A Pioneer Songster
[For now I am listing the texts under group headings, for example: Songs & Ballads From British Isles- Child Ballads found in the left hand column- eventually I hope to put each song individulaly under the each heading.
Currently this book has not been edited and just has raw scans. This page has the Introduction, Contents and Bibliography.
Thompson's inclusion of 4. The Hog's Heart and 5. The Knight in Green as Child 268 is incorrect. These versions are a different ballad with a related plot first published as, Northern Lord and Cruel Jew, also from Buchan (Gleanings) in 1825. There are currently no known US or Canadian traditional versions of this ballad (Child 268).
LIBRARY OF WELLESLEY COLLEGE PURCHASED FROM LIBRARY FUNDS
A PIONEER SONGSTER
Publication of this book has been made possible by a grant from the Hull Memorial Publication Fund of Cornell University.
A Pioneer Songster: TEXTS FROM THE STEVENS-DOUGLASS MANUSCRIPT OF WESTERN NEW YORK 1841-1856
Edited by
HAROLD W. THOMPSON
Goldivin Smith Professor of English
Cornell University
Assisted by EDITH E. CUTTING
Cornell University Press
ITHACA, NEW YORK
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS First published 1958
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE VAIL-BALLOU PRESS, INC., BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK
CONTENTS
I. SONGS AND BALLADS FROM THE BRITISH ISLES p. 7
A. Child Ballads
1. The Bishop of Canterbury (45)
2. Barbara Allen (84)
3. Katie Mora (112)
4. The Hog's Heart (268)
5. The Knight in Green (268)
6. The Kennebec Bite (283)
7. The Bold Pirates (285)
8. Captain Ward (287)
9. The Mermaid (289)
B. Love Themes
10. William and Susan
11 . Henry and Ruth
12. The London Lawyer's Son
13. Ellen the Fair
14. The Dark-eyed Sailor
15. George Reily
16. Johnny German
17. The 'Prentice Boy
18. The Lawyer Outwitted
19. Canada-I-O
20. Caroline of Edinburgh Town
21 . The Dawning of the Day
22. The Bridgewater Merchant
23. Pretty Polly
24. The Sailor's Wife's Lament
25. Kate and Her Horns
26. The Dog and the Gun
27. The Spinster's Lament
28. The Bonny Light Horseman
29. The Carrier Dove
C. Historical Themes
30. Napoleon Bonaparte
31. The Drummer Boy of Waterloo
32. The Flaunting Flag of Liberty
D. Irish Themes
33. Erin's Lovely Home
34. Skewball
35. The Rose of Ardee
36. Old Grannau Weal
II. AMERICAN SONGS AND BALLADS p. 89
A. Love Themes
37. Banks of Brandy wine 90
38. Eliza 91
39. Lilly Dale 92
40. Sparking Sunday Night 93
41. The Quaker's Wooing 94
42. I've Been Roaming 96
B. Historical Themes
43. Brave Wolfe 98
44. The Taxation of America 101
45. Lady Washington 107
46. Bold Dighton 107
47. Paul Jones 111
48. Old England Forty Years Ago 112
49. Constitution and Guerriere 118
50. Wasp Stinging Frolic 120
51. Perry's Victory 122
52. James Bird 124
53. Noble Lads of Canada 127
54. The Hunters of Kentucky 130
55. The Maid of Monterrey 133
56. Buena Vista 135
C. Pioneering Themes
57. Wisconsin 139
58. The Dying Californian 141
59. The Used-up Miner 142
D. Political Themes
60. The Liberty Ball 144
61. A Song for the Campaign 145
62. The True American 147
63. The Empire Club 149
64. Wait for the Wagon 1 5 1
E. Tragic Themes
65. Loss of the Albion 153
66. Sarah Maria Cornell 155
F. Minstrel Songs
67. Old Dog Tray 157
68. Nancy Till 158
69. My Gum-Tree Canoe 159
G. White Spirituals
70. The Convert 161
71. The Gospel Ship 163
72. Canaan * 165
73. We're Traveling Home * 167
74. The White Pilgrim * 168
III. MINOR GROUPS— ENGLISH AND AMERICAN
A. Indian Themes
75. Alknomook 171
76. The Indian Hunter 172
77. The Indian Hunter 172
78. The Indian Student 173
B. Moral Themes
79. Patient Jo 174
80. The Poor Man 176
81. The Sweeper 178
82. The Temperance Ship * 179
C. Tearful Themes
83. The Bride's Farewell 180
84. The Watcher 182
85. Mary of the Wild Moor 183
D. Satirical Themes
86. Roving Bachelor 184
87. The Country Clown 187
89. Old Enoch 188
90. The Gunner and Boatswain 189
* Ballads and songs marked with an asterisk were not in the original manuscript but were discovered later by Mr. Douglass
in his family papers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY WITH SHORT TITLES
INDEX
Introduction
SINCE 1910, when John A. Lomax published his first collection of Cowboy Songs, Americans have had opportunity to read
scores of volumes devoted to our old songs. Most of these books represent collections from oral sources and prove the continuation of old singing tradition into the twentieth century. But many of us have asked whether similar collections may not have been made in the nineteenth century and also whether extensive manuscript songsters are not still "hained up," as the Scots say, in many a venerable attic. So far as I know, the Stevens-Douglass Manuscript is the most extensive and important trove of this sort from its period, the songster most deserving the printing of its texts.
