ADD: Old Riley / Here Rattler Here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here Rattler Here
From: Barry Finn
Date: 14 Jul 07 - 06:06 PM

The work farms were the convict gangs were house were located along the Brazo, I didn't mean to say that all the units were along the Brazos.

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here Rattler Here
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Jul 07 - 08:01 PM

Not all prison farms were, or are, along the brazos River.
At the Rusk State penitentiary system in East Texas, convict gangs produced tobacco and harvested timber from the Piney Woods region for the prison's sawmill. Fruit, vegetable and livestock operations also were carried out. For a number of years, the prison was a large pig iron producer; I dont know how the work gangs were constituted for the iron, brick and manufacturing operations. Prison operations at Rusk closed in 1931.

The Huntsville area in Walker and adjacent counties has the largest concentration of prison farms. The prison farms here were producing significant amounts on cotton by the time of the Civil War. There are numerous prison farms, some of which are 50 or more miles from the Brazos and closer either to the Trinity or Navasota Rivers. Much of Walker County is controlled by the prison system and much of the rest by the National Forest Service. Sugarland and Oyster Creek prisons and their farms are here.

Towards the Gulf, Brazoria County, near the mouth of the Brazos, has the Darrington, Retrieve, Clemens and Ramsey Prison Farms.

Jester State Farm near Richmond, close to the Colorado River,
produced both cane and bricks. It held over 5000 acres in the 1920s but I don't know the present holdings or products.

Grimes County has two large prison farms, near Navasota.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here Rattler Here
From: GUEST,Jeffrey Silverstone
Date: 05 Apr 09 - 08:36 AM

There is a version by James "Sparky" Rucker on his record "Cold & Lonesome on a Train" which is different than above. None of the verses reference a dog, but the song is consistant with people making up verses while ad hoc to a refrain while working in a chain gang. My four old son loves it because the instrumentation is percussion by rattling chains and the yelps in the refrain.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here Rattler Here
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 08:48 AM

As to reasons to name a hound Rattler, adding to Janey's above:

4. He's a rattling good hound. ("Rattling" is an intensifier in the south as in some other places. This is a rattling good thread. Hope my answer is a rattling good answer.)

5. Some dogs are adept at killing rattlesnakes -- this was what I always assumed was the origin of the name in Grandpa Jones's song ... he was such a good hound he'd even kill you a rattler and never turn a hair.

OK, now I'm rattled.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here Rattler Here
From: Barry Finn
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 07:06 PM

In B.A. Botkin's "Treasury Of American Folklore" (p.19) is a story taken from 'Sketches & Eccentricities of Col. David Crokett, of West Tennessee" mentioning tha "Davy Crokett's dog was named 'Ratler'".

From the glossary of "Wake Up Dead Man"
Rattler: The original tracking hound, the one who can follow any trail, walk a log, swim the treacherous Brazos River. I've been told that it is traditionalto name at least one dog on each farm Rattler.

Barry