Stilly River Sage, thanks for your contribution at the "Limber Jim" site and for refreshing that thread. As I read back over this thread it became clear that it was focused on the role of women as the weavers and spinners in the real cotten mills and in the mythological mills of life. That makes the "Limber Jim/Buckeye Jim" reference even more puzzling. Buckeye Jim was obviously a male. Why is he being told to "go weave and spin" instead of wherever it was that he wanted to go:

"Be limber, Jim, you can't go.
Go weave and spin, you can't go,
Buckeye Jim."

T.O.M.