Son of John Gordon Sr and Sarah McCurry. He was a farmer and a singing teacher as well as a quilt maker and tailor. A converted Baptist, he taught Sunday schools and donated the land for the construction of the Bio Baptist Church. He married Rachel Brown in 1842. He and his wife did not have any natural children but they raised several orphans. He was noted for establishing a centralized post box for the residents of the Bio community. He also had the ability to accurately estimate the size of a plot of land after walking around it only once. In 1855, he compiled "The Social Harp" songbook which contained over 200 pieces, many of them camp meeting songs ad revival choruses. However, a number of these pieces came directly from the songbook publication "The Sacred Harp", under copyright protection, which was duly noted by B.F. White in his publication "The Organ" in February 1855; however, no lawsuit came of it because the same wholesaler and retailer (H.S. and J.P. Reece) were named on the cover of both books. Additionally, some of the tunes that McCurry claimed to have written in "The Social Harp" were actually arrangements of earlier tunes. However, he is credited with writing the music for the tunes "Roll Jordan" and "Raymond" albeit they appeared to be revised arrangements of earlier compositions. However, these tunes credited to John McCurry were not actually added to "The Sacred Harp" songbook until the 20th century.
Son of John Gordon Sr and Sarah McCurry. He was a farmer and a singing teacher as well as a quilt maker and tailor. A converted Baptist, he taught Sunday schools and donated the land for the construction of the Bio Baptist Church. He married Rachel Brown in 1842. He and his wife did not have any natural children but they raised several orphans. He was noted for establishing a centralized post box for the residents of the Bio community. He also had the ability to accurately estimate the size of a plot of land after walking around it only once. In 1855, he compiled "The Social Harp" songbook which contained over 200 pieces, many of them camp meeting songs ad revival choruses. However, a number of these pieces came directly from the songbook publication "The Sacred Harp", under copyright protection, which was duly noted by B.F. White in his publication "The Organ" in February 1855; however, no lawsuit came of it because the same wholesaler and retailer (H.S. and J.P. Reece) were named on the cover of both books. Additionally, some of the tunes that McCurry claimed to have written in "The Social Harp" were actually arrangements of earlier tunes. However, he is credited with writing the music for the tunes "Roll Jordan" and "Raymond" albeit they appeared to be revised arrangements of earlier compositions. However, these tunes credited to John McCurry were not actually added to "The Sacred Harp" songbook until the 20th century.
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