There are a number of mistakes in the Digital Tradition version of this song, so I thought I'd post the correct lyrics, from George Korson's Pennsylvania Songs and Legends (1949)

MONONGAHELA SAL
(Robert Schmertz)

1. She was born in an old Monessen alley
And her Ma and her Paw, they called her Sal
She grew up to be the pride of the valley,
A typical Monongahela gal.

2. She was smart, she was pert, she was pretty---
And the bloom of health was on her cheeks
But she bought it in Monongahela City
And the druggist swore that it would last for weeks.

FIRST CHORUS
Roll on, Monongahela,
Roll on to the O-Hi-O
Roll on past Alliquippi, Down to the Mississippi
Clear to the Gulf of Mexico.

3. She wandered one day by the river,
And she watched the Jason steaming by;
And her heart gave a leap, and a quiver,
As she caught the handsome pilot's roving eye.

4. His name, so they say, was Moat Hanley,
And he wore a fancy sparkin' coat;
He was tall, dark and handsome and manly,
And the best durn pilot ever steered a boat.

SECOND CHORUS
Roll on, Monongahela,
Where the catfish and the carp left long ago;
You used to be so pure,
But now you're just a sewer,
Messin' up the Gulf of Mexico.

5. Moat gave a toot on his whistle,
And the Jason churned the water at her stern;
And Sal steppin' light as a thistle,
Reached up and took Moat Hanley's hand in her'n.

(Stanza 6 sung to tune of "Careless Love")
6. It was love, careless love, on the river,
It was love, careless love, by the shore;
And I know that the Lord will forgive her,
'Cause she never knew what love was like before.

THIRD CHORUS
Roll on, Monongahela,
Away from the ice and snow;
I think you're mighty lucky,
To roll past old Kentucky,
Clear to the Gulf of Mexico.

(Return to the regular tune)
7. He swore that he always would love her,
As they locked through the old Emsworth dam;
But that night overboard he did shove her,
And then Moat Hanley took it on the lam.

FOURTH CHORUS
Roll on, Monongahela,
And lap the waters gently at Dravo;
Where they're back to making barges
At much more normal charges,
Than the L.S.T.'s they made a year ago.

(tune changes for this verse only)
8. But no one could say Sal was sickly
She didn't even take time out to bawl
But she hightailed it down to Sewickley
Slappin' out a fast Australian crawl

(Return to the regular tune)
9. So she hopped a fast freight by Rochester,
She swore she'd have Moat Hanley's gore;
From a yard-bull who tried to molest her,
She up and swiped a great big forty-four.

10. Now Sal hit the grit, right at Beaver,
And the Jason was a-comin' 'round the bend;
In the pilot house stood Moat, the gay deceiver.
Says Sal, "I'm sure to get 'im in the end."

FIFTH CHORUS
Roll on, Monongahela,
And blow, gentle breezes, blow;
'Cause it's getting mighty smoggy,
And the folks are getting groggy—
I've lived here all my life and I should know.

11. She raised up that big shootin' iron,
She banged six shots right into Moat;
And when she had fin'ly ceased firing,
She'd sure messed up that fancy sportin' coat.

12. Now Sal to the judge said, "Good mornin'!"
The jury foreman said, "Not guilty, gal";
So let all you pilots take warnin',
Don't mess around Monongahela Sal!

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Click to play

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The tune is a variant of "Red River Valley," with strains of other songs thrown in. Verse 6 has the tune of "Careless Love" (if you can match the words to the tune), and verse 8 has a very strange tune. The MIDI includes the basic verse and chorus tune, and the tune for verse 8.

Korson's notes:

Monongahela Sal
(Sung by Robert Schmertz, the copyright holder, at Pittsburgh, l947
and used by his permission. Recorded by Jacob A. Evanson.)

For some years past, people have asked me, "Do you know 'Monongahela Sal'?" I finally caught up with the man who made it, Robert Schmertz, an architect and a member of the faculty of Carnegie Institute of Technology.
"I'm nuts about hillbilly," said Schmertz. "Years ago somebody left a long-neck banjo at my house. I don't know anything about music, but I figured out how to play a few chords on it, and I've been making up songs ever since."
These songs were made to be rendered tongue-in-cheek, as it were, and Schmertz sings them with a straight face. He plays the banjo in perfectly steady rhythm but sings the melody with such free and intricate rhythms and pitches that only by writing out each stanza can justice be done. Only the basic melodic structure, which is a variant of "Red River Valley," is given here, together with the rolling chorus-tune and a special tune for stanza 8. I have included all stanzas and choruses of the long narrative song, which is in the rootin'-tootin'-shootin' "he done her wrong" tradition. Schmertz has a grand sense of the place names of this region that "roll on the tongue with venison richness": Monongahela, Monessen, Ohio, Aliquippa (Alliquippi for a rhyme with Mississippi), Emsworth, Sewickley, Dravo.