The discovery of the manuscript was probably typical. In 1935 I published in New York State Education (XXIII, 2 3ff.) an article called "Collecting the Folksongs and Folklore of New York State," in which I gave some idea of how during the preceding year a class of two hundred students in American Folk-Literature at the Albany State College for Teachers had gone in search of what was later to be called in educational circles "our American heritage." Teachers throughout the state were urged to conduct a similar search for types of lore illustrated in the article. About two years later Mr. Harry S. Douglass of Arcade, Wyoming County, reread the article, which he had clipped, and told me that he had found a manuscript of sixty-nine songs. (More were discovered later.) According to tradition in his family, he said, "many of these songs were used in social gatherings from 1840-1 860 or later." In April of 1937, when the mice-nibbled manuscript reached my desk, I realized at once that the "Treasure of Arcade," as I romantically called it in a broadcast over radio station WGY at Schenectady, should in some fashion be shared with the public, but how? My broadcast of October, 1937, used only a few of
the songs, and two years later I printed a few samples in my
book entitled Body, Boots & Britches (Philadelphia, 1939,
dated 1940). Obviously the songs deserved the careful editing
that they received later (1945) in a master's dissertation by
Miss Edith E. Cutting written at Cornell under my direction.
When the Neiv York Folklore Quarterly was started in Feb-
ruary, 1945, under the editorship of Dr. Louis C. Jones (who
had succeeded me at Albany and was soon to become director
of the New York State Historical Association), he published in
the very first issue a "Child ballad," "The Bishop of Canterbury"
(Child, 45), from the manuscript. Three years later, in the issue
of the same quarterly for Autumn, 1948, Miss Cutting published
a paper that she had read to the annual convention of the New
York Folklore Society entitled "A York State Songbag: The
Douglass-Stevens Manuscript" (IV, 172-18 1). Three years later,
under my editorship, Mr. Douglass himself published another
descriptive article with samples of songs, "Music in the Valleys"
(NYFQ, VII [195 1 ], 283-290). Meanwhile ill-health had pre-
vented my keeping an agreement with Mr. Douglass that I
would attempt to publish in a book all the songs. It was not
until 1953, sixteen years after I had first seen the now-famous
manuscript, that I felt able to attempt the Introduction that you
are now kindly reading — with revisions of 1958. The predatory
mice and the dilatory professor apologize.
On the Frontier
The home of the manuscript was a frontier county of western New York, settled in the first decade of the nineteenth century
between the two American wars with Britain. If you will locate on a map of New York State the city of Buffalo and move
your finger to the next county on the east, you will find the beautiful word "Wyoming" (also used to name a western state
and counties in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, not to mention
the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, in 1778 the scene of
a famous "massacre"). Until 1841, when the New York county
was organized, this region had been part of Albany County,
then Tryon, Montgomery, Ontario, and Genesee counties suc-
cessively as our western counties were cut off from larger units.
Townships were similarly reshaped and renamed. Java, where
the manuscript's songs were first written down, was earlier a
part of a township called China. A neighboring village illustrates
a different, more humorous, manner of naming: Slab town be-
came Shacksburg, Bushville, Columbia, Nineveh, and finally
Perry from the naval hero's dignified name.
