Bluegrass Messengers

 ”That’s the Way They Lived,” Anne and Frank Warner from New York Folklore Quarterly 22/2 (June 1966), 104-113.

[not edited]

..THAT'S THE WAY THEY LIVED''
ANNE AND FRANK WARNER

WE FIRST met Yankee John Galusha, famous now among all who are interested in Adirondack folklore as a singer of fine songs and ballads, in August, 1939. [1] Yankee John was then 80, somewhat bent with the weight of years, but vigorous and hearty. He had spent his life in the North Country as a lumberjack, game and fishing guide, forest ranger (Vanderwacker Mountain was his last charge), and farmer. He and Mrs. Galusha were then living in an Adirondack farmhouse in Fourteenth Road in Minerva.

On our second visit the following year we had our first recording machine, an early Recordio, and a supply of small paper disks.
On to these, during that meeting and during our subsequent visits, Yankee John sang many songs, some of them rarely found
in oral tradition. We had many a long talk with him during our
visits, and he became a dear and valued friend. But it was not until
1950, when we saw him for the last time, shortly before his
passing at the age of 91, 'that we had a tape-recording machine.
Yankee John had been very ill, but had recovered sufficiently to
be dressed and sit in the kitchen of .the house (where he was staying
with a grand niece and nephew) on that September day. We
thought only of visiting a dear friend and not of "collecting."

However, toward the end of our visit we mentioned the new gadget out in the car, and Yankee John said he would like to see it.
So the tape machine was brought in and turned on, and we began to ask him some questions about his early memories. The following is a transcription from this tape, with the questions omitted because they break into the flow of his narrative. The tape is short because we did not feel we should overtax his strength, though there were dozens of anecdotes and stories he had told us over the years which we would have liked hirn to retell for a Permanent record. Alas, for all lost opportunities.
I was born in 1859, February 6th, 1859' ' ' '
I can remember when we .isecl to farm it and raise all the sttrlf
"Yankee John" Galusha in the yard of his homc
on Fourteenth Road in Minerua in 1911'
that we consumed mostly on ollr farrn - everything like eggs ancl
butter ancl cheese, ancl flour - we woulcl have our grain ground into

