Down by the Greenwood Side- Fogg (WV) 1915 Cox A
[This was collected by Richardson on March 15, 1916 and appears also as Cox A in Folk-Songs of the South. Cox's notes and text are below.
R. Matteson 2012]
Old Songs from Clarksburg, W. Va., 1918
by Anna Davis Richardson
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 32, No. 126 (Oct. - Dec., 1919), pp. 497-504
OLD SONGS FROM CLARKSBURG, W.VA., 1918 (Excerpt about Mrs. Fogg)
BY ANNA DAVIS RICHARDSON
Mrs. Rachel E. Fogg moved here some twenty years ago from her childhood's home in Upshur County. It was some time after I knew her before I discovered that she was an old minstrel in disguise, and then it was by chance. I had gone to see her little son who was sick, and she had called in her daughter Viney to " entertain the lady." Giggling, embarrassed, and protesting that she couldn't "sing ner dance neither good enough fur her," Viney was persuaded to take her mouth-harp from her pocket, and began a pas seul accompanied by improvised skirling on the mouth-harp.
When the dust had settled down, and Viney had ceased to cough, her mother suggested that all of them sing a "song-ballet" for me; whereupon Viney flushed with the late applause she had received, readily agreed, and all three of them began to sing the ballad of " Young Collins." Several times Mrs. Fogg made them stop and begin from the first again, and apologized for her weak voice, "Time wuz when I could sing till you could a heard me a quarter of a mile," she said with a sigh.
Ballad after ballad followed, until it went to my head; and I became wildly excited as they became calmer, and knew that I had found buried treasure indeed, which must be preserved. It was while I was spending the following winter in the city that
I received this letter: -
dear friend May God bless you i take the time to rite you a few lines we are all well as usual and hope you the same dont think hard for me not riting soner. Well, i will send you your song ballets. the song of littel jonie Green it is one a hunderd years old it was sung 1777 as near as i can guess. My great grandmother was a Docter in the indian war her name was judith ann easter. i hope you get a premian on your songs and if you do rite and tell me what you get i dont expect you can read them very well you
plese tipe rite them befor you send them to the office well being my letter is so bad i will close so goodby,
Love to one and all
from
Rachel E. FW.
Va.
In the note appended to "Little Johnnie Green" she adds, "My great-grand-mother learned the song in 'Jermina,' she learned it to
her daughter, and she learned it to my mother, and I learned it from my mother." So this wonderful great-grandmother, born in Germany, a doctor in the Indian wars in America, dashing through the woods on her errands of mercy through a blizzard of Indian arrows, spurring on with her slatted sunbonnet the wonderful horse that could "smell Indians a mile off," was responsible for the fascinating entertainment I was getting from her great-grand-daughter in the West Virginia hills.
"Jermina" was a vague region "on the other side;" and when I asked Mrs. Fogg where she was from, she said hesitatingly, "Scotch-Dutch or Jerusalem, I forget which." Whichever it was, she came trailing clouds of humor along with her. She is little and plump, with dark glossy hair, pink cheeks, and brown eyes made to twinkle and laugh. The adverse winds of circumstances have blown the clouds many times across her sky; but the sun was always there when they passed, and the laugh is still easily called forth.
In her collection are the following: "Young Collins," "Little Johnnie Green," "The Ship's Carpenter," "The Twelve Joys of
Mary," "Down by the Greenwood Side," "The Little Rosewood Castel," "The Rich Irish Lady," "Tuck and Tady," "Joe Bowers,"
"Billy Boy," "Betsy Brown," "The Dying Ranger," "Jesse James," "Maggie was a Good Little Girl," and then some half a dozen interesting but not valuable songs. All are of equal value to her, - the oldest and the newest Salvation Army song, all jumbled up
4. DOWN BY THE GREENWOOD SIDE
(Given by Mrs. Rachel Echols Fogg.)
There was a lady lived in York,
She fell in love with her father's clerk,
She loved him up, she loved him down,
She loved him till she filled her arms
Down by the greenwood side.
Ha, and liley and loney
Down by the greenwood side.
She placed her foot against an oak,
First it bent, and then it broke,
Down by the greenwood side.
Ha, liley and loney, etc.
Then she placed her foot against a thorn,
There those two little babes were born
Down by the greenwood side.
Ha, liley and loney, etc.
She pulled a knife both keen and sharp,
And thrust those two little babes to the heart
Down by the greenwood side.
Ha, liley and loney, etc.
She buried those two little babes under a marble stone,
Thinking this would never be known,
Down by the greenwood side.
Ha, liley and loney, etc.
One day, sitting in her father's hall,
She spied those two little babes playing ball
Down by the greenwood side.
Ha, liley and loney, etc.
"O babes! O babes! if you are mine,
I will dress you up in silk so fine,
Down by the greenwood side.
Ha, liley and loney, etc.
"O mother! when we were thine,
You never drest us in coarse nor fine
Down by the greenwood side."
Ha, liley and loney, etc.
"Now we are up in heaven to dwell,
And you are doomed to hell."
Ha, liley and loney, etc.
_______________________
[Appears as Cox A, No. 5, in Cox's book Folk-Songs of the South- 1925; his notes follow.
R. Matteson Jr. 2014]
THE CRUEL MOTHER (Child, No. 20)
Three variants have been recovered in West Virginia under the titles, "Down by the Greenwood Side," and "The Greenwood Siding" (see Cox, XIV, 159). A is an excellent version, following Child E in most details. B is confused at the beginning and one verse of stanza 4 is missing. In the main it agrees clearly with Child C. The only thing in variant C that may be of help in determining its relationship is the last line: "You shall be keeper of hell's gates." Cf. Child, I, 15: "Seven years a porter in hell," and Child, K, 7: "And seven years a porter in hell."
For American texts see Mackenzie, Journal, xxv, 183 (Nova Scotia; also Quest, p. 104) ; McGill, p. 83 (Kentucky) ; Campbell and Sharp, No. 9 (North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia) ; Sharp, Folk-Songs of English Origin Collected in the Appalachian Mountains, 2d Series, p. 2 (Kentucky) ; Jones, p. 5 (South Carolina by way of Kentucky) ; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 11, 109 (Kentucky). For other references see Journal, xxx, 293.
A. "Down by the Greenwood Side." Communicated by Mrs. Hilary G. Richardson, Clarksburg, Harrison County, March 15, 19 16; obtained from Mrs. Rachel Fogg, originally from Doddridge County, who learned it from her mother, and she from her mother. Printed by Mrs. Richardson, Journal, xxxii, 503, and by Cox, xlvi, 65.
1 There was a lady lived in York,
Ha liley and loney;
She fell in love with her father's clerk,
Down by the greenwood side.
2 She loved him up and she loved him down,
She loved him till she filled her arms.
3 She placed her foot against an oak,
First it bent and then it broke.
4 Then she placed her foot against a thorn,
There those two little babes were born.
5 She pulled a knife both keen and sharp
And thrust those two little babes to the heart.
6 She buried those two little babes under a marble stone,
Thinking this would never be known.
7 One day, sitting in her father's hall,
She spied those two little babes playing ball.
8 "O babes, O babes, if you are mine,
I'll dress you up in silks so fine."
9 "O mother, when we were thine,
You never dressed us up in coarse nor fine.
10 "Now we are up in heaven to dwell,
And you are doomed to hell."