The early settlers of the county, such as the Stevens family, were mostly from New England. Indeed, the whole of western
New York from Seneca Lake to Lake Erie was claimed after the Revolution by Massachusetts on the basis of a colonial char-
ter (1628). Two citizens of the Bay State, Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, after the Revolution made a huge purchase
of this claim as far west as the Genesee River. Later Robert
Morris of Philadelphia, signer of the Declaration of Independence and afterward senator from Pennsylvania, bought the
land west of the Genesee and sold more than three million acres to the Holland Land Company, which opened up the
"Far West" of the state and set up a headquarters at Batavia in the county north of Wyoming. The great Joseph Ellicott, surveyor and agent of the company, is said to have remarked, "I intend to do all I can for Batavia, because the Almighty
will look out for Buffalo." After the British had burned Buffalo in the War of 1812, the Almighty did His part in the development
of a fair city. Wyoming County flourished too, but in a quiet, rural fashion. The Erie Canal, pathway of Empire, was completed in 1825 but ran north of the county; until 1871 the only public transportation for the Wyoming settlers was the stagecoach. There are still no cities in the county, though there are several attractive villages, including Arcade in the southwest
corner and Attica in the north.
The Yankees who settled Wyoming County must have found plenty of romantic traditions. There were tales about Mary Jemison (died 1833), that "White Woman of the Seneca" whose statue may be seen in Letchworth State Park. The region
had known another white captive, Horatio Jones from Penn-
sylvania. Also, stories are still told about the redoubtable Major
Moses Van Campen of Revolutionary times, not to mention the
disreputable white frontiersman Ebenezer Allen, the first white
settler of what is now the city of Rochester, New York. Great
chiefs had trod that land, mostly men of the Seneca Nation
such as Little Beard, Red Jacket, and Cornplanter, as well as
unfortunate Logan of the Cayugas, whose eloquence was so
much admired by Thomas Jefferson. So far as is known, only
one Negro slave ever lived in the county, a gigantic man brought in 1811; later he was freed and lived in Attica.
The early white settlers in this region, both young and old, were a hardy and a courageous folk, but they had some excitements and diversions. In the 1840s there were horse races. In 1855 the county was excited by the hoax of a sea serpent in a
most improbable place. 1 The little schoolhouses were so cold
that a frequent request was, "Master, may I go to the fire?"
As late as 1942, the old English custom of the May basket was
still known in the county, according to one of my students,
Miss Harriet Toan. Among the traditional tales of the courage
of those early Yorkers is one told to me recently by Miss Anne
Whitlock of the village of Warsaw. A certain Artemas Shattuck,
while cutting trees one day, had the misfortune to catch a foot
in a split trunk and was "raised up." He would have perished if
he had not used his Barlow knife to cut off his foot at the
ankle. And then he insisted that the amputated foot be brought
home with him and warmed in a pan of water.
1 Herbert J. Hawley, "The Sea Serpent of Silver Lake," NYFQ, II
(1946), 191-196.
Introduction xiii
One form of entertainment of which these Yorker Yankees
had plenty was "singing schools." The first singing school in
the Tonawanda Valley of western New York, so far as Mr.
Douglass knows, was organized in 1805 by the pioneers of tiny
Phelps settlement (now Attica village). The first gatherings,
before there was a schoolhouse, were under the instruction of
a John Van Bogart from the Mohawk Valley, farther east in
New York. The school included all the "voice" of that settle-
ment and of a neighboring Yankee hamlet called Bennington —
presumably named after Bennington, Vermont. Mr. Douglass
has discovered traces of what he properly calls a "novel idea":
Standing on the bank of the creek was a large, hollow buttonwood
tree, about eight feet in diameter; this monarch of the woods was
felled, a section about thirty feet in length was cut off, several
openings were cut through for windows, and seats were arranged
along the side. From this pioneer music hall the young folk of
this region raised their voices in song. We know not what they
sang, but surely vibrant melodies echoed and re-echoed through
the surrounding forest. Alas, the old hall is no more! In after
years the schoolhouse was cut off the length for a boat and was
split open; the ends were planked up at right angles, and the
craft was duly launched on the millpond, where it afforded the
youth a safe ark for many excursions. In flood time, the vessel
wrenched from its moorings, went over the dam with one mighty
roar, fell apart, and was carried downstream by the raging
Tonawanda.
There is a little more information about those earliest days to
be found in Mr. Douglass' "Music in the Valleys," but I shall
have to omit all except a reference to a certain "left-handed
fiddler," Russel Noble, whose instrument is said by a contem-
porary to have been an "indispensible accompliment [sic]" to
merrymakings.
Thanks to Mr. Douglass we know more about organized
singing in a slightly later era when his family's songs were
in full voice, for among his old papers is a document about the
"Wyoming and Erie County Musical Association," founded on
xiv Introduction
June 24, 1847. Preserved by his great-grandfather, Artemas
Stevens of Java, is a constitution of the association with signa-
tures of sixty-three residents in the upper Tonawanda and
Buffalo Creek valleys. Nine articles are introduced by a preamble
that begins:
Considering the hallowed influence of music on old and young, its
aid in religious services from the earliest ages, the many tokens
of Divine approbation for its cultivation found in the sacred
writings, its healthful moral and physical influence and general
utility, we are inclined to form a musical association. . . .
