Tune Req: Ashland Tragedy

Subject: Tune Req: Ashland Tragedy
From: mikechatty
Date: 07 Jan 24 - 06:03 PM

I'm curious to discover more tunes to the murder ballad "The Ashland Tragedy."

I've seen references to three or four different versions:

-Composed by Elijah Adams in Ashland, Kentucky.

-Composed by Peyton Buckner Byrne of Greenup, Greenup County, KY.

-Collected by John Harrington Cox from Mrs. Hannah Bradshaw, Matewan, Mingo County, Kentucky 1918. In Cox, Folksongs of the South (Harvard) Cambridge, 1925 (Dover reprint, 1967).

-Recorded by Herbert Halpert from the singing of Joe Hubbard, Hamiltontown, Virginia. Library of Congress AFS record 2825 A1. Laws, F25.

If anyone has any sheet or music, or better yet recordings let me know!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Ashland Tragedy
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 07 Jan 24 - 08:46 PM

There are three Ashland Tragedy ballads, all called "The Ashland Tragedy"; they are Laws F25 (Roud #2263), F26 (Roud #2264), F27 (Roud #2265).

F25 begins, in Cox's text,
Dear father, mother, sister, come listen while I tell
All about the Ashland tragedy, of which you know full well,
'Twas in the town of Ashland, all on that deadly night,
A horrible crime was committed, but soon was brought to light.
Sources are:
Laws F25, "The Ashland Tragedy I"
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 36, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 58-59, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 254-255, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
DT 737, ASHLANDM
I suspect this one is sung to "Charles Guiteau," but the only known recording seems to be by Joe Hubbard, Library of Congress recording 2825 A1.

F26 begins, in Thomas's text:
Come dear people from far and wide
And lend a willing ear to me
While I relate the cruel facts
Of Ashland's greatest tragedy.
Thomas is the only source, and gives no tune:
Laws F26, "The Ashland Tragedy II"
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 156-158, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
DT 806, ASHLAND2
No tune has been preserved.

F27 begins, in Thomas's text:
Oh have you heard the story,
It happened long ago,
Of the Gibbons's children murder
And Emma Carico.
Thomas is again Laws F27, "The Ashland Tragedy III"
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 160-162, ("The Murder of the Gibbons Children") (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 802, ASHLAND3
Again, no tune has been preserved.

Elijah Adams wrote one of the first two, but it's not certain which. I'd guess F25, just because it's much better known. Bill Terrell may have written F27.

Unless you can get your hands on that LoC recording, I'd take a text of F25 (it's in Cox, Burt, and Emrich's "American Folk Poetry") and sing it to "Charles Guiteau." There really isn't anything else to be known.

All this information is of course readily available in the Ballad Index and in the Roud Index, both of which are, of course, freely available for the cost of adding a bookmark to your browser!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Ashland Tragedy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jan 24 - 10:57 PM

The Roud Index has 10 entries with the title Ashland Tragedy.

The Traditional Ballad Index has three entries. Here's #1 (article written by Robert Waltz):

Ashland Tragedy (I), The [Laws F25]

DESCRIPTION: Three robbers break into the Gibbons house. Fanny Gibbons, a friend, and Bobby Gibbons are killed. The robbers (fail in an) attempt to burn the house. One is lynched, the others sentenced to hang. Three locals are killed by soldiers guarding the robbers
AUTHOR: Elijah Adams wrote either this or "Ashland Tragedy I" (Thomas lists "Ashland Tragedy II"; Cox seems to prefer "Ashland Tragedy I")
EARLIEST DATE: 1918
KEYWORDS: homicide robbery execution revenge children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1884 - Ellis Craft and William Neal hung for their part on the "Ashland Tragedy" (the third robber, George Ellis, had earlier been lynched)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws F25, "The Ashland Tragedy I"
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 36, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 58-59, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 254-255, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
DT 737, ASHLANDM
Roud #2263
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (II)" [Laws F26]
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (III)" [Laws F27]
NOTES [106 words]: Cox offers details on this crime, and notes that his informant learned it from a printed sheet some five years after the event. It is likely that this (or perhaps "The Ashland Tragedy II") was a broadsheet distributed at the execution of the two murderers.
Cox's text of this piece begins,
Dear father, mother, sister, come listen while I tell
All about the Ashland tragedy, of which you know full well,
'Twas in the town of Ashland, all on that deadly night,
A horrible crime was committed, but soon was brought to light.
There seem to be no extant tunes for this item, but I suspect it belongs to the "Charles Guiteau" tune family. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: LF25

