I thought you'd never ask. Here's another one. LIne 2 of the first verse seems to be the wild card in a number of versions. Here his "name is departed" but they still manage to call him Jack Haggarty. Verse 4 has costly "raiment" where "muslins" usually appears. Verse 8 mentions a broken "rigon", likely a corruption or "rigging".

FLAT RIVER GIRL (Beck "Lore of the Lumber Camps" version B, from Jake Fry of Middleton, MI)

1. I'm a brokenhearted raftsman, from Greenville I came.
My name is departed, the loss is my fame.
In shop and in household I am very well known:
They call me Jack Haggerty, the pride of the town

2. I'll tell you my troubles without more delay,
How a sweet little lassie my heart stole away;
She was a blacksmith's daughter from the Flat River side,
And I always intended for to make her my bride.

3. Her form like the dove it was dainty and neat;
Her hair hung in ringlets to her pretty white feet.
She was a blacksmith's daughter from the Flat River side,
Her words were like music o'er the rise of the tide.

4. I dressed her in muslins in the finest of lace;
In the costliest of raiment her form I embraced.
I called her my jewel, what a gem for a wife!
When I think of her treachery it near takes my life

5. I know all the country where the Flat River rolls;
I know all its sand bars, its rocks and its shoals.
I'm the boy that stands happy on the white rolling streams:
My thoughts were on Anna; she haunted my dreams.

6. I worked on the river, I earned quite a stake;
I was steadfast and steady' I played not the rake.
I gave her my wages, the same to keep safe;
I begrudged her nothing that I had on this earth.

7. One day on the river this letter I received
She said from her promises herself she'd relieved;
To wed with her true love, this long time delayed,
And the next time I'd see her she would not be a maid.

8. To her mother, Jane Tucker, I lay all the blame;
She has caused her to leave me and go back on my name;
She has broken the rigon that God would soon tie
And caused me to wander till the day that I die.

9. Farewell to Flat River, For me there's no rest:
I'll shoulder my peavey, and I will go West;
I'll go to Muskegon some comfort to find,
And I'll leave my own Flat River darling behind

10. Come all you old rivermen with hearts strong and true,
Don't depend on a woman; you are beat if you do.
If ever you see one with brown chestnut curls,
Just think of Jack Haggerty and the Flat River girl.

until next time

rich r