David Wilder of Attica, a music master, was president and
conductor. Other singing societies were sometimes organized
in the autumn and disappeared after a "grand concert" in the
spring, but this one had a longer life. The daughter of a founding
member told Mr. Douglass that what she called "singing school"
was the center of social life for young and old. Her family
went by sleigh in the wintertime; after the singing there were
sometimes a dance and a supper. The dances would have been
more frequent, I should guess, if meetings had not commonly
been held in churches; occasionally a schoolhouse or other public
building was used.
These meetings continued into the decades 1 860-1 880, by
which time almost every community in the region had its
musical organization. About i860 nine towns in Wyoming, Erie,
and Cattaraugus counties banded together to form the "Ton-
awanda Harmonic Association," the only qualification for mem-
bership being the ability to read music. Three regular meetings
of two days each were held in churches of the area with the
avowed purpose of improving church music. Such famous
musicians as Lowell Mason (1 792-1 872), the hymn composer,
and George F. Root (1 820-1 895), composer of famed secular
songs during the Civil War as well as such hymn tunes as
"Shining Shore," were sometimes present to instruct, though
Mr. Wilder seems to have remained active until 1879, when he
became "honorary conductor." A newspaper published in the
Introduction xv
village of Warsaw reported in 1871 a two-day gathering with
rehearsals during the day and in the evening. The editor declared
that the Association "is now the oldest of its character in this
part of the state, and is increasing in interest and efficiency every
year." By this time organs were replacing the tuning forks and
riddles of the early pioneers.
That these singing schools and societies sang such folksongs
as are found in the Stevens-Douglass Manuscript is doubtful,
unless its "white spirituals" can be called folksongs. It is more
likely that the conductors preferred to teach part singing from
such printed books as Mr. Douglass has inherited: The Psaltery
(1846), The American Vocalist (1849), Cantica Laudis (1850),
and The Hallelujah (1854). Such collections rarely included
secular folksongs, though the melodies of sacred numbers were
sometimes borrowed from traditional balladry. But it has seemed
to me important to establish the basic facts that western New
York's pioneers loved to sing and that one family preserved texts
of their favorite songs, though — alas! — not the music.
The Manuscript
Into this singing community of Wyoming County came in
1836 the great-grandfather of Mr. Douglass, one Artemas Ste-
vens. In Massachusetts 2 as early as 1824 he had made a record
of a few favorite songs and had carried them to New Hampshire
for his brief residence there. As usual in such cases, family
tradition holds that he "could sing all evening without repeat-
ing," possibly with the aid of his old fiddle. His daughter Julia
S. and his son Volney O. Stevens wrote down in western New
York nearly ninety of his songs. Let Mr. Douglass, who is a
competent historian — now the official historian of his county
— tell the subsequent history of his manuscript:
Volney Stevens and a younger brother bought land in Illinois;
the brother died soon thereafter and at about the same time
2 At North Andover the Stevens family had been neighbors of Gov-
ernor Simon Bradstreet and his wife Anne, author of The Tenth Muse
(1650).
xvi Introduction
back home the sister, Julia S., succumbed to a lingering illness.
Julia Parker Stevens, the mother, died in 1866, while Artemas,
the source of the ballads, passed away in 1877. Meanwhile, Volney
had served in the Union forces, moved to Kansas where he
drove stage along the Santa Fe road, and took up farming again.
He outlived two wives and during his last years stayed at the
soldiers' home, Leavenworth, where he died in 1908.
Back to the old home, which he had never revisited, was sent
a red-painted pine chest. It was stored in the attic and neglected.
In 1936, when the old home was about to be sold, the chest was
hauled from beneath the eaves and its contents were sorted.
Mice had lunched on many a paper, but among the relics was
found the ballad collection, the last pages missing. It is not
known just when the manuscript was taken West, but one likes
to think that Volney Stevens, plowing his fields, sitting before
his fireside, or guiding his rocking stage across the prairie, sang
over and over the songs of his youth and kept alive the folk
ballads of his ancestors. He made copies of a few — there are
duplicates. Rolled among her paper patterns for quilts and em-
broidery designs, Great-Grandmother kept her "spirituals" and
a few other songs. Ancient, well-thumbed music books were on
the library shelves. The songs of her youth offered solace to
Grandma Stevens during her long hours of loneliness on the
frontier, and in her moments of sorrow for seven of her children
who died in infancy or early adulthood.
