Michael, I'm so glad I finally saw your post. I had added "The Great Judgement Morning" earlier this year and credited Winsett as he was on the Louvin Brothers release and I found him on GEMA. I ran into the song this morning and realized I needed to add more. I found 2 George Jones ones. One w/ a bunch of guests and created that release. The 2nd one you had added the release and left a great note saying you hadn't added Great Judgement Morning due to authorship confusion. I then added the 1951 Hank Williams version. and there are a bunch more to follow that I will add.
And yes the Hymnary site is a mess. It credits Winsett but the visual on the page has sheet music w/ Tillman's name on it as you had mentioned.
Anyway, I found this great article on it all which you may have already seen. I'm documenting some of this so I don't forget it.
Betram H. Shadduck published a poem in the August 27, 1892 edition of the Salvation Army's "War Cry" publication called "A Dream". It was published under a nom de plume, Nomad of Hannibal, Missouri. It was pretty much word for word of how the song is known. Charlie Tillman copyrighted it in 1893 with War Cry listed for text (as Shadduck hadn't identified himself). The following year L.L. Pickett copyrighted it for the music and listed War Cry for the text. In 1898 it was publised w/ F.L. Eiland as composer and text to annonymous. In 1913 the Rodehaver Company published a hymnal listing Pickett and actually naming Shadduck outright (so 1913 was the first time he was officially credited for text). However, In 1939 Virgil O. Stamps copyrighted a new musical setting and listed War Cry for the text (so he must not have known Shadduck had been identified). In 1957 Stamps issued another hymnal this time crediting Renus E. Rich for music under the title "I Dreamed of the Last Judgment" (no "e") with anonymous for text. In 1934 R.E. Winsett copyrighted a version crediting himself as composer and anonymous for text.
In 1941 Roy Acuff popularly recorded it and his release credited Winsett which is what has caused others to follow. I added the Hank Williams 1951 recording and on it he said he learned the song from his grandmother when he was little. Wiliams is credited in the PROs but again that was probably just out of habit as he flat out said he learned it from his grandmother on the video I attached.
This is a convoluted mess. I think what's appropriate (and what the author of the article says) is to credit Shadduck for lyrics and Charlie Tillman for music since he set it to music first and there really isn't any variation at least on the ones I have added so far. I would rather do that than say "Unknown" for music and I don't recommend setting up a bunch of music only adaptations as I detest that we do that on SHS as it just creates nightmares for people when adding cover performances.
Let me know what you think?
https://books.google.com/books?id=nrseBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA140&lpg=PA140&dq=the+great+j…=onepage&q=the%20great%20judgement%20morning%20r.e.%20winsett%20charles%20tillman&f=false