and bring it home and use it, as they go to the stores and buy
i 't t o d a y . . . . - i . . . 1
I can remember as long ago as when I wore dresses ' ' ' little boys
wore dresses, lots of them, until they was, oh, three and four years
old, and then they would go into their pants' And you ought to see
them strut around when tf,ey got their pants on! They coulcl thrash
buckwheat then as good as a man' almost! Boys would wear their
hair sometimes as long as a girl fwhile they were in dresses] '
-'
' atrtl
then they would go suaight along up to farm work' That's the way
they lived'
:- ^..,- +L.i--o than
'l
lcl be
lPeople made their own things then'] Generally there wott'
sonie s6-oemaker in rhe rown coulcl make shoes for chilclren, or they
could make a pair of boots for a man. They probably woulcln't be
too slick looking, but they took the weather and the wear' That's the
way-w teh ey lived.
had horses . . . and we used to us€ lots of oxen too. But they
always had horses . . . they brought horses right into the country with
them. I couldn't tell you when that was [the first coming]' NIy folks
come in Pretty early . I guess Galushis are all over the Unitetl
States . . . the states seem to be full of Galushas now. I get letters
from all different states. ' . .
They say the first Galusha that ever came into the United States
waskidnap"d'-*t'uttheycall..shanghaied.,'TheBritishusetlto
shanghai *.r, orrt of Ireland and put them on the ships and send them
out. ihey would send press gangs and take a lot of men and put them
to work on.vessels in-them diys. This fellow [a Galusha who had
come by to see him a few years earlier] claims that he got far enough
to find out that that's the way the firsiGalusha came into the United
States . . . he was shanghaied by what they called Press gangs in Great
Britain. . . .
I lived in several differer'-t places ' ' ' they used to move around
quite a lot in them days . . . a good deal-more than now''' but for
quite u few years we lived in Thurman' My father ' ' ' I stayed with
riry father until I was old enough to go out to work. He farmed it.
H! worked in the lumber woods in the winter time for other people
. . . lots of people did that. They farmed it in the suflrmer and worked
in the winiry woods in the winrer . . . thar's they way they lived.
I'm goin to try to sing a song . . . it'sthe only one I am going to
try to sing ' . '
..THAT'S THE WAY THEY LIVED'' r07
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f cat cll|.
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I\Iusical trartscriptiou bv Ican Kucblet"
$g m0 vfill
O cotne oll tlte bonnie lassie,
Ancl let us ir1l1>ointth e time,
fl" ti*. *d,i.t we will be tn:rrriecl
Ancl I can call You mine;
f-f". ii*" when we will be married'
How haPl>Y we-will be'
O, come^on me bonnie lassie
And pactdle the road with me'
To paddle the road with You, kind sir'
CoLi winter is coming on;
Likewise mY aged Parents,
Thev have no child but one;
Besiiles, my aged Parents,
They have no child but me ' ' '
wit&.i" *v dad, he has picked out a lad
To pacldle the road with me'
The lad your dad he has Picked out
He is nought but a colrn-try clown'
He'll tormlent You and -abuse You
And tear your'beautY down;
He will cause you ior to curse tne oay
That him You ever did see; iI
t
r08 NEW YORK FOLKLORE QUARTERLY
So, come on me bonnie lassie
And paddle the road with mel
Now this young couple are married,
Thev live in yonders town.
They are hup'py as their neighbors,
Their neighbors all around . . .
They are hoppy as their neighbors.
Their neighbors where'er they be;
. Wherein, she blesses the day she happened that way
To paddle the road with me.
I don't know the name of it . . . I guess it's just "Come on me bonnie
lassie, and paddle the road with me."
When I was a boy there was an old couple that come around . .
they had a horse and a wagon, a covered wagon, a small one, big
enough, I guess, that they lived in it most of the time . . . traveling
all around the country. Their name [his name] was Yankee Annan.
I used to mimic people, when I was a kid, that I'd hear singing. I began
to mimic him, and people named me "Yankee" after him . . . I
was possibly somewhere between 8 and l0 years old. I know I learned
songs from him, but I can't remember what they were to save my life.
He tried to get my father to let me go with him . . . I wanted to until
I found out what it was. . . kind of got it in my head what it was, and
then I got a little skeptical. My father wouldn't let me go anyway . . .
I had work to do . . . that was the time when people wanted chilclren
to work. That's the wav thev lived. . .
I can remernber when my father went to the South and got my
brother that was wounded in the battle of Cqld Harbor . . . ancl he
lived from in May until the next March. He died sometime in Nlarch
from the effects of the wounds. He was hit twice . . . shot on the breastworks
. . on top of them. He fell back and laid there frorn quite
early in the morning until after dark at night. He had a broken leg
just above the knee and a bullet right through just above his hip. The
bullet did not come out on the other side, and they never did get it
out . . . too dangerous. Toclay, they would have had him fixed up and
back in battle again.
My father went down and got him . . . carried him in his arms bet\^/
een the stations, He had to change cars coming home and there
r.+itrffiffifrl${li{;;rf,* #6i+i.ri:;I.i1;* -' ,driL--
..THAT'S THE WAY THEY LIVED"
was no conveyance they could get and he had to carry hirn' A wagon
was sent to meet him quite a ways from home . . . it was quite a homecoming.
. .
I ha<I another brother that served three years ancl was in l3 different
battles and never got a scratch. His term of enlistment expired
and. he was discharged and come home; and after he was discharged
they called for volunteers again and there was a $1,000 bounty ofiered
to ih.* that would enlist and he turned right around and enlisted
again and got back just in time to get into the fight at Appomattox
c-ourthouse and got his $1,00o and came back home again! He had a
streak of luck . . .
I hearcl rhat the boys used to whistle back ancl forth across the
lines, ancl how they swapped hardtack for tobacco. The Southern boys
wanted the hardtack ancl the Northern boys rvirntecl tobacco! The
