Somebody sang part of this at our song circle last week, and she was pleased when I was able to find the full text. Fowkes' notes are quite good, but can anybody add to this? Any other versions of this song?
-Joe Offer-
Source: Lumbering Songs from the Northern Woods, Edith Fowke, 1985
Hogan's Lake
Sung by O. J. Abbott, Hull, Quebec August 1957
1. Oh, come all you brisk young fellows that assemble here tonight,
Assist my bold endeavors while these few lines I write.
It's of a gang of shantyboys I mean to let you know,
They went up for Thomas Laugheren through storm, frost, and snow.
2. 'Twas up on the Black River at a place called Hogan's Lake
Those able-bodied fellows went square timber for to make.
The echo of their axes rung from shore to shore—
The lofty pine they fell so fast, like cannons they did roar.
3. There was two gangs of scorers, their names I do not mind.
They ranged the mountains o'er and o'er their winter's work to find.
They tossed the pine both right and left, the blocks and slivers flew—
They scared the wild moose from their yards, likewise the caribou.-
4. Our hewers they were tasty and they ground their axes fair—
They aimed their blows so neatly I am sure they'd split a hair.
They followed up the scorers, they were not left behind—
To do good work I really think all hands are well inclined.
5. Bill Hogan was our hewer's name, I mean to let you know—
Full fourteen inches of the line he'd split with every blow.
He swung his axe so freely, he done his work so clean,
If you saw the timber hewed by him, you'd swear he used a plane.
6. Tom Hogan was our foreman's name, and very well he knew
How to conduct his business and what shantyboys should do.
He knew when timber was well made, when teams they had good loads,
How to lay it up and to swamp it out, and how men should cut the roads.
7. At four o'clock in the morning the teamsters would awake.
They'd go out and feed their horses; then their breakfasts they would take.
"Turn out, me boys," the foreman cries when each horse is on the road,
"You must away before 'tis day, those teams for to unload."
8. If you were in the shanty when they came in at night,
To see them dance, to hear them sing, it would your heart delight.
Some asked for patriotic songs; some for love songs did call.
Fitzsimmons sung about the girl that wore the waterfall.
This ballad from square-timber days resembles the large group of songs that describe the daily routine in a lumbercamp but is distinctive enough to be considered a separate song. Only the seventh stanza of "Hogan's Lake" approximates the other songs using the same tune, whose texts are more general and include many similar lines. "Hogan's Lake" gives a vivid and accurate description of work in a square- timber camp and catches the spirit of the rugged north country, where wild animals roamed the woods.
Canada has many Black Rivers, but "Hogan's Lake" is probably on the one that flows into the Ottawa River just north of Pembroke. Thomas Laugherin was probably Daniel McLachlin, a well-known timber contractor of the Ottawa Valley who died in 1872. "The Girl That Wore the Waterfall" was a popular nineteenth-century song.
The distinctive tune was used for the Great Lakes ballad "The Bigler's Crew" and for an English fishing song, "The Dogger Bank,"
as well as for the many lumbercamp songs.
REFERENCES
PRINTED. Fowke and Mills, 174.—175 (same as above).
RECORDED. Folkways FM 4052 (Abbott).
TUNE RELATIVES
Cazden, Abelard 1, 8 and 111 references. Creighton, MFS, 141, 144.
Fowke, 142 (and Folkways FM 4018, II Hugill, 299. Peacock, 132,
750. Folkways FG 3507 (I-1c)Click to play
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry:Hogan's Lake
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you brisk young fellows that assemble here tonight, Assist my bold endeavors while these few lines I write...." The singer tells of the exploits of the logging gang Bill and Tom Hogan led to Hogan's Lake
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: logger work
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke-Lumbering #6, "Hogan's Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume (Canada's Story in Song), pp. 174-176, "Hogan's Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3682
File: FMB174Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index InstructionsThe Ballad Index Copyright 2003 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.