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DTStudy: Zack, the Mormon Engineer

23 Aug 23 - 03:33 AM (#4179712)
Subject: DTStudy: Zack, the Mormon Engineer
From: Joe Offer

There's not much information about this song. Time for some research.
This is an edited DTStudy thread, and all messages posted here are subject to editing and deletion.
This thread is intended to serve as a forum for corrections and annotations for the Digital Tradition song named in the title of this thread.

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ZACK, THE MORMON ENGINEER (DT Lyrics)

Old Zack, he came to Utah, way back in seventy three,
A right good Mormon gentleman and a bishop too was he.
He drove a locomotive for the D. and R. G.,
With women he was popular, as popular as could be.

cho: And when he'd whistle ooh! ooh! Mamma'd understand
That Zack was headed homeward on the Denver and Rio Grande.

Old Zack, he claimed to love his wives and love them all the same,
But always little Mabel was the one that Zack would name.
And as he would pass her he'd blow his whistle loud,
And when she'd throw a kiss at him old Zack would look so proud.

Old Zack, he had a wifey in every railroad town.
No matter where he stopped he had a place to lay him down.
And when the his train was coming, well, he wanted her to know,
So as he passed each wifey's home his whistle he would blow.

Now listen everybody, because this story's true,
Old Zack, he had a wife in every town that he passed through.
They tried to make him transfer on to the old U. P.
But Zack said, "No" because his wives were on the D. and R. G.

Tune: Oh Susanna
"This song depicts in comic form life in one type of plural marriage.
It is not intended to be sarcastic. Zack Black was a Mormon bishop
who worked as an engineer for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, and
the tale is told that he had a wife in every town he passed through.
Mormon audiences have always enjoyed the humor of the lyrics, especially
when Zack won't accept a transfer to another railroad line because it
is routed through the wrong towns."(Music of the Mormons, p. 28)
Note: "Plural Marriage" is the LDS term for their form of polygamy,
which was practiced from the late 1840's up to 1896,
when the US Supreme Court upheld a law forbidding it. Mormon clergy
were (and are) laymen, who are not paid for their church service and
therefore work "civilian" jobs to sustain their families.
@Mormon @marriage @railroad
filename[ ZACKMORM
TUNE FILE: OSUSANNA
CLICK TO PLAY
JW
oct97

Ballad Index entry:

Zack, the Mormon Engineer

DESCRIPTION: Zack, the Mormon engineer, has a wife in every town along the D&RG, and so refuses to change lines.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, L. M. Hilton; published 1952)
KEYWORDS: marriage railroading humorous train
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 444, "Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 604, "Bishop Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (1 text)
DT, ZACKMORM*
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 88, "Bishop Zack" (1 text)
Roud #4761
RECORDINGS:
L. M. Hilton, "Zack, The Mormon Engineer" (on Hilton01, ClassRR)
Art Thieme, "Zack, The Mormon Engineer" (on Thieme03)
NOTES [26 words]: Said to be based, loosely, on the life of one Zack Black who worked on the Denver and Rio Grande railroad. The tune is loosely based on "Oh, Susanna." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: BRaF444

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2023 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

23 Aug 23 - 03:57 AM (#4179714)
Subject: ADD Version: Zack, the Mormon Engineer
From: Joe Offer

BISHOP ZAK, THE MORMON ENGINEER

Zack Black came to Utah back in eighty-three,
A right good Mormon and a Bishop, too, was he,
He ran a locomotive on the D. ’n’ R. G.,
And Zack was awful popular as you will see.

Hear him whistle!
He ran a locomotive on the D. ’n’ R. G.

Zack he had a wife in ev’ry railroad town,
He numbered from twelve ’way down to number two,
Oh, in his locomotive he’ll go steaming ’round,
And when he’d pass each wifie’s home his whistle blew.

Zack he always said he loved ’em all the same,
But wifie number twelve he loved her mighty well,
He had her picture mounted in his engine cab
And when he passed her home he’d always ring the bell.

Listen, ev’rybody, ’cause this story’s true,
Zack had a wife in ev’ry town his train passed through;
They tried to shift Zack over to the old U. P.,
But Zack demurred, ’cause he preferred the D. ’n’ R. G.78

NOTES:
The “D. ’n’ R. G.” was the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, incorporated in 1870, by which time the UP was already well established. Since Zack supposedly came to Utah in 1883, the song was probably composed in the 1880s or later. An ill-behaved rhyming scheme suggests a song with several contributing authors. The song was probably written by gentiles (the Mormons’ term for non-Mormons) since Mormons would not likely have made a fuss over Zack’s polygyny.


Source: American Folk Songs: A Regional Encyclopedia, by Norm Cohen. (2008, Greenwood Press, Westport Connecticut), page 604.

Identical version in Songs of the American West, by Lingenfelter & Dwyer (1968, University of California Press), pages 76-77 - text and music from Briegel, 44 Old Time Mormon and Far West Songs (1933), pp 38-39

from Joe: one of many songs dealing with Mormon polygamy.

