Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry for this song:

Burning of the Granite Mill, The [Laws G13]

DESCRIPTION: Workers in a Fall River factory are routinely locked into their workplace. The mill catches fire and the workers -- who could have been saved if conditions had been better -- die in agony
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: fire death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 19, 1874 - Burning of the Granite Mill in Fall River, Massachusetts. The tragedy, in which 20 died, three disappeared, and 36 were injured, was aggravated by the failure to sound a fire alarm for twenty minutes
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws G13, "The Burning of the Granite Mill"
Creighton-NovaScotia 118, "Granite Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 675, GRANITML
Roud #1823
File: LG13

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2009 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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Here are the Digital Tradition lyrics, with correction of OCR errors:


  THE GRANITE MILL FIRE
  
  Was in Fall River City
       When the people was burned and killed,
  In a cotton manufactory
       Called as the Granite Mill.
  At seven o'clock the firebells rang
       But oh, it was too late,
  The flames they were fast spreading
       And at a rapid rate.
  
  They were men and women there
       And children too, I'm told,
  Who might have been saved from out of the flames
       If the truth was only known.
  But oh, the villains that locked the doors
       And told them to keep still,
  It was the bosses and overseers
       That burning Granite Mill.
  
  The first scene was a touching one
       From a maid so young in years,
  She was standing by a window and
       Her eyes were filled with tears.
  She cried, "Oh, save me! Save me!"
       She called her mother's name,
  But her mother could not save her
       And she fell back in the flame.
  
  The next scene was a horrible one
       Just as it caught my eye.
  They were leaping from a window
       From up so very high,
  And the only means of their escape
       Was sliding down a rope,
  And just as they were half way down
       The burning strands they broke.
  
  Christ, Christ, what a horrible mess,
       They were mangled, burned and killed,
  Six stories high, and falling from
       The burning Granite Mill.
  But I hope their spirits has fled
       To a better place far still,
  Up high, up high, up in the sky
       Above the Granite Mill.
  
  From Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, Creighton
  Collected from Tom Henneberry, who learned this song in the 1890s,
     says it describes a fire in Fall River, New York (sic), of about
     that time. The locking-in aspect is reminiscent of the Triangle
     Shirtwaist Company fire in New York City. RG
  
  DT #675
  Laws G13
  @disaster @fire @work
  filename[ GRANITML
  TUNE FILE: GRANITML
CLICK TO PLAY 
  RG
  oct96



The above is an exact transcription of the version in Helen Creighton's Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, #118, pp. 257-258. Note that Fall River is mistakenly identified as being in New York. The fire actually occurred in Fall River Massachusetts, 19 September 1874.