Miller's Prentice- Laura Thornton (MO) 1926 Randolph C
[My title. 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. This fragment is missing sections of text.
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 is a stretch but in some versions he acquired corresponding testimony (Version B, for example).
R. Matteson 2016]
C. "Miller's 'Prentice." Sung by Miss Laura Thornton, Pineville, Mo., Oct. 4, 1926.
My parents raised me tenderly,
Provided for me well,
Twas at the age of seventeen,
They placed me in a mill.
* * * *
Three weeks ago last Saturday night,
An' cursed be the day,
The devil put it in my heart
To take her life away.
* * * *
I paid but little attention to her,
But only beat her more,
Until the ground was all around
In a awful bloody gore.
* * * *
Come all young men an' warnin' take.
Prove true to your lovers true,
An' never let the devil get
The upper hand of you.