Westerns — didn't Sharp or Karpeles {or was it the Lomaxes} report somewhere of collecting a version of the Douglas Tragedy, at the conclusion of which the singer said, "And my father saw it too — it happened in the valley over yonder, two men got quarreling over a girl & one of them got shot."? This from a vague memory, as will be realised — anyone a more precise reference?

No, stop — I've found it: I had remembered it sort of right, so will allow the above para to stand {as example of my own sort of folk process, perhaps} — but here is the full & correct citation:— It is at the end of Ch VII of Matthew Hodgart's The Ballads [Hutchinson 1950], attributed to "a recent collector in the Appalachians" {citation at end of quote}: "The Americans have a ballad called 'The Seven Sleepers', a version of 'Earl Brand' ({Child} 7), which ultimately derives from ancient germanic epic. One old man told the collector: 'The Seven Sleepers was a true song. It happened way back yonder in Mutton Hollow. i was there myself. Somebody got killed over the girl. I was there soon after it happened. Another man was after the girl and one man shot him'." (Footnote - Quoted by Entwistle in 'European Balladry' 1939,p3, from Dorothy Scarborough, "A Song Catcher In The Southern Mountains", NY 1937.)