Most of the writing has turned a faded brown (that generally
written by the daughter); Volney's is yet a bright red, while
the mother's remains a fresh blue.
The Editing
Editing of individual songs has been done by a former student
of mine, Miss Edith E. Cutting, to whom the task was assigned
partly because she has had training and experience as an editor
and collector of folklore but also because she is in the tradition
of Yankee-Yorker lore by birth. When Artemas Stevens was
singing in western New York, her own ancestors — Cuttings and
Introduction xvii
Whites and Blisses and Deans — were enjoying similar old songs
in the eastern part of the same state. Her Lore of an Adirondack
County (Ithaca, 1944) and her Whistling Girls and Jumping
Sheep (Cooperstown, 195 1 ) are as authentic as her affection for
her mountain home in Essex County. She illustrates the neglected
fact that in folklore a long tradition and "savvy" for a region
are even more important than meticulous scholarship such as
hers.
Scholars will welcome the assurance that the mice-bitten
manuscript has been carefully checked three times: by me, of
course; by Mrs. Agnes Nolan Underwood, who wrote at the
Albany State College a master's thesis on another subject con-
nected with folklore; and finally by A4iss Cutting. The texts
are exactly as they appeared in the manuscript, but now and
again the meaning has been clarified by inserting words from
another version of a song. Miss Cutting adds:
In cases where a song that could be identified was badly damaged
by the depredations of the mice, the fragment has been sup-
plemented, in brackets, from another source. The procedure has
been used in case of a missing title. The spelling, the lack of
punctuation, and the variations of wording between most of
these songs and printed versions indicate that the Douglass
versions were written down from memory, not from printed
copies.
When Mr. Douglass first wrote to me in 1937, he listed
sixty-nine titles. Other songs he found later both in the man-
uscript and elsewhere. We have included ten not in the manu-
script, as indicated by asterisks in the Contents. They seem to
belong in the same period as those in the principal manuscript:
two are signed by Artemas Stevens and two by Julia Stevens at
Java in 1841 and 1843. Hence 1841 may well be the earliest date
for the present collection, but we are not sure. The next to the
last song in the principal manuscript is for the presidential cam-
paign of 1856, and such ditties probably were not sung long
xviii Introduction
after a campaign. The songs for the campaign four years earlier
(1852) were numbers 49, 51, and 52; so thirty items may have
been written down between 185 2-1 856. Notes for individual
songs give further information about possible dates, particularly
in relation to a few numbers that were copyrighted and printed.
Ink and penmanship indicate that the first sixty-two songs may
have been written down by a single person, possibly by the
daughter of Artemas, from his dictation. As Mr. Douglass notes,
this ink is now a faded brown. After that (in the main manu-
script) red or bright blue ink appears with larger letters and more
"flourishes."
After the era covered by this manuscript, taste in songs
shifted as much as methods of agriculture. If, like the still-
unpublished Curtis Collection from western New York, 3 the
Stevens-Douglass Manuscript had been started about i860 instead
of 1840, there would have been many songs of the Civil War,
mostly of a sentimental mood different from the heroics of
"Brave Wolfe"; there would have been songs of love, often
tearful even when they told a story; there would have been
fewer Child ballads. In addition to minstrel songs there would
have been many "jubilees" (Negro spirituals); there would
have been many numbers, chiefly humorous, by and about
such important immigrant groups as the Irish and the Germans;
there would have been several Scottish songs with texts by the
great poet still called by Americans "Bobby" Burns. There
would have been comic songs from the music halls and a few
from the "college boys." I have never seen a manuscript songster
of the last two decades of the nineteenth century, but I am sure
that it would have had several waltzes and tearful ballads, most
of them copyrighted "popular" songs. (See Dr. Sigmund
3 W. W. Curtis fought in the Civil War and for a year or two there-
after was a teacher on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation (1864-1865)
and sang in the Beloit College glee club. He kept a scrapbook of 3 1 1
pages for songs. Nine of his songs of the Civil War were published in
the NYFQ, IX (1953), 94-103. Nine others, chiefly of a collegiate type
but including one song of migration to Illinois, were published in a later
issue of the same year.
Introduction xix
Spaeth's admirable book called A History of Popular Music in
America [New York, 1948].) In the 1890s, when I was a little
boy, folksongs from oral tradition in New York State had given
way to sheet music accompanied by the piano or even the parlor
organ.