Yanks calletl the lLebels" Johnny Graryback,"a n<lt he Sottthernersr tsctl
to call the Northern boys "Billy Yank." They say that they was quite
frienclly . . . The time they hacl that epitlernic that the blackberries
clicl such goocl - the Southerners and the Northern boys would be
right out there together picking berries. I have hearcl three different
soldiers tell of that - I heard Bill Hangsen ancl I hearcl my brother
tell o[ it, ancl . . . Cameron . . . I forgot his given name. They wondered
what in Old Harry they was fightin' for. They swapped songs, too.
[About that song, "The Recl, White an<l Retl"], I clon't believe
theie zuas a flag in the South that was what you corrltl call a red, white
ancl recl flug . . . there was bltte on that flag somewhere. That means
that most of those Southerners believecl that the North rvas right!
I knew a Rebel Colonel - I guiclecl him, fishing. Iivery time I
looked at him I thotrghr of rny brorher Stanley lying on his bed,
groaning . . . ancl I wanted to kill hirn. I ditlr-r't like hirn . . . btrt he
was an all right fellow. The Sotrthern 1>eollle are a gellerotts race o[
people, if you can believe what you read antt what other people tell
you.
You know, I have been fixed for death . . I atn a Catholic, you
know, and I have been annointed for death twice this spring . . . and
rlow it is summer . . . I've got another one to go . . .
i WeU, goodbye . . . God bless you ' . . and thanks for your blessing.
109
I
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l l 0 NEW YORK FOLKLORE QUARTERLY
"The Irishto$r'n Crew"
During our first visit with Yankee John' in August of 1939
(when *. *.t. first song-catching in the Adirondacks)' he sang
.r, *urry Irish-American songs' Among them was "The Irishtorvn
Crew," a local song of a fine rollicking character' full of the names
of people about whom 'the song was written - in the style of
"Uncle Tom Cobleigh and Al1"'
Irishtown, in tg39, was a deserted village some three miles
from Minerva (now, re-occupied and rebuilt and flourishing as
a part of Minerva itself). In the burying ground of the little rvhite
'frame
church'there, we found stones bearing the names of a dozen
of the boys in the song.
There are many tall tales in the York State tradition - tales
which take an actual incident, perhaps, and build on it a magnificent
struclure'to titillate pioneer risabilities' This song is in that
tradition. We don't know another one like it'
In case any Present'day descendants of any metnbers of the
"crew" feel that the account takes dignity or honor frorn their
pioneer forebears (Irish pioneers in the Adirondacks \vere not
*urry g...rations ago), we would like to reassure thetrl' \{rs'
Galusha, who was a-most respectable lady' told us that she had
gone to schtol with most of the boys in the song' and she obviously
iegarded. ,them with afiection' It was a favorite song of Yankee
;o-hrr'r,anditissurelyinthecomiclrishtradition'Younglrish'
L.* ur. noted for their willingness to go on a sPree norv and
again - and, sure, they brought the trait over the water rvith them'
L-et'snotbegrudgethemabitofwishfulthinking,,then,orour.
selves the fun of singing about 'itt
One word of explanation: the words of the song were taken
down from yankee john's singing and the spelling of some of the
namesmayhavesofie,edthereby...Radigan's,'wasabarinlrishrcwn,
and there the adventures of the evening under disctlssion
began. "The Corners" was another pub' run by a blind man nam..
THAT'S THE WAY THEY LIVED''
@ qrr o-*, n ,spnre I
;*il; ;i fi-il-il fiXlb wl;
Nlusical tratrscriptiotl bl lcau Krrcblel"
ed Gibney. Yankee John said that Gibney' siuce he could not see'
measured out the rvhiskey by putting his thumb over the edge of
the glass and pouring uP to the thumb! This explains the last nvo
lines of the song.
On the first day of April, l'll never forget
The Irishtown boys at Radigan's met'
They filled up their glassesa nd swore solemnly
Thai that very clay they'd go out on a spreel
Sing fol the dol laddie,
Ri tol the dol laddie,
Sing fol the dol laddie,
Ri tol the lo daYl
, . ^. 'e$s**rr-:* .::. *:.:-irrt:.
1 l l
t12 NEW YORK FOLKLORE QUARTERLY
There was Holland and Blucher and Williams and Brinn
And one Mack and Ernie that drives the gray team'
There was Isaac and Letty and Paddy and Joe'
Ancl one Micky Conners that lived down below'
They filled themselves uP on Radigan's-beer
And straight for the Corners they quickly did steer'
Resolved before morning they'd finish their spree
And spend a few hours with young Tommy Mee'
Arriving at the Corners, they met more oJ the boys'
There was Early and Duffy and Jimmy McCoy'
Yankee, NeelY, Cub and Tom FlYnn,
Joe Berto, Pete Lindsay, and one Danny Lynn'
There was Nelson Berto, a dear friend o[ mine'
He used to go courting one black Angeline,
With Tucker the mason that plastered our wall'
And Black Pete Mitchell, the pride of them all'
Money being plenty, the drinks they went rouncl'
And glass after glass of the spirits wen! -down'
In less than an hour not a man was in sight,
But was drunker'n a fiddler and wanted to fight!
Tucker in the kitchen his way he did make,
There sit Wallace Plumly, all the way from Long Lake'
Says Gibney: I'd have you my house-to respect'
This gentleman's here my house to protect'
I ask no odds of your house I'd have you to know'
Or this Long Lake PuP you have up here for show!
So Plumley he quickly jumped out on the floor'
And Tucker, he kicked him right bang through the cloor!
Then out in the sreet Plumly run like a Pup'
You couldn't see his coattails for the dust he kicked up'
Saying, I think myself I got in the rurong pew,
For the divil himself couldn't match such a crew!
r--- I
..THAT'S THE WAY THEY LIVED"
Gibney, he bolted and barred up his door'
For love or for money wouldn't sell one clrop more'
"You're all clrunk now, and you'll get no more"'
When slam! went the panels right out of his cloorl
Some built a big borifire to keep themselves warm'
And others crawled off into Butler's barn;
And some under Sullivan's shed went to sleep'
And them that was too drunk, laid out in the street'
For to conclude and to finish mY song,
Ilere's a health to Pat Radigan, may he live long'
To hell with you, Gibney, you're blind and can't see'
And you'll never thumb no more whiskey for met