Barbry Allen- (CO) 1941 Ives JAF
[From: Folklore of Eastern Middle Park, Colorado by Ronald L. Ives; The Journal of American Folklore,Vol. 54, No. 211/212 (Jan. - Jun., 1941), pp. 24-43.
His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Although "Barbara Allen" is well known in parts of the Southwest, where it has become an almost traditional night-herding song, few Middle Park residents have ever heard of it. Two similar versions, both fragmentary, were heard in sheep camps in the vicinity of Willow Creek Pass (on the road from Granby to Walden), and from their context, it is apparent that both versions reached the area via Texas, and that both are hybrids.
Barbry Allen[22]
In Dallas town, where I was born,
And where I got my learning,
There lived a maid, the fairest born,
Her name was Barbry Allen.
And when the weather warmed in May,
And cactus was a-blooming,
I went to town to spend my pay,
And met sweet Barbry Allen.
22 Another version begins "In Abiline, where I was born."