Knoxville Girl- Artus Moser (NC) 1949 Botkin BK
[From: Botkin, A Treasury of Southern Folklore; 1949. cf. Cox. Botkin calls it: A Southern version of the British broadside ballad, Berkshire Tragedy. Moser made a number of recordings and this is probably second-hand, the original informant is unknown.
R. Matteson 2016]
Knoxville Girl - sung by Artus Moser of Wilson's Cove, NC, before 1949.
In the town of Knoxville
I used to live and dwell,
And in that town of Knoxville
I owned a flour mill.
I ll in love with a Knoxvjlle girl,
with dark and rolling eyes,
I promised her I'd marry her
If me she'd never deny.
I led her at her sister's house,
About nine o'clock at night,
And little did that fair girl think
I owed her any fright[1].
I said to her, "Let's take a walk
And view the meadows gay,
That we might have a little talk
And plan our wedding day."
We walked along, we talked along,
Till we came to level ground.
I picked up an edgewood[2] stick
And I knocked that fair girl down.
She fell upon her bended knee.
"Oh Lord, have mercy!" she cried.
"Oh, Willie, dear, don't murder me here,
I'm not prepared to die."
Not minding one word she said,
I beat her more and more.
I beat her till the ground around
stood in a bloody gore.
I took her by her long yellow hair,
I dragged her 'round and 'round.
I dragged her to still waters deep
that flows through Knoxville town.
I called at my mother's house
about twelve o'clock that night,
And Mother, being worried,
got up all in a fright,
Saying, "Son, oh son, what have you done
to bloody your hands and clothes?"
I answered to my mother's request,
"Been bleeding at the nose."
I called for a candle
to light myself to bed,
And also for a handkerchief
to bind my aching head.
I rolled and tumbled the livelong night.
Nothing could I see,
Nothing but the flames of hell
a-sweeping over me.
About six weeks or later
that Knoxville girl was found,
A-floating down still waters
that flows through Knoxville town.
Her sister swore my life away,
she swore without a doubt
That I must be the very lad
that took her sister out.
And now they're going to hang me,
a death I hate to die,
They're going to hang me up so high
between the earth and sky.
1. originally=in a fright; "any spite"
2. from "hedge wood"