“I Wonder as I Wander” is a traditional Appalachian folk song, generally attributed to John Jacob Niles. While in Murphy, North Carolina in June 1933, Niles ran across a destitute preacher who had been living in the town square with his family and was being ejected from town by the police. The evangelical preacher was trying to hold one more meeting to collect the money needed to purchase gas to get out of town. During this meeting, the preacher’s daughter, Annie Morgan, began singing broken bits of this song for a quarter. Niles paid for her to repeat it seven times, trying to capture the lyrics and the melody as best he could. Niles then finished the melody and wrote additional verses to turn this folk song into the hymn that we know today.