A useful classification has been achieved by rearranging and
renumbering the songs according to origin and subject, but
the original order in the big manuscript is given in parentheses
after the title in the Index, in case some scholar wishes to puzzle
further into questions regarding dates. As for the notes to
individual songs, Miss Cutting has made the historical matter
as brief as her Yankee conscience would permit, and she has
avoided a trick often employed during the past two decades
of "lifting" entire notes from pioneer American scholars who
could not let even one broadside text in the Harvard Library
go unmentioned. Comparisons have been drawn with versions
to be found in a few important collections, including the great
Frank Brown Collection from North Carolina and Vance
Randolph's Ozark Collection, both of which were published
after Miss Cutting supposed her task to be complete. She might
have been saved weeks of editorial labor if in 1945 she had
been able to consult the first two volumes of the Bibliographical
Series published by the American Folklore Society in 1950:
Tristram P. Coffin's The British Traditional Ballad in North
America and G. Malcolm Lawes's Native American Balladry,
with both of which she has now checked. In our puzzlement
over certain songs, we wrote in 1947 to two scholars to whom
we again express thanks: the late Professor Emeritus Henry
M. Belden of the University of Missouri and Dr. Duncan
Emrich, formerly chief of the Folklore Section at the Library
of Congress.
When we supposed that the editing had been completed, an
eminent folklorist suggested that I write a general introduction
to each of the fifteen sections into which Miss Cutting had
divided the songs. Inasmuch as I had helped Miss Cutting with
the introductions to each individual song, I had some hesitation
xx Introduction
in making generalizations, but I was finally convinced that
there might be some value in the suggestion: more than thirty
years of collecting, editing, and teaching songs of New York
State may have justified writing these introductions. I rejected
the idea of adding a "discography" that would be out-of-date
within five years. I also rejected the idea of altering the original
spelling and punctuation, which not only authenticate the tran-
scriptions but give important information upon pronunciation
in the years during which the manuscript was written.
So — not to "mak' a kirk and a mill" out of a long task — the
editing has been done and all the important questions have been
answered except in the cases of a few songs; old folksong
students will know which. Specialists will be particularly inter-
ested in nineteen numbers that they may not have seen else-
where: Numbers 4, 5, 11, 32, 45, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 71, 78,
81, 82, 86, 87, 88, and 89. Those who suspect that word-for-
word copies from printed sources may have been made by the
Stevens family will find no confirmation except possibly in
five songs, Numbers 8, 28, 35, 37, and 83. But, as Professor
G. L. Kittredge of Harvard used to say, Boni philologi est
qnaedam nescire.
Conclusions
When Joel Chandler Harris, whose achievements as a folk-
lorist have recently been appraised by Mrs. Stella Brewer
Brookes, 4 published his third book of Negro tales in 1892, he
said: "At the end of investigation and discussion Speculation
stands grinning." Regarding a book of tales from our South-
west he had said earlier: "If the folklorists find in them anything
of value to their pretensions let it be picked out and preserved
with as little cackling as possible." Without any cackling the
editors of the Stevens-Douglass A4anuscript may be permitted
a few simple conclusions.
What kinds of songs did this pioneer Stevens family enjoy?
4 Joel Chandler Harris, Folklorist (Adiens, Ga., 1950).
Introduction xxi
They wrote down 36 old songs from the British Isles, including
20 about love; they had 14 songs of American history and 5
about the mimic warfare of American politics; they sang (in
addition to so-called "Child ballads") 6 American and at least
20 British songs about love. These three classes, after deduction
of 20 British songs of love for duplication in tabulation, account
for 61 songs out of a total of 89. A majority of the songs have
some narrative element and can therefore be called ballads. So
there is a preference for songs of love, war, and romantic
story. But there is a record here also of American pioneering
(3) and worship (5), and even of that peculiarly American
form of entertainment which we call the minstrel show (3).
The 89 songs give much information about American pioneers
in that era which Jared van Wagenen, Jr., in his book of the
same name published by Cornell University Press in 1953, has
called The Golden Age of Homespun.
The editors at first intended to call their trove merely the
Douglass Manuscript (and for the sake of brevity this name is
used in the headnotes to the songs) ; but inasmuch as the family
that wrote down the songs was named Stevens, we later decided
to use the hyphenated name of Stevens-Douglass (which the
owner also prefers). In any case, Mr. Harry Douglass, whose
talents have been devoted to history and education, may well
regard this volume as one of his chief gifts to his state and nation.
His own further use of the material and the eventual disposal
of his important manuscript are, of course, reserved. The editors
are happy to be connected with this songster of western New
York.
We have a single regret — that the manuscript did not include
music. "Let the teacher say little, and let the pupils sing much!"
So advised the compiler of an old American "chorus book."
