The Old Mill- F. H. Lair (KY-TX) c.1890 Payne
[From: Payne "Songs and Ballads Grave and Gay" and also Dobie, Texas and Southwestern Lore, p. 213; Texas. UNT Digital Library. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67662/. Payne's notes follow.
This is a version similar to The Lexington Murder; see headnotes.
R. Matteson 2016]
THE OLD MILL
"The Old Mill" was contributed in 1925 by Mrs. Jeane L. Maxwell, 811 East Lamar Street, Sherman, Texas. Mrs. Maxwell's father, Mr. F. H. Lair, is a descendant of a Kentucky family connected with the Goodes and Hatfields, who were involved in one of the desperate Kentucky feuds. The following ballad, sung by Mr. Lair to his daughter about 1890, was brought to Texas from the Kentucky mountains. Five or six stanzas have been lost, but the story is fairly complete.
I find a slight similarity between this ballad and two versions of five stanzas each (A and B of No. 45 in Miss Pound's American Ballads and Songs) of a ballad called "The Old Shawnee" and "On the Banks of the Old Pedee" respectively. In these versions the murder is based on the rejected lover motif, though no such motif appears in the version given here. The lines which suggest comparison are: "I ask my love to take a walk," "O Willie dear, don't murder me, For I am not fit to die," and "He took her by her long black hair." In the A version, the lover leaves the dead girl's body by the river, and in the B version he throws it into the water. In both versions a knife is the instrument with which the girl is killed. In the present version the more brutal fence rail is used. Under the title of "The Wexford Girl (The Cruel Miller)," Professor Cox, in Folk-Songs of the South, No. 90,
traces the ballad back into the eighteenth century. In both versions of the song recorded by Professor Cox the miller beats the young lady over the head with a "stake."
The Old Mill- sung by Mr. Lair to his daughter about 1890.
1 In a lonely spot by an old, old mill,
I spied a pretty fair maid;
The devil brought it in my mind
To take her life away.
2 I met her at her sister's house
At eight o'clock one night;
And little did the poor girl think
At her I had a spite.
3 I asked if she'd take a walk;
She answered, "With a will."
We walked along, then, side by side,
Until we reached the old mill.
4 How I recall the lonely spot,
That still, secluded place!
I snatched a rail from off the fence
And struck her in the face.
5 She fell upon her bended knees
And "Mercy!" she did cry,
"Oh! please, sir, do not murder me,
For I'm not prepared to die!"
6 But little attention I paid to her,
While mercy she did implore;
I raised the heavy rail aloft,
And struck her yet once more.
7 I saw her cold and innocent blood
Had stained her bosom o'er;
I knew that, try howe'er I would,
I'd cover it nevermore.
8 Amongst her long and coal-black-hair
My fingers I did entwine;
I dragged her to the river-brink
And plunged her body in.
9 And as I was returning home,
I met my servant John;
He asked me why I trembled so,
And why so pale and wan.
10 I lit my candle and went to bed,
Expecting to take my rest;
Alas! I found that all of hell
Was burning in my breast!
11 Come, all ye young and handsome men,
And hear my warning true:
Don't let the devil take your heart,
And make a fiend of you!