23 Aug 23 - 03:57 AM (#4179715)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Zack, the Mormon Engineer
From: Robert B. Waltz

That's a very old Ballad Index entry. I have many more references, and a suggested author, now:

Zack, the Mormon Engineer


DESCRIPTION: Zack, the Mormon engineer, has a wife in every town along the D&RG, and so refuses to change lines.
AUTHOR: S. L. Samson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Briegel, 44 Old Time Mormon and Far West Songs, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: marriage railroading humorous train
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 179-181, "Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 444, "Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 265-266, "Bishop Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 76-77, "Bishop Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 604, "Bishop Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (1 text)
DT, ZACKMORM*
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 88, "Bishop Zack" (1 text)
Roud #4761
RECORDINGS:
L. M. Hilton, "Zack, The Mormon Engineer" (on Hilton01, ClassRR)
Art Thieme, "Zack, The Mormon Engineer" (on Thieme03)
NOTES [56 words]: Said to be based, loosely, on the life of one Zack Black who worked on the Denver and Rio Grande railroad. The tune is loosely based on "Oh, Susanna."
Of all the books I've checked, only Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest lists the author as S. L. Samson, and they don't document it, so I've listed it with a question mark. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6

File: BRaF444

23 Aug 23 - 04:25 AM (#4179717)
Subject: ADD Version: Zack, the Mormon Engineer (Botkin)
From: Joe Offer

ZACK, THE MORMON ENGINEER (Botkin)

Old Zack, he came to Utah, way back in seventy three,
A right good Mormon gentleman and a bishop, too, was he.
He drove a locomotive for the D. and R. G.,
With women he was popular, as popular as could be.

chorus
And when he'd whistle Hoo! Hoo! Mamma'd understand
That Zack was headed homeward on the Denver and Rio Grande.

Old Zack, he had a wifey in every railroad town.
No matter where he stopped he had a place to lay him down.
And when the his train was coming, he wanted her to know,
So as he passed each wifey's home his whistle he would blow.

Old Zack, he claimed to love his wives and love them all the same,
But always little Mabel was the one that Zack would name.
And as he would pass her he'd blow his whistle loud,
And when she'd throw a kiss to him old Zack would look so proud.

Now listen everybody, because this story's true,
Old Zack, he had a wife in every town that he passed through.
They tried to make him transfer on to the old U. P.
But Zack said, "No" because his wives were on the D. and R. G.

Tune: Oh Susanna

This test is almost exactly the same as the Digital Tradition lyrics, except that the second and third verses are juxtaposed.
Source: A Treasury of Railroad Folklore, by B.A. Botkin & Alvin F. Harlow (Bonanza Books, 1953), page 444. From the Folkways recording FP36 A6 (1952) Mormon Folk Songs, sung by L.M. Hilton

L.M. Hilton Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCzzNVCagJA

Oscar Brand Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUzmMzCuzGw

Art Thieme recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0LwLBDzwM4

23 Aug 23 - 10:05 PM (#4179765)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Zack, the Mormon Engineer
From: cnd

Here's a version as reported in the Journal of American Folklore, Vol 58 No. 230 (October-December 1945), p. 293:
More comic than satiric is the song entitled "Bishop Zack, the Mormon Engineer," the engineer on the Denver and Rio Grande railroad who had a wife in every town. It is, no doubt, an imitation of the famous "Casey Jones."

Zack Black came to Utah back in Eighty Three,
A right good Mormon and a Bishop, too, was he,
He ran a locomotive on the "D'n' R. G.,"
And Zack was awful popular as you will see.

Chorus
Hear him whistle!
He ran a locomotive on the "D'n' R. G."

Zack he had a wife in every town,
He numbered them from twelve 'way down to number two,
Oh, in his locomotive he’d go steaming ‘round,
And when he'd pass each wifie’s home his whistle blew.

Zack he always said he loved ’em all the same,
But wifie number twelve he loved her mighty well,
He had her picture mounted in his engine cab,
And when he passed her home he'd always ring the bell.

Listen ev’rybody, ‘cause this story’s true,
Zack had a wife in ev'ry town his train passed through.
They tried to shift Zack over to the old "U. P.,"
But Zack demurred, ’cause he preferred the "D'n' R. G."

I find it interesting that the name is always spelled Zack rather than Zach. I've only ever met a handful of Zachs whose name is spelled with a K.

23 Aug 23 - 10:07 PM (#4179766)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Zack, the Mormon Engineer
From: cnd

Oops, obvious oversight -- the above text's source is from 44 Old Time Mormon and Far West Songs

23 Aug 23 - 10:14 PM (#4179767)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Zack, the Mormon Engineer
From: cnd

Robert, the attribution to Samson comes from the same 44 Old Time Mormon and Far West Songs that every source seems to ultimately lead back to. The music is attributed to a "Marcia". There is a preview on Amazon Books at the moment where you can see the first page of the music.

24 Aug 23 - 05:00 AM (#4179784)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Zack, the Mormon Engineer
From: Robert B. Waltz

cnd wrote: Robert, the attribution to Samson comes from the same 44 Old Time Mormon and Far West Songs that every source seems to ultimately lead back to. The music is attributed to a "Marcia". There is a preview on Amazon Books at the moment where you can see the first page of the music.

Thanks! I'll update the entry.