Lyr. Add: CHARLIE QUANTRELL, OH
Coll. Raymond Sanders. Tune: Brennan on the Moor

Young people, listen unto me, a story I will tell.
His name was Charlie Quantrell, in Kansas he did dwell.
'Twas on the Kansas plains that he made his wild career.
Then many a wealthy gentleman before him stood with fear.
Charlie Quantrell, oh.

He fell in with a packman whose name was K. O. Fine.
They traveled on together till the day had nearly gone,
When the packman missed his money, likewise his watch and chain.
Then he encountered Quantrell and robbed him back again.
Charlie Quantrell, oh.

Now, Charlie found the packman just as good a man as he.
"Will you join me on the highway to be?"
The packman he consented without more delay
And proved a royal comrade until his dying day.
Charlie Quantrell, oh.

It was on the prairie at the place they call Lamar
Where Charlie and his comrade were driven to their woe.
The jury read the sentence, the judge made his reply,
"For robbing on the highway, you are condemmed to die."
Charlie Quantrell, oh.

Now, Charlie's wife to town did go, provisions for to buy.
When she seen poor Charlie boy, she began to weep and cry,
"I wish I had a sixpence." No more then had she spoke
When she handed him a blunderbuss from underneath her cloak.
Charlie Quantrell, oh.

Now, with this loaded blunderbuss, this story must be told,
He made them all to tremble and robbed them of their gold.
Their hundreds and their thousands they laid down by his side,
With their horses and saddles to the mountains they did ride.
Charlie Quantrell, oh.

Now, Charlie being an outlaw upon the mountain high,
Both infantry and cavalry to take him they did try.
He laid out in the bushes that grew thick in the field
And received nine wounds before that he would yield.
Charlie Quantrell, oh.

"Farewell to my old father, wherever he may be,
And to my little sister, who shed a tear for me,
And to my dear old mother, who having wrung her hands and cried,
'Would been better, Charlie Quantrell, in your cradle you had died.'" Charlie Quantrell, oh.

No. 26, pp. 67-68, with music, Glenn Ohrlin, 1973, "The Hell-Bound Train, A Cowboy Songbook," University of Illinois Press.
Collected froma woodsman by Raymond Sanders, Stone County
Glenn Ohrlin sings it in the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection (Ozark Mountain Songs), Real Audio, 1969.
www.missouristate.edu/folksong/maxhunter/0737/index.html

Only the similarity of the name Quantrell relates this song to the songs about Quantrill, the Civil War raider.

Lomax and Lomax, 1938, "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads," pp. 144-146, prints another version collected from informants in Texas, one of whom said: "I learned this song from my mother, who learned it from her boy friend fifty years ago. He learned it 'out West.'"
It has a chorus similar to that of "Brennan on the Moor." The story is slightly different from the one in Ohrlin.

Charlie Quantrell-o. Charlie Quantrell-o-o-o-o,
Bold, gay, and daring stood old Charlie Quantrell-o.