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Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2023 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

---

The first version in the Digital Tradition is from Cox.

THE ASHLAND TRAGEDY (DT Lyrics-OCR errors underlined)

Dear father, mother, sister, come listen while I tell
All about the Ashland tragedy, of which you know full well.
'Twas in the town of Ashland, all on that deadly night,
A horrible crime was committed, but soon was brought to light.

Three men who did the murder, was Craft, Ellis, and Neal;
They thought the crime they had concealed, but God the same revealed.
George Ellis, one of the weakest, who could not bear the pain,
To J. B. Powell, trembling, revealed the horrid stain.

Ellis Craft, who was the leader, and had an iron heart,
Caused a son and two lovely daughters from their mother's embrace to part.
Poor Neal, he may be innocent, but, from what George Ellis tells,
The crime he has committed will send his soul to hell.

He dragged poor Emma from her bed and threw her on the floor,
Crushed her head with an iron bar, her blood did run in gore.
In my own imagination I can see her little hands
Upheld, crying for mercy, murdered by cruel hands.

Those little white hands so tender, upheld in prayer to him,
Falls useless at her bleeding side, her eyes in death grow dim.
Craft committed the same offence, and murdered the other two;
While their forms were cold in death, Craft says, "What shall we do? "

Then Neal proposed to burn them up, to hide their bloody stain,
While some other three might arrested be, and them not bear the blame.
Then, in tones of thunder, Craft told Ellis to get to camp,
And pour oil on the children, while they stood with bloody hands.

Then Craft he lit a match and touched it to their clothes,
The flame loomed up with melting heat, and away the wretches goes.
Then off they went, I have no doubt, as fast as they could go,
And thought no one their bloody crime would ever, ever know.

Then early the next morning the town in mourning wept,
To see the children's burning forms, the sight they can't forget:
Such screams and bitter weeping of friends that stood around,
Their heart strings torn and bleeding, tears falling to the ground.

Poor little Robert Gibbons, a helpless orphan child,
Died in defence of his sister; to her he was loving and mild.
For their three forms are buried, they sleep beneath the sod,
Murdered while defending their virtues, and their souls are at rest with God.

At rest in the golden dty, where God himself gives light,
Where crystal streams are flowing, in the city where there is no night;
They're with the white-robed angels, whose harps are made of gold,
Whose crowns are set with brilliant stars, forever in the dear Lord's hold.

There is one thing yet I do remember well:
Major Allen with his bloody hounds caused tears and tide to swell ;
They hovered round those dreadful fiends that sent death knell through town,
Caused other friends from friends to part; for hell such men are bound.

The people df Mt. Sterling, who rate themselves so high,
Ought to be in favor of justice and say that he should die.
I suppose they have forgotten that they have daughters too,
And law and right should be their aim, to protect their children too.

May law and justice be dealt out, and spread from plain to plain,
And in the future day enjoy a moral land again!
Now all dear fathers and mothers, a warning take by this,
Stay at home with your children, and guard against crimes like this.

Remember the advice I give you is from a true and loving heart;
I hope you'll talke its earnest heed, from its teachings never part.
Remember the world is wicked, no mortal you can trust;
Trust God, who is all wisdom and doeth all things just.