Readers of the present volume may know tunes for many
songs whose texts are here given. My own observation is that
most folk singers, even today, are more interested in the words
of their ballads than in their tunes. I remember the impatience
of a gentle, ancient "informant" from western New York, Blind
xxii Introduction
Sam the Sailor, when I was trying to write down a modal
melody for his version of the ballad about James Bird. He said,
"Harold, there are three other good tunes for that song; you
get the words." Thanks to Mr. Douglass, we have "got the
words."
Harold W. Thompson
Cornell University
September, 1958
III
(
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(TVWD
Index of Songs
Directly after each title appears the number assigned to that song
in the present arrangement; the numbers in parentheses indicate the
position of the songs in the original manuscript. The spelling of these
titles and of some of the first lines has been corrected, and a few
other titles by which individual songs are known have been inserted.
First lines of songs are in italics.
Page
Again 'we're marshalled for the fight, 62 147
Alknomook, 75 (33) 172
All you that's at liberty, 33 81
American frigate from Baltimore came, An, 47 1 1 1
As down in Cupid's garden, 17 54
At Bridgeivater there lived a met -chant, n 63
Banks of Brandywine, 37 (29) 90
Barbara Allen, 2 (47) 7
Behold a London lawyer's son, 12 -43
Bishop of Canterbury, The, 1(1) 4
Bold Dighton, 46 (26) 107
Bold Pirates, The, 7 (11) 24
Bonny Light Horseman, The, 28 (21) 74
Bramble Briar, The, 22 63
Brave Wolfe, 43 (16) 98
Bride's Farewell, The, 83 (75) 182
Bridgewater Merchant, The, 22 63
Buena Vista, 56 (48) 135
199
200 Index of Songs
Page
Canaan, 72 165
Canada-I-O, 19 (24) 58
Captain Ward, 8(15) 25
Caroline of Edinburgh Town, 20 (22) 60
Carrier Dove, The, 29 (30) 75
Cheer up, my young ?nen all, 43 98
Come all ye British heroes, 53 127
Come all ye jolly sailors bold, 8 25
Come all you heroes that plough the rough main, 46 107
Come all you jolly sailors bold, 65 153
Come all you merry soldiers, 89 191
Come all you pretty maidens, 27 73
Come all you roving bachelors, 86 187
Come all you sly and tricky lads, 3 9
Come all you true friends of the nation, 60 144
Come all young men and maidens, 20 60
Come, brothers, gather round my bed, 58 141
Come, Polly, come, Polly, 23 66
Come, poor man, come, poor man, 80 178
Come sons of freedom, all draw nigh, 61 145
Constitution and Guerriere, 49 (37) 118
Convert, The, 70 161
Country Clown, The, 87 (70) 188
Cruel Ship Carpenter, The, 23 66
Dark-eyed Sailor, The, 14 (8) 49
Dawning of the Day, The, 21 (28) 61
Dog and the Gun, The, 26 (50) 71
Down in the cane brake, close by the mill, 68 158
Drummer Boy of Waterloo, The, 3 1 (3) 78
Dying Californian, The, 58 (73) 141
Eliza, 38 91
Ellen the Fair, 13 (12) 48
Empire Club, The, 63 (51) 149
Erin's Lovely Home, 33 (36) 81
Fair Ellen one morning, 13 48
Farewell, Mother, tears are streaming, 83 182
Fine little sloop from the Delaware came, A, 50 120
Five hundred guineas on the plains of Killdeer, 34 82
Flaunting Flag of Liberty, The, 32 (40) 79
Fly away to my native land, sweet dove, 29 75
From the Rio Grande's waters, 56 135
Fro?n thee, Eliza, 1 mast go, 38 91
Index of Soiigs 201
Page
George Reily, 15 (34) 51
Golden Glove, The, 26 (50) 71
Gospel Ship, The, 71 163
Gospel ship is saili?7g by, The, 71 163
Gunner and Boatswain, The, 89 (53) 191
Have you heard of the collier, 79 176
Henry and Ruth, 11 (43) 37
Here's a health to King John, 1 4
Hog's Heart, The, 4 (7) 11
Hunters of Kentucky, The, 54 (32) 130
/ came to the spot where the White Pilgrim lay, 74 168
/ had a dream the other night, 63 149
/ often have been told, 49 118
Indian Hunter, The, 76 (42) 172
