My Old Ohio Home - music

Lyrics to a version of The Rambling Boy

2019-08-24T00:00:00-04:00

Apropos of nothing else so far on this website I am posting the lyrics to a version of "The Rambling Boy" as done by lonesomepaul on YouTube.

This is not your grandfather's Ramblin' Boy. And the lyrics are not from the versions by Tom Paxton or Joan Baez. Listening to Tom Paxton after this is like listening to Pat Boone sing "Blueberry Hill." Nice, but just nice.

The singer says that is a version of a song done by Pete Steele in the 1930's. I couldn't make out all the words and most of the other versions have completely different lyrics. I got the part about 'the gallows tree' from another old version by The Clayton McMichen String Band with Riley Puckett, also at YouTube.

An Irish version of the same song and story is Newry Highwayman, by Sean Cannon of the Dubliners.

If anyone can pick out the rest of the words, or can correct any of mine, please let me know and I will edit this post to reflect the changes.

"The Rambling Boy"

Oh I never guessed when I was young
where my life would take me, what I'd become
that I would be a rambling ..
and ... on a dark highway

At seventeen I married me a wife
loved her as I loved my life
she treated me unkind all night and day
she drove me to rob on a dark highway

Oh that pretty little miss .... o
there's some gals sometimes....
prettiest face and the sweetest [hands?]
oh bless the ground?/grass? on which she stands

oh i never robbed those with none to spare
I only robbed the rich I do declare
I robbed them on the street at night
and I'd bring money home to my heart's delight

but now I am condemned to die
got no one to love or cry
but all their tears will not help me
as I lay awaiting for the gallows tree

my mother sits and weeps and moans
sister says she'd let them know
true love cries in deep despair
with her dark brown eyes and pretty curly hair

oh pretty little girl I served you well
I loved you more than life itself
I .... that day will come
and you will find we'll live as one

come young and old and gather around
see me laid in this old ground
I'm not shamed or scared to die
since I know I'll see you bye and bye

Credits

Picture of banjo from Wikipedia:File:BluegrassBanjo.jpg.

The lyrics are probably in the public domain. Just because I wrote them down doesn't make them mine. My introduction is copyright by me.

Youtube–Long time, no see

2019-08-14T00:00:00-04:00

A few days ago I was listening to Youtube for the first time in a while. Right off, I noticed that the required length of the ads has increased: 6 seconds, not 5. My breaking point will probably be about 7 seconds. Then try to make Pandora or Spotify play what I want them to.

But anyway, what I learned was that "That's the Way Love Goes" was written and sung by Lefty Frizzell. I'd heard Merle Haggard's version of it so many times, I just thought the song was his. I've been gradually getting reacquainted with Lefty Frizzell. Something I do at work every Friday starts me singing "Saginaw, Michigan," so I broke down one week and looked him up on Youtube. I had forgotten "Always Late"–what a great song. And, just as it wasn't Merle, it wasn't Willie Nelson who did "If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time." This week I found "Mom and Dad's Waltz" which is really sweet.

One thing led to another, a few suggested songs that I actually wanted to hear maybe, and I had worked back to The Carter Family. I never knew they did a version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" I knew the song predated Elvis Presley, but I didn't know it was by that many years. And their version (1936) wasn't the first, it was written in 1926. Next time I'll look for the original.

Complain about Youtube and the ads for stuff you'll never be interested in, but where else are you going to find, easily, in one place, all these songs? Someday soon I'm going to work Roscoe Holcomb's "Black Eyed Susie" into an article. Stay tuned.

Credits

Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

The Wallace Sisters, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, 1872

2018-10-06T00:00:00-04:00

On Friday August 30, 1872, the Wallace Sisters–Jennie, Minnie, and Maud–appeared in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, most likely at Johnstown's theater, the Union Hall, at the corner of Washington and Franklin streets.

The photograph accompanying this article probably has been in my family ever since that date, because my great grandfather Joseph Hamilton (at the far right) and his father, James D Hamilton (at the far left), were bill posters and evidently hung the signs advertising the event. James was also the caretaker at the Union Hall.

James D and Joseph Hamilton at billboard

Dating the photograph

I was able to date the photograph as follows: the poster states that the event is to occur on Friday August 30. Joseph Hamilton was born in 1846 and James D passed away in January 1881. During the 25 years that their lives overlapped, August 30 fell on a Friday only in 1861, 1867, 1872, and 1878. Joseph is older than 15 in the picture, so we can eliminate 1861. For a long while I could only narrow it down to the three remaining years.

Enter the Wallace Sisters: They can be found on the 1870 Census of New York City with their mother Matilda. Jennie is 18, Minnie is 9, and Maud is 7. I think we can agree that Minnie is older than 6 in the picture and Maud is older than 4, so that would eliminate 1867. Besides, a brief biography of Jennie Wallace, no longer online, said that although she made her New York debut in 1867 and her younger sisters started on stage the following year, the family did not go on tour until 1869.(footnote)1870 Census New York City, Matilda Wallace household, Ward 15 District 2, Roll: M593_993; Page: 439B, census page 54, dwelling 180, family 507.

To pare the time frame down from the other end, we can look at the 1880 census of Matawan, New Jersey. There we find Jennie (Wallace) and her husband Benjamin Dobson, with a son Benjamin born in May 1877.(footnote)Benj F Dobson, 1880 Census Matawan, Monmouth, New Jersey, ED 113, sheet 211C. Although it's not impossible that she was still touring, I think it unlikely. In addition, Minnie and Maud are considerably younger than 17 and 15 in the poster. So the event and the photo most likely took place in 1872.

As a sidenote to the Johnstown connection: along the way I found that Lucie K Villa, the daughter of a fourth Wallace sister, Agnes, was born in Johnstown on April 10, 1872. Agnes had married Samuel B Villa in 1866. He was an entertainer also, and Agnes–either by then or not much later–had a theater company of her own.

Rather than go into the entire saga of the Wallaces, I suggest that the inquiring reader search various combinations of first and last names of the sisters, along with "Dobson" and "Villa". There were six sisters, all actresses along with their mother Matilda. The next generation in most of their lines were in show business also, and the third and fourth generation as well, where I could find them. But at this point we are into the realm of the living, and the story must come to an end.

I have a larger size of this photograph which might provide better resolution. If anyone is interested, email me.

Sources

Details of my research on the Wallace family can be found under Wallace in the Pennsylvania Families tree on this website.