From Folk-Songs of the South, Cox
Collected from Hannah Bradshaw, 1918
DT #737
Laws F25
@murder
filename[ ASHLANDM
RG
oct96

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Notes from Cox, FOLK-SONGS OF THE SOUTH (1925, Harvard University Press, page 189)
36 THE ASHLAND TRAGEDY

CONTRIBUTED by Mrs. Hannah Bradshaw, Matewan, Mingo County, July, 1918; learned about thirty years before from a printed copy in Ashland, Kentucky; dictated to the Editor at the time and place named above.
The authority for the following data is Mr. James Hunter, the father of Mrs. Bradshaw. He is an old soldier who lived at the time at Matewan, but formerly lived in Ashland, Kentucky. It was at that place, in his home, that the song was composed by one Elijah Adams. Mrs. Hunter had made a tune for the verses at the time of their composition, but none of the family could remember it.
The crime consisted in the murder of two Gibbons children, Fannie and Robert, and a Miss Emma Charcoola, who was staying with them. The perpetrators of the deed were George Ellis, William Neal, and Ellis Craft. George Ellis was hanged by a mob, and the other two, having been tried and convicted, were hanged by the sheriff.
According to Mr. W. E. Boggs, of Matewan, Craft and Neal were hanged in 1884. He said that he witnessed the execution and that Lige Adams had a stack of ballads on the day of the hanging, stood on a big rock, and sold them as fast as three men could hand them out. The hanging took place at Grayson, Carter County, Kentucky. Ellis confessed and was hanged by a mob. The people of Sterling, Montgomery County, were brought into the song, so Mr. Boggs said, because the prisoners had at one time been taken there to prevent from taking vengeance on them. He gave the name of the murdered children as Gibson and seemed to think that the young woman also belonged to the family. He recited a fragment of the song, concluding as follows:
The people of Mount Sterling,
Who are themselves so high,
Say they are in favor of justice,
But say they [the murderers] sha’n’t die.

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Up above, both Mike and Bob refer to a Library of Congress recording made by Herbert Halpert of singer Joe Hubbard. Here is the Library of Congress entry, but it appears the recording is not available online. Four of us Mudcatters went to the Library of Congress to listen to a recording of another song once. It was a delightful experience, but it was a lot of work to arrange - Abby Sale did all the legwork, and three of us (Amos, Dani, and I) went along for the ride.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Ashland Tragedy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jan 24 - 11:00 PM

Here's #2 in the Ballad Index:

Ashland Tragedy (II), The [Laws F26]

DESCRIPTION: Three robbers break into the Gibbons house. Fanny Gibbons, a friend, and Bobby Gibbons are killed. The robbers (fail in an) attempt to burn the house. One is lynched, the others sentenced to hang. Three locals are killed by soldiers guarding the robbers
AUTHOR: Elijah Adams wrote either this or "Ashland Tragedy I" (Thomas lists "Ashland Tragedy II"; Cox seems to prefer "Ashland Tragedy I")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide robbery execution revenge children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1881 - Ellis Craft and William Neal hung for their part on the "Ashland Tragedy" (the third robber, George Ellis, had earlier been lynched)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws F26, "The Ashland Tragedy II"
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 156-158, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
DT 806, ASHLAND2
Roud #2264
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (I)" [Laws F25]
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (III)" [Laws F27]
NOTES [48 words]: It's not clear to me why Laws accords this full status as a traditional ballad; as with The Ashland Tragedy (III), the only source is Thomas. Her text begins,
Come dear people from far and wide
And lend a willing ear to me
While I relate the cruel facts
Of Ashland's greatest tragedy. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LF26

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2023 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

---

The second version in the Digital Tradition (Laws F26)is from Thomas.

THE ASHLAND TRAGEDY (II) (DT Lyrics)

Come people dear from far and wide,
And lend a willing ear to me.
While I relate the cruel facts
Of Ashland's greatest tragedy.

George Ellis was one of the men,
But Ellis Craft was in the lead;
And Wiliiam Neal, the other one,
That did this awful, awful deed.

They crept up to the Gibbons home,
The parents dear had gone away;
They entered there in dead of night,
These little children for to slay.

Now Bobby was a crippled boy,
He saw them, so George Ellis said;
Then Ellis Craft, that dark eyed fiend,
He turned and crushed poor Bobby's head.

