In addition to giving biographical information for Fisk University professor, singer, and author of the 1922 collection "Negro Folk Rhymes" Thomas W. Talley, that Dec 10, 2001 post from Mary in Kentucky post provides these comments:
"Pete Seeger notes that "Behold That Star" was "composed by a black musician [not named] in Tennessee about 1930." [no credits, no copyright]. However, in Thomas W. Talley's book, Negro Folk Rhymes...Edited...by Charles K. Wolfe. Music transcriptions by Bill Ferreira. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1991.Rev. ed. of Negro folk rhymes, wise and otherwise, published 1922 by the Macmillan Company. Contains music (ISBN 0-87049-673-5)
Charles Wolfe's new introduction gives some info on it. Talley wrote the song; the "black musician in Tennessee" in Pete Seeger's notes was Talley....
The following are quotes mentioning "Behold That Star" from the introduction:
"Florence Hudson Botsford invited Talley to contribute a song to her collection, Folk Songs of Many Peoples, and he sent her an original composition called 'Behold That Star'." (pp. xviii-xix)... His song "Behold That Star" entered the Christmas music repertoire and was widely reprinted in anthologies. In the early 1970s, the piece was performed on a national broadcast by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, with Leontyne Price singing. By this time the song had become so pervasive that Talley's name had been detatched from it, and Bernstein announced that he regretted that he did not know who had composed the song." (pp. xx-xxi)...
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Here's the chorus to "Behold That Star" *
Behold that star! Behold that star up yonder! Behold that star! It is the star of Bethlehem.
*The words to this song are given in the Mudcat thread whose link I provided in the beginning of this post.
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There's an unmistakeable similarity between that chorus and the chorus of "Hail Dat Beautiful Star"
Hail, hail dat beautiful star, Hail, hail dat beautiful star, Hail, hail dat beautiful star, De star of Bethlehem.
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I'm not sure about the tune, but I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't the same.
The verses that are attributed to Talley's "Behold That Star" are different from the words to the "Hail Dat Beautiful Star".
Maybe that what is meant by him being the composer of this song.