Andrew, Robert Fulgham is a Renaissance man who has done just about everything from being a bartender, a truck driver, and a cowboy to becoming an honored Episcopal clergyman. He is also a warm and wonderful, popular writer who helps us realize the goodness of and in the given-ness, the extraordinary in the ordinary, and that life can be more fun, interesting, and full of joy and humanness worth celebrating than most of us know. He has written at least five (5) books. including the national best-seller, “Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” For my birthday-Christmas, my eldest son gave me a boxed set called THREE BY FULGHAM which contains “It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It” (which contains the wonderful, inspiring, moving account of a composite and/or only somewhat fictional James Lord Pierpoint and his creation, “Jingle Bells”, “Maybe (Maybe Not)”, and “Uh-Oh” I have a fifth book of his about Rituals, their importance, creation, use, and usefulness to “ordinary” people like you and me. You can find all or most of these at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Half-Price books. The first four are full of short, delightful, fun and/or heart-warming stories and reflections.

Constance Turner, the great granddaughter of James Lord Pierpoint who wrote “The One Horse Open Sleigh” when it originally had nothing to do with Christmas (or Thanksgiving), is right that Rev. Mr. Fulgham got the author’s name and some of the facts wrong.
James, the uncle of the great financier J. Pierpoint Morgan, was the son of Boston Episcopal Clergyman, John Sr., and the brother of John Jr., also a clergyman, with whom he served a church in Savannah, Georgia as Organist before the Civil War. Both John’s were abolitionists, but James stayed in the South with his second wife and wrote three notable war poems for the Confederate cause. He also wrote a delightful, long poem about how he had failed in business during the Gold rush, had to leave to escape his creditors, and how people shouldn’t have to pay their debts! He didn’t say “sometimes,” but he was creating a fun song-poem to entertain others.

I disagree with Ms. Turner that “Mr. Fulghum is totally inaccurate in the facts he used in his story. Poor research = poor author!!” He wasn’t totally inaccurate. He did seem to merge father and son or got them mixed up. It was “poor research,” probably based on poor source(s). We increasingly have better sources, better data-bases, and more facts, thanks to the internet. I cannot call a man “a poor author” when he has saved for us so many real and human stories, and deep, wide, and high insights into life, and served them up to us in such “palatable,” warm, wonderful, delightful, and often moving prose. Just the opposite. I read him, love him, honor him, and thank God he chose to be an “author,” thereby delighting and blessing millions. Just about every article or source one can find by Googling “James Lord Pierpoint “Jingle Bells” (which I recommend) contains an inaccuracy or a contradiction. Busy pastors who serve and care for their congregations try, but often fail, at being outstanding scholars, due to time and other constraints.

The important points to remember, I believe, is the truth of the story Fulgham told (above) and Saedel’s conclusion:

“Richard’s site… he updated it by saying the story was inaccurate, based on the email he received. But that doesn’t matter anymore. The important thing is we understand the moral of the story: no matter how many times we think we failed, we are successful in one way or another.”

And sometimes God, fate, chance, and other people share or transform our offerings until they end up blessing or bringing joy to millions of people around the world.

I’m glad somebody pointed this out in my blog. I sent you an email re: the inaccuracies of Robert Fulghum, and I’ll post here the same reply.

If you’ll notice, near the end of this post, I had already recognized the inaccuracy but decided to post the story anyway because I view Fulghum’s story as a fiction with good moral worth sharing.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I appreciate it.

Best regards,
Saedel

Mr. Fulghum is totally inaccurate in the facts he used in his story.

Poor research = poor author!!

My great grandfather, James Lord Pierpont is the composer of “Jingle Bells”. John Pierpont was his father, my great great grandfather. He was hardly considered a failure. If you will research his life, you will find you are wasting your sympathies!

Very truly yours,
Constance Turner