Among the many interesting items on display at Ensor Park and Museum is "The Radio Hymnal" that proverbially rests in peace atop the Victrola Radio in the master bedroom at the Ensor home, a tribute to a time when America as a whole was a country where organized religion enjoyed a prominent place in society and regular attendance at a Sunday morning worship service was basically expected.
Visitors will see two metal towers connected by what amounts to a musical antenna on the front cover of this relatively small book. The antenna consists of a three-measure treble clef with 10 notes, under which appear the words "I will sing of my Redeemer."
The title page declares that the hymnal is "For All Those Folks Who Love the Good Old Songs of Praise and Peace," and goes on to report that its contents were compiled by radio station KFNF of Shenandoah, Iowa and Henry Field Seed Company, also of Shenandoah, with the assistance of the Rodeheaver Company of Chicago.
Pictured on the preface page are Henry Field, who is identified as being KFNF's manager and announcer, and LuEtta Armstrong, soloist.
The page reads in part as follows:
"We have no idea of profit in this book. It is not gotten out with that idea. We do hope to get enough for it to pay the expense of getting it out, and we believe we will, for I know that there are hundreds of thousands of you people who have wished for something of the sort.
"We hope that hereafter, when you hear these good old songs from KFNF, you will be able to turn to your own song book and sing with us. Yours for the Master, Henry Field."
Published in February of 1927, the hymnal includes 326 songs, including "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name," "In The Garden," "Are You Washed In the Blood?" "Shall We Meet?" "Onward, Christian Soldiers," "The Unclouded Day," "This World Is Not My Home," "Throw Out The Life-Line," "I Love to Tell the Story," "Bringing in the Sheaves," "The Old Rugged Cross," "Savior, Like a Shepherd," "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah," "The Old Time Religion," "Shall We Gather At the River," and "Standing On The Promises."
Preceded by an index, the songs are followed by The Lord's Prayer and then the Doxology.
A single copy of the hymnal, be the cover a full cloth board cover or a high grade manila cover, could be purchased for $1. But if you wanted to buy 25 or more hymnals (i.e., enough to outfit every adult and teenager in a small country church), you could get the full cloth board hymnals for 80 cents apiece and the high grade manila hymnals for only 40 cents apiece.
"Turn Your Radio On"
Don't you know that everybody is a radio receiver/And all you got to do is listen for the call/Turn your radio on/Turn your radio on/If you listen in you will be a believer/Leaning on the tune that will never fall/Get in touch with God/Turn your radio on --- composed by Albert E. Brumley Sr. in 1939