The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #91958 Message #1752551
Posted By: Joe Offer
04-Jun-06 - 01:16 AM
Thread Name: DTStudy: The Wagoners Curse on the Railroad
Subject: DTStudy: The Wagoners Curse on the Railroad
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.
I don't know if there's much to dig up on this song. It's not listed in the Traditional Ballad Index, and the only place I found it is on Page 255 of George Korson's Pennsylvania Songs and Legends. Here's what Korson says about the song:
This ballad dramatizes the Consestoga wagoners' plight when the railroad doomed their calling. I first learned of it in the twenties when a copy of the text came to me from an anonymous correspondent in Lancaster County. An accompanying note explained that it was sung to the tune of "Green on the Cape." Later, after a determined search for other versions, I located an old man, the son of a miller who had done business with Conestoga wagoners. He supplied the text and tune.
Any related songs, or any additional information on this song? -Joe Offer-