ANTHONY JOHNSON SHOWALTER

                       1858-1924                                        Interred at West Hill Cemetery in Dalton, GA

I recently received a message from a descendant of George Wilson Griffith referring to his oldest son. I had these people on my family tree as one of my grandfather's sisters had married into this family. It kept referring to the name "Showalter" as a middle name. I knew that my great uncle Thomas Beall had used this name for his child so I decided to google the name and see where it originated.
So I came up with the name of VAROCKIN (Valentine) SHOWALTER from the Netherlands. The family was referred to as being "Dutch." Jacob Showalter, born about 1800 in Virginia or as many refer to as the Shenandoah Valley, had many descendants, one being Anthony Johnson Showalter, born May 1, 1858 in Cherry Grove, Virginia and died September 14, 1924 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is buried in West Hill Cemetery in Dalton, GA. He married Carolyn Walser on November 13, 1881. He was a music teacher, author, and publisher. He studied music in England, France, and Germany. He published over 130 music books, which sold over a million copies. He was the principal of the Southern Normal Musical Institute in Dalton, Georgia from it's beginning in 1880. He edited the "Musical Teacher" for over 20 years, and served as an elder of the First Presbyterian Church in Dalton, GA. He was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in 2000. He published a hymn for B. B. Beall in 1922 titled "Lift Him Up." He taught many shape-note singing schools in Georgia and Alabama of which the Beall Brothers and the Griffiths attended. Probably his most famous hymn is "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." Showalter wrote this tune and words to the refrain and first verses after hearing from two friends whose wives had died. This song was sung in the 1943 movie "The Human Comedy" and was nominated for Academy Awards in five categories. It is on the sound track of "O Brother, Where art Thou."

                        "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms"

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

refrain:
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

O how sweet to walk in this Pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
O how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
refrain:

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
I have blessed peace, with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
refrain