Knoxville Girl- unknown (TN) 1936 Crabtree A
[No informant named. From: "Songs and Ballads Sung in Overton County, Tennessee: A Collection" by Lillian Crabtree, 1936, 316 pages long. It was her Master's thesis, George Peabody College for Teachers in 1936, which resulted in the texts of 323 songs and ballads, without music.
R. Matteson 2016]
A. Knoxville Girl
In the town of Knoxville,
I used to live and dwell,
And in that little town of Knoxville
I owned a flour mill.
I fell in love with a Knoxville girl
With dark and rolling eyes.
I promised her I'd marry her
if she never would deny.
I walked down at her sister's house
At eight o'clock one night.
And little did that poor girl think
I owed her any spite.
I asked her to take a walk with me
And over the meadows gay
That we may have a talk
And name the wedding day.
We walked along, we talked along,
Till we came to the level ground,
And I picked up a hardwood stick
And knocked that fair girl down.
She fell upon her bending knees,
Oh, Lord, have mercy, she cried.
Oh, Willie dear, don't murder me here
For I'm not prepared to die.
And nary, nary word she said
I beat her more and more.
I took her by her yellow hair
I drug her around and around.
And just about six days later,
This Knoxville girl was found
Floating down the still water deep
That goes through Knoxville town.
Her sister swore my life away,
she swore it without a doubt.
She said that I was the very lad
that led 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.