Mickey Starling
reporter3@greenepublishing.com
James Lord Pierpont was 10 years old when he left his Boston, Mass. home for a boarding school. The young Pierpont was apparently a handful for his strict father, who was a Unitarian minister. Not long after arriving at the school in Medford, Mass., Pierpont found that the lovely countryside was the perfect location for taking a sleigh ride. The wonderful memories that created for Pierpont inspired him to later write "One Horse Open Sleigh," which was later changed to "Jingle Bells."
Pierpont continued to be a bit rowdy and adventurous, fleeing boarding school at the age of 14 to join a whaling ship in the Pacific. He later joined the U.S. Navy, where he remained until he was 21. Having not faired well financially, Pierpont moved back in with his parents.
In 1849, just a few years after getting married, Pierpont was struck with "gold fever," and left his wife and children with his parents to join the California Gold Rush. Pierpont also opened a shop while attempting to strike it rich panning for gold. His hopes for riches failed dismally, and he fled California, leaving a trail of creditors behind him.
In the 1850s, Pierpont's younger brother took a pastoring position in Savannah, Ga. James followed him, taking the position of music director for the church. His brother soon left the church because his support of the abolitionists was not appreciated in the deep south, but James stayed behind and supported the Confederate cause, serving as a company clerk in a volunteer unit. After the war, Pierpont moved to Valdosta with his second wife, and one of his children was born there. Pierpont was a music teacher in Valdosta. The family eventually relocated to nearby Quitman, where Pierpont served as the organist at a Presbyterian church. He also gave piano lessons and taught at the Quitman Academy, retiring as the head of the music department.
Pierpont had been writing music for several years when "One Horse Open Sleigh" was released in 1857. The song was renamed "Jingle Bells" two years later. The song was never intended as a Christmas carol. Pierpont wrote the song as a modern-day equivalent to a song about fast cars and pretty girls. A sleigh ride was one of a very few places that a boy and girl could be together without supervision. The second verse reveals the more risqué aspect of the song: "Now the ground is white, go it while you're young, take the girls tonight and sing this sleighing song;"
The song was first performed at a Thanksgiving Sunday school concert, in Savannah, Ga. As the song was played more often around Thanksgiving and the holidays, it became permanently associated with Christmas, where it continues as a favorite carol to this day.
Pierpont, who was the uncle of wealthy banker, J.P. Morgan, spent his final days with his son in Winter Haven, Fla. He died in 1893, at the age of 71.