The Hangman's Tree- Biggs (TN) 1937 Kirkland
[Not a local title, probably supplied by Kirklands. Single stanza with music from: Popular Ballads Recorded in Knoxville, TN 1938 by the Kirklands. Bronson 45.
This has been Reprinted from Southern Folklore Quarterly, vol. II, no. 2., pages 65-80. Music and texts from Edwin Capers Kirkland and Mary Neal Kirkland, 1938. Their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
(Child 95)
"The Hangman's Tree" was recorded January, 1937, by Miss Mary Biggs, a teacher in the city schools, who learned it from her mother, a native of east Tennessee. Miss Biggs said, "I do not remember the end of this, but we think the sweetheart saved the man."
Hangman, hangman, hold your rope,
Oh fer a while.
I think I see my father coming,
For many a mile.