Pearl Bryant: An Unpublished Variant of an American Folk Song by Mellinger E. Henry
[Includes Georgia Version of Barbara Allen]
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 42, No. 165 (Jul. - Sep., 1929), pp. 301-3
NOTES AND QUERIES
PEARL BRYANT: AN UNPUBLISHED VARIANT OF AN AMERICAN FOLKSONG
Professor John H. Cox and Miss Louise Pound have pointed out that "Pearl Bryant" or "Pearl Bryan" as the title has previously appeared, is an adaptation from one of the most widespread of American ballads variously entitled "The Jealous Lover" (Pound no. 43; Cox, no. 38), "Lorella," "Floella," "Florilla," "Flora Ella," "Blue-Eyed Ella," "Poor Lurella," "My Sweet Luella," "Poor Lora," "Poor Lorla," "Nell," etc. It was made to fit the murder of a girl named Pearl Bryan. Professor Cox in Folk-Songs of the South has stated the incidents so fully that it seems best to quote them at length as follows:
"The title 'Pearl Bryan' and certain incidents and names found in the variants under that title are without doubt due to the following facts, for which I am indebted to Mr. Clifford R. Meyers, State Historian and Archivist of West Virginia. In a letter dated March 23, 1920, he wrote:
'I tried to secure the words of the song but failed. It seems that the song was very popular for a few years after the punishment of the criminals and I believe it was one of the ephemeral songs composed by some music hall singer. I remember hearing it many times and in it was a couplet which ran:-
"O, Pearl Bryan, she's dead,
And they can't find her head."
'The murder occurred near Fort Thomas, Kentucky, Friday night January 31, 1896, and was the result of a criminal operation. The girl apparently died, her head was taken off, and the body placed in the woods. After being found it was identified by the feet - Miss Bryan being "web-footed." Two young doctors, Scott Jackson and Alonzo M. Walling, were arrested and later convicted. A young man by the name of Woods was implicated, but later released. The two were hanged, but I do not know the exact date. Miss Bryan was from Greencastle, Indiana.'
"On April I, 1920, he wrote as follows: 'A letter to the Cincinnati Enquirer failed to obtain the words of the song, but the following is what the paper sent me:
'"Pearl Bryan was a Greencastle, Indiana girl. She is said to have appealed to Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, students at the dental college in Cincinnati, to have her given medical attention after she arrived in this city. Her body was found, minus her head, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky, February I, 1896. Her identity was established through marks found in her shoes, which were sold in Greencastle. Jackson and Walling, charged with first degree murder, were tried in Newport, Ky. They were found to be guilty, and 1 awnhgeerde on March 20, 1897. The girl's head was never found."
'The enclosed data were pblished in the various parts of the country the day after the hanging and were sent out by some news agency:
"'Pearl Bryan, the daughter of a wealthy farmer near Greencastle, Indiana, was a belle of that town, and had been indiscreet, presumably with William Wood (or Woods) as Jackson and Walling alleged. On January 27, Pearl Bryan left her home ostensibly to visit friends in Indianapolis, but instead came direct to Cincinnati to meet Scott Jackson, then a student in the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. Jackson failed to keep his appointment with the girl and after wandering about the city she went to the Indiana House and registered under an assumed name. The next day Jackson called to see her. On Wednesday, January 29, she left the Indiana House with Jackson and a fellow student, Alonzo Walling, and from that day until her headless body was found at Fort Thomas, nothing is positively known of the movements of the trio. It was testified at the trial that George Jackson, a negro cabman, had driven the three to Fort Thomas, where the girl was decapitated. Her head was never found. Jackson and Walling were arrested at their boarding house, in Cincinnati, and were charged with the murder. At the preliminary examination of the prisoners, and later, while standing over the girl's corpse, each accused the other of having killed the girl. Jackson admitted that he was acquainted with Pearl Bryan, but denied any knowledge of the murder.
Walling said he did not know her. The trials were sensational and resulted in separate convictions. Each made numerous confessions and statements, the last one a joint effort to place the blame upon a doctor of Bellevue, Kentucky, who had been insane. This as were others, was disbelieved".'
"May 8, 1920: 'My visit included a conference of the directors of the Enlarged Program of the American Library Association at Indianapolis... and a visit to Depaw at Greencastle. While there I saw Pearl Bryan's grave. The grave stone had been damaged somewhat by relic hunters.'"
The following version of the song was obtained from Granville Gadsey, of Guerrant, Breathitt County, Kentucky, in 1925. Notice the spelling in this case:
PEARL BRYANT
-1- In Greencastle lives a lady, who was known this wild world over -
Who was murdered by Scott Jackson, whom she really did adore.
Yes, she loved him dearly, for he was both young and gay;
In him she trusted firmly and by him was led astray.
-2- She told him her brave story and he knew that if [it] were true -
Then, he grew very much discouraged for he knew not what to do.
He went to his friend, Wallen, they seek and said - - - - -
And there they held a consultation and the daring plot was laid.
-3- On a cab one rainy evening just before the close of day
Up rode Wallen and Scott Jackson and with Pearl they rode away.
Yes, Pearl and all her beauty left the town with those two men,
Not thinking for one moment what would be her awful end.
-4- They drove far from the city to a place so far from home --
And there they found her body lying headless, bloodstain, and alone.
Yes, it surely was those two men killed her; all over this wide world are known;
The murder of Pearl Bryant has been told in many a home.
Professor Cox gives three texts under the title of "Pearl Bryan": '"(1) Commrnuncated by Miss Nellie Douley, Morgantown, Monongalia County, December, 1915; obtained from Miss Marion Rennar, who first heard it in 1912, one winter night, while gathered about a great wood fire in the country near Morgantown. Miss Debbie Bolyard sang the song and her brother, Winfield, played it on a mouth-harp.
"(2) Communicated by Professor Walter Barnes, Fairmount, Marion County, May 18, 1916.
"(3) Communicated by Professor Walter Barnes, Fairmzount, Marion County, January 12, 1916. It was written down by Miss Janet Cook and given to Mr. H. M. Hart of the Watson School. It agrees closely with (2)."
MELLINGER E. HENRY. Ridgefield, New Jersey.
A GEORGIA VERSION OF BARBARA ALLAN. The following version of Barbara Allan, which partly blends Child A and B and which adds as its final stanza a motif common to Fair Margaret and Sweet William, Lord Lovel, and The Lass of Roch Royal, was sung by Mrs. John Kerr, Cave Spring, Georgia, R. F. D. No. i, on December 29, 1928. Mrs. Kerr, my paternal aunt, told me she learned the ballad from my great-grandmother, Mrs. Martha Jane Bouchillon, who was born near Abbeville, South Carolina in 1827. Mrs. Bouchillon moved to Floyd County, Georgia, sometime between 1845 and 1849.
1. In Scarlet Town, where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwelling,
And every youth cried well awa'
Her name was Barbara Allen.
2. All in the merry month of May,
Green buds when they were swelling,
Young Jimmie Groves on his death-bed lay
For the love of Barbara Allen.
3. He sent his men unto her then,
To the town where she did dwell in,
Saying, "You must come to my master now,
If your name be Barbara Allen."
4. "If death be printed on his face,
And o'er his heart be stealing,
Yet little better shall he be
For lovely Barbara Allen.