Lexington Tragedy- Alonzo Lewis (ME) 1948 Flanders E
[From a recording in the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College Special Collections & Archives. Classification #: LAP35. Track 06. Dated 10-1-1948.
Listen: https://archive.org/details/HHFBC_tapes_D52A (time 18.30)
The quality of the recording is good- one skip. Although not long, this is a very important version because of its link with Lexington Miller.
R. Matteson 2016]
Lexington Tragedy- sung by Alonzo Lewis at York, (ME). Dated 10-01-1948. Transcribed R. Matteson, 2016.
My parents brought me up with care,
Provided for me well,
'Twas in the town of Lexington
They plac'd me in the mill.
A handsome girl came to my room,
On her I cast my eye,
I told her that I'd marry her,
If she would with me lie.
I courted her about six months,
Which caused us pain and woe[1],
When folly[2] brought us into a snare,
And proved our overthrow.
I went down to her uncle's house,
Bout eight o'clock one night,
But little did she think on it
I owed her any spite.
So let us take a walk
Just a little ways,
That we can talk and well agree
Upon our wedding day.
So hand in hand I led her around,
Down in the lonesome place,
I pulled a stake out of the fence
And struck her in the face.
Then coming to herself again,
For mercy she did cry,
"Oh Johnny dear, don't murder me,
For I'm not prepared to die."
I paid no 'tention to her cry,
I laid it on the more;
Till I had taken her life away,
Which I could not restore.
Returning to my mill again,
Like one that was amazed;
The miller being at the door,
And strictly on me gazed.
"Where have you been, Johnny," he said,
What has dyed your hands and clothes?"
I answered him as I saw fit,
"Take a-bleeding at the nose."
The next morning she was searched for
And was not to be found,
And I was apprehended
And in my chamber bound.
Her sister swore against me
She swore it was no doubt
That I's the man who murdered her,
For I did lead her out.
1. This is the intent or, at one point in its oral journey, the original text of this line which Lewis sings but seeming doesn't understand and it's mumbled a bit and hard to understand.
2. This folly refers to her pregnancy, which is inferred.