Jingle Bells
The Song That Started a Feud
By Tom Poland
It’s annually voted the most popular Christmas song. Perhaps it’s also the most controversial. When Savannah resident James L. Pierpont composed the song, he sowed the seeds for a dispute. Pierpont wrote his Christmas classic in the autumn of 1857. You know the song as Jingle Bells, but One Horse Open Sleigh was its original title. Pierpont wrote it as a Thanksgiving song.
We can thank the late Charlie Smith of Wrightsville, Georgia, for this Christmas story. Charlie emailed me a link to a story and the following note: “Tom, this is a story from ten or so years ago and M.H. Rahn has since passed away. M.H. was married to my first cousin on the Smith side of the family. Not only was he interested in history, mainly Savannah’s, but he also was a self-made millionaire. Started with a fruit stand on the old Bay Street Road.”
Rahn did more than that. He riled up the folks in Medford, Massachusetts. Once upon a time Jingle Bells belonged exclusively to their city. Until 1969 Medford, just outside Boston, could claim the carol without challenge. And then M.H. Rahn linked the song’s composer to Savannah. His discovery set Medford and Savannah to feuding.
When the snow settled, here’s what we know. James Pierpont served as the organist at Savannah’s Unitarian Church in 1857. Flash forward now. Rahn’s daughter is playing Jingle Bells in Savannah on the piano decades later. Rahn glances over at the sheet music and sees a familiar name, Composer: J. Pierpont. Rahn knew of two J. Pierponts. The name on the sheet music, was it a mere coincidence?
