Miller Boy- C. G. O'Neill (MO) 1900 Randolph F
[My title. Fragment from: Randolph, Ozark Folksongs; 4 vols. 1946-50; reprinted Columbia, 1980, II, 92. Randolph notes follow. I've renamed some of his versions by creating local titles.
Randolph attributes his versions to the local murder of Lula Noel in 1892 which, according to a report in History of McDonald County, Missouri (1897), is "One of the most appalling crimes ever committed in McDonald county was the murder of Mary Lula Noel daughter of W. H. and S. E. Noel on the 10 day of December, 1892." Lula Noel and William Simmons (the convicted murderer) are not mentioned in Randolph's versions and neither are the locations Lanagan and Joplin.
The attribution of Noel Girl is accurate and in some versions he acquired corresponding testimony (Version B, for example). This however does not mean the text of the ballad was changed in any way or should be titled Noel Girl since she is not part of the text.
R. Matteson 2016]
F. "Miller Boy." Mr. Clarence G. O'Neill, Day, Mo., July 28, 1941, recalls a fragment he heard near Day in 1900:
. . . .
. . . .
He bound me to a miller boy
That I might learn his trade.
. . . .
. . . .
My father he persuaded me
To take this dear girl's life.
Her father then he questioned me
Whence came my bloody clothes,
I answered him untruthfully
From bleeding at the nose.
. . . .
. . . .
. . . . take no night walks,
And shun bad company.