Mollie Vaunders- Mrs. Stump (WV-OH) 1885 Cox A
[From Folk Songs of the South, 1925 by John Harrington Cox. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
102. MOLLIE VAUGHN
Three fairly good copies of this song have been found in West Virginia under the titles, "Mollie Vaunders," "Molly Vaunder," and "Mollie Vaughn."
The earliest known record of this ballad is Jamieson's printed circular letter of 1799. The piece was published, in an incomplete text, in his Popular Ballads, 1806, 1, 194 ("Peggy Baun"). A variant ("Molly Whan") was issued by Pitts as a slip-song very early in the nineteenth century. An American broadside ("Polly Wand") is among the ballads purchased "from a Ballad Printer and
Seller in Boston" by Isaiah Thomas in 1813 (11, 122, American Antiquarian Society). Barry prints a four-stanza medley from Maine which contains four lines of the ballad {Journal, XXII, 387). Kittredge prints three versions (Journal, xxx, 358), one from a very old lady in Massachusetts, the others from Wyman's MS. Kentucky collection. Pound, No. 22, reprints the third of these.
Campbell and Sharp, No. 40, give a text from North Carolina and a fragment from Tennessee. For British and American references see Journal, xxx, 358. Add Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 11, 59; VII, 17; Journal of the Irish Folk-Song Society, III, 25.
A. "Mollie Vaunders." Communicated by Miss Violet M. Hiett, Great Cacapon, Morgan County, February, 1917; obtained from Mrs. D. S. Stump, Hampshire County, who learned it in Ohio about 1885.
1 Come all ye young fellows who delight in a gun,
Beware of late shooting, after the sun's down.
I'll tell you a story which happened of late,
Concerning Mollie Vaunders, whose beauty was great.
2 Mollie Vaunders was out walking, when a shower came on;
She stopped under a beech tree, the shower to shun.
Jimmie Randolph was a-hunting, a-shooting in the dark;
He shot at his true love and he missed not his mark.
3 He ran unto her and he picked her up,
Saying, " Uncle, dearest uncle, I've shot Mollie Vaun!
I've killed the dearest being, the joy of my life,
For I always intended to make her my wife."
4 Jimmie's uncle came stepping up, with locks so very gray,
Saying, "Jimmie, dearest Jimmie, don't run away!
Stay at home with your father till your trial day's here;
By the rights of your country I know you'll count clear."
5 On the day of Jimmie's trial, Mollie's ghost did appear,
Saying, "Uncle, dearest uncle, Jimmie Randolph counts clear;
With an apron turned over my head, he took me for a faun;
He shot and he killed me, and my name is Mollie Vaun."
6 All the girls in the city, they seemed very glad
When they heard the sad tidings, Mollie Vaunders was dead.
Take all of those pretty girls, and place them in a row,
Mollie Vaunders shone among them, like a mountain of snow.