“Boy Killed by a Falling Tree in Hartford”

Description

Young Isaac Alcott, newly arrived in Hartford, goes riding. He goes to "cut some timber for a sled" and is hit by a falling branch. Found many hours later, it is too late to save his life. His funeral is described; the song ends with a moralizing stanza

Supplemental text

Boy Killed by a Falling Tree in Hartford
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

From Helen Hartness Flanders and Marguerite Olney, Ballads
Migrant in New England, pp. 167-169. From Edward Horton,
Plymouth Union, Vermont. Collected before 1940.

Come, all you young people far and near,
A true relation you shall hear
Of a young man as ere you see
Was killed in Hartford by a tree.

One Isaac Alcutt was his name,
Who lately into Hartford came,
Residing with his brother James,
Last Thursday noon went, as it seems,

(stanzas 1, 2 of 17, printed as 16)

Cross references

• cf. "Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb)" [Laws C14]
• cf. "Chance McGear" (plot)
• cf. "The Substitute (plot)

References

1. Flanders/Olney, pp. 167-169, "Boy Killed by a Falling Tree in Hartford" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. ST FO167 (Partial)
3. Roud #4680
4. BI, FO167