Oxford Girl- Sula Hudson (MO) 1941 Randolph L
[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 without titles 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 is a stretch but in some versions he acquired corresponding testimony (Version B, for example).
R. Matteson 2016]
L. "Oxford Girl." Sung by Mrs. Sula Hudson, Crane, Mo., Sept. 15, 1941.
I fell in love with an Oxford girl
With sparkling bright blue eyes.
I ask her to marry me,
If she would me not deny.
I ask her to take a walk with me
To some far and distant place,
And there we'd have some private talk
And appoint our wedding day.
She went and took a walk with me
To the far and distant place,
And there we had some private talk
And appointed our wedding day.
I drew a stake that was standing by
And smoothed her down the face,
. . . .
. . . .
I drew the stake . . .
Just as I did before,
And out of her eyes, her nose and mouth
The gushing blood did pour.
She fell upon her bended knees,
Oh Lord have mercy, she cried,
Oh Johnny dear, don't murder me here,
I'm not prepared to die.
I heeded not the words she said,
But still went on the more,
Till all the ground around her
Was all a bloody yoe[1].
I took her by the lily-white hand
And slung her round and round,
And plunged her in the river
Down in Oxford town.
1. gore