Here's one varient I picked up from Mike Seeger around 1965 or '66. It was written by Hershel Phillips in 1936(?) Collected by Mrs. Sidney Cowell from Henry Garrett.

--------------------------------------------------------------

THE ROANE COUNTY STRIKE AT HARRIMAN TENNESSEE

A beautiful town in the midst of Roane County,
A town where I've always been happy to be,
It's a town where they're gay on the banks of old Emory,
A town where my loved ones I always can see.

For many long years in the mill I've been toiling,
Our work and our labor it seems all in vain,
We organized for some well known reason,
A few months later we hauled out on strike.

The firm got in touch with the law of Roane County,
The sheriff and his men were all on the scene,
When the men came out by the oath they had taken,
To stay with the union and never betray.

Some went to the mill and there they betrayed us,
Some've gone to their graves I'm sorry to say,
But some stood out to await that decision,
They seemed determined to go all the way.

They went to the judge and got an injunction,
The sheriff and his men would not speak one good word,
He was counted and placed in the jail of Roane County,
And locked up in a cell for the crime we had done.

Our friends came to see us in the jail at Roane County,
Some seemed to think we would be there until June,
But to their surprise our bond was accepted,
And now we are out with our loved ones again.

If I go away to hunt re-employment,
I'll go to the east or I'll go to the west,
But I'll always remember my home in Roane County,
In the beautiful hills of old East Tennessee.

Art Thieme