They stood beside poor Fanny's bed,
She slept there with her little friend;
Poor children, little did they dream
This night would prove their tragic end.

They murdered both these little girls,
And left their outraged bodies lie,
They threw a torch inside the house;
Poor Bobby's body lay close by.

The town was filled with angry men,
They searched the country far and near;
George Ellis was a coward at heart,
His guilty soul was filled with fear.

At last he turned State's evidence,
"Protect me from the mob!" he said.
But from the jail they dragged him forth
And hung him by the neck till dead.

The soldiers guarded Craft and Neal,
And tried to save them from this fate;
They took them from the county jail
On board the steamer Granite State.

But Ashland blood was running high,
The ferry boat was full of men;
A pistol shot, and hell broke loose,
The soldiers started firing then.

The frightened women cried and prayed.
But when the guns had ceased to roar,
Three Ashland men lay stiff and cold,
A woman wounded on the shore.

But Craft and Neal were hung at last,
For this same crime their lives did pay.
"We're innocent!" said Ellis Craft,
"John Russell swore our iives away."

So let this tale a warning be,
For crime will find you out at last;
You'll meet the fate George Ellis met
With William Neal and Ellis Craft.

From Ballad Makin' in the Southern Highlands, Thomas
DT #806
Laws F26
@murder @lynching
filename[ ASHLAND2
RG
oct96

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Ashland Tragedy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jan 24 - 11:02 PM

And #3 in the Ballad Index:

Ashland Tragedy (III), The [Laws F27]

DESCRIPTION: A loose account of the murder of three children (Fanny and Bobby Gibbons and Emma Carico) in the Gibbons home in Ashland. It describes the crime at some distance and with some inaccuracies and generalities
AUTHOR: Bill Terrell?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1881 - Ellis Craft and William Neal hung for their part on the "Ashland Tragedy" (the third robber, George Ellis, had earlier been lynched)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws F27, "The Ashland Tragedy III"
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 160-162, ("The Murder of the Gibbons Children") (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 802, ASHLAND3
Roud #2265
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (I)" [Laws F25]
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (II)" [Laws F26]
NOTES [44 words]: It's not clear to me why Laws accords this full status as a traditional ballad; as with The Ashland Tragedy (II), the only source is Thomas. Her text begins,
Oh have you heard the story,
It happened long ago,
Of the Gibbons's children murder
And Emma Carico. - RBW
File: LF27

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2023 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

---

And the third version in the DT (Laws 27) is also from Thomas. This is the only version in the Digital Tradition that has a melody, and the only melody listed among the three Ballad Index. See the detailed message above from Bob Waltz, editor of the Ballad Index.

ASHLAND TRAGEDY (III) (DT Lyrics)

Oh, have you heard the story
It happened long ago,
Of the Gibbons' children murder
And Emma Carico

They lived in Boyd County
Ashland was their home;
Their parents went one evening
And left them all alone.

They went to bed these children,
They had no thought of fear,
And little dreamed that danger
Was surely lurking near.

For a while they slept so sweetly;
Three fiends in human guise
Came in and slew those children!
Sweet heaven, hear their cries.

Hear crippled Bob and Fanny,
Hear little Emma cry;
Oh may their murderers hear them,
When they are called to die.

They left those murdered children;
They did not lose no time,
But set fire to the building
To hide their awful crime.

But neighbors saw it burning,
They came from far and wide.
Dragged forth those murdered children
And laid them side by side.

Oh look upon these children,
Oh see them as they lie;
A crime has been committed,
Some one must surely die.

Go forth and search the country!
Go search both far and nigh!
And find the guilty culprit,
We'll surely hang him high.

From Ballad Makin' in the Southern Highlands, Thomas
Reportedly composed by Bill Terrell
DT #802
Laws F27
@murder
filename[ ASHLAND3
TUNE FILE: ASHLAND3
CLICK TO PLAY
RG
Oct96

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The Digital Tradition MIDI seems to be corrupted. I'll transcribe another one on request.