Indian Hunter, The, 77 (61) 173
Indian Student, The, 78 (2) 174
It is of a comely young lady fair, 14 49
It is of a wealthy young squire, 26 71
It was early spring; the year was young, 24 67
It was on one fine morning, 21 61
It was on the merry month of May, 2 7
Vve a mind to quit farming, 57 139
I've Been Roaming, 42 (38) 96
James Bird, 52 (13) 124
Johnny German, 16 (56) 53
Kate and Her Horns, 25(17) 69
Katie Mora, 3 (57) 9
Kennebec Bite, The, 6 (31) 22
Kind Christians all, I pray attend, 66 155
King John and the Bishop, 1(1) 4
Knight in Green, The, 5 (79) 18
Lady Washington, 45 (46) 107
Lawyer Outwitted, The, 18 (5) 56
Let me go to my home that is far distant west, 76 172
Liberty Ball, The, 60 (60) 144
Lilly Dale, 39 (63) 92
London Lawyer's Son, The, 12 (59) 43
Loss of the Albion, 65 (23) 153
Madam, 1 have come a-courting, 41 94
202 Index of Songs
Page
Maid of Monterrey, The, 55 (76) 133
Mary of the Wild Moor, 85 (68) 184
Merchant from London, as many report, A, 4 11
Mermaid, The, 9 (4) 29
Moon was shining brightly, The, 55 133
Mom of life is past and evening comes at last, The, 67 157
My Father sent me to a school, 87 188
My Gum-Tree Canoe, 69 (66) 159
Nancy Till, 68 (64) 158
Napoleon Bonaparte, 30 (10) 76
Near Boston there lived a mason by trade, 6 22
Night teas dark and fearful, The, 84 . . . .183
Noble Lads of Canada, 53 (19) 127
Northern lord of high renown, A, 5 18
Now Napoleon hath done, 30 76
O, give me back my bended bow, 78 174
Of a rich counselor 1 write, 18 56
Oh, why does the white man follow my path, 77 173
Old Dog Tray, 67 (65) 157
Old England Forty Years Ago, 48 (9) 112
Old Enoch, 88 (71) 189
Old Grannau, she arose in the morning so soon, 36 85
Old Grannau Weal, 36 (41) 85
On a bright summer's morning, 15 51
On Friday morning we set sail, 9 29
On Tom-big-bee River so bright I was born, 69 159
One morning very early, 37 90
One night when the wind blew cold, 85 184
Patient Jo, 79 (25) 176
Paul Jones, 47 (14) 11 1
Perry's Victory, 51 (39) 122
Polly's Love, 23 66
Poor Man, The, 80 (44) 178
'Prentice Boy, The, 17 (20) 54
Pretty Polly, 23 66
Quaker's Wooing, The, 41 (69) 94
Rain was pouring wildly, The, 59 142
Rose of Ardee, The, 35 (27) 84
Roving Bachelor, 86 (55) 187
Index of Songs 203
Page
Sailor's Wife's Lament, The, 24 (35) 67
Sarah Maria Cornell, 66 (18) 155
Saw you my hero, 45 107
Seaman of Dover with excellent art, A, 11 37
Seaman of Plymouth, sweet William by name, A, 10 32
Sitting in the corner, 40 93
Skewball, 34 (54) 82
Song for the Campaign, A, 61 (49) 145
Sons of Freedom, listen to me, 52 124
Sparking Sunday Night, 40 (72) 93
Spinster's Lament, The, 27 73
Sun sets at night, The, 75 172
Sweeper, The, 81 (45) 179
Taxation of America, The, 44 (6) 101
Temperance Ship, The, 82 180
There was a gallant lady, 19 58
Though 1 sweep to and fro, 81 179
Together let us sweetly live, 72 165
True American, The, 62 (52) 147
'Twos a calm still night, 39 92
Two lofty ships from England they came, 7 24
Used-up Miner, The, 59 (77) 14
Wait for the Wagon, 64 (78) 151
Wasp Stinging Frolic, 50 (62) 120
Watcher, The, 84 (74) 183
We're Traveling Home, 73 167
When battle roused each warlike band, 31 78
When first I came from London, 16 53
When first to this country, 35 84
W 'hen I set out for glory, 70 161
While I rehearse my story, 44 101
White Pilgrim, The, 74 168
Will you come with me, good democrats, 64 151
William and Susan, 10 (58) 32
Wisconsin, 57 (67) 139
Ye gentlemen and ladies fair, 54 130
Ye tars of Columbia, give ear to my story, 51 122
You that in merriment delight, 25 69
You wives, maids, and widows, 28 74
-— *R3 fl ***'
Date Due
Library Biirea
Cat. No. 1137
M1628.T49P5
CLAPP
3 5002 00399 0103
Thompson, Harold William
A pioneer songster; texts from the Steve
316055