tell this story exactly the way my Dad told it to me.

Dad went with my Aunt Laura [Shookman] Harris when she was teaching school. Laura was quite prissy in those days. Anyway, Dad had his buckboard buggy and a prancy, snappy horse. My Dad was pretty cocky too, when he was young. He was going to take Aunt Laura for a buggy ride. So, they were in the buggy ready to go. Dad with a crack of his whip across the horse's rump, startled him (the horse) and he jumped, and f--ted and peed and my Aunt got splattered.  Thus the end of that romance. Aunt Laura disliked my Dad until the day she died. They always gave each other a wide berth upon encounter.

Dad knew Ma through the school and through Aunt Laura. One romance ended and another one started.  The buggy romance worked for Mom & Dad. I'm sure glad it turned out that way. Even if it took a prancy horse, to ensure my birthright. 

https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1771391

Now my brow is free from sorrow;

Now my steps are light and fast,

and my hair like Autumn sunshine,

But this will not always last,

When these locks by Time are silvered

When deep wrinkles Trace my brow,

When my steps are slow and feeble 

Will you love me then as now?

That your love is true and changeless,

that your heart is mine alone;

Is the vow you often utter

And to me 'tis sweet I own,

But when years have borne us onward,

Will you then recall that vow,

When these eyes have lost their luster

Will you love me then as now

Ah! my heart is wildly pleading:

That you never could deceive;

And the earnest love I bear you:

Fain would cause me to believe,

That though Time should lay his finger,

Deep with sorrow on my brow,

Yet your heart will know no changes

You will love me then as now.

 *Harriet's scrapbook was inherited by Helen (Kenyon) Kelley, then inherited by Jean (Kelley) Gluege who gifted it to Karla (Von Fumetti) Staudt for preservation and use in our shared family history.  

© Karla Von Fumetti Staudt

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