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
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)