Wiley Edwin Speas - my Great Grandfather, and a family poet

These words are attributed to Wiley Edwin Speas as written on January 19, 1932, about the Mormon missionaries who converted him and his family to the L.D.S. Church. The poem can be sung to the tune, “Just Before the Battle Mother”.

 Far away in North Carolina

Wiley Edwin Speas

With a sense of duty bound

Went a pair of Mormon Elders

With the Gospel’s joyful sound.

They were calling on the people,

Calling on the rich and poor,

Telling of the blessed Savior

In each home from door to door.

Telling of the restoration,

Truth from God on earth expressed

That had come in these last ages,

Filling hearts with love and rest,

And they spoke of God’s Anointed –

Joseph Smith, Prophet and Seer.

People said, “What’s this new doctrine

That men bring unto our door?”

Evening came and then the Elders,

With no purse nor script were blessed,

So at every single farmhouse

Stopped and asked for place of rest.

Farmers met them at the doorway

And they said, “Be of good cheer,

You can stay with our next neighbor,

We don’t keep no Mormons here.”

Evening came, and then the Elders

Slowly bent their aching knees,

And they asked their Heavenly Father,

“Wilt Thou let us stay with Thee”

We have tried to do our duty,

Take us now within Thy care,

For when men decline to shelter,

Then with Thee our grief we’ll share.”

So the Elders, tired and hungry,

Trusting in their Father’s good,

On the leaves among the bushes

Found a place out in the wood.

And they sank in peaceful slumber,

And the Master guarded o’er

‘Til the morning woke the sleepers 
And again went door to door.

Wiley Edwin  Speas

I couldn't resist putting the poem to music to see how Great Grandpa Speas intended for it to sound. Here is a simple YouTube video slideshow that I made of the Wiley Edwin Speas family, with his poetry captioned to "Just Before the Battle Mother".