Cat. #0089 (MFH #624) - As sung by Mrs. Emma Jean and Mrs. Verda Fayes Hamilton, Gainesville, Missouri on April 29, 1958
VERSE 1
About one mile from Birmingtown
At th foot of Jenkins Hill
To place that awful murder
Of Taylor, George and Bill
They wrote Jess Makes a letter
Tell'n him to be ready at ten
They tried to leave this country
To save disgrace from sin
VERSE 2
But the hands of providence came
To little Nellie Zay
And at th break of morning
A safe excape she made
She came from out'a straw made grave
To the Carters house, she came
And told this awful story
That leads to country shame
VERSE 3
She stood before th door
With an awful gash in her head
She sobbed and wept most bitterly
These very words she said,
Some very cruel men came last night
And took us from our beds
They shot my Mamma and Pappa
And thought this little one dead
VERSE 4
Then they put us in a wagon
And took us to straw made graves
How little did they think
How little Nell was saved
Next morning after the murder
George seen out in the field
A hiring out the road tracks
The mischief to conceal
VERSE 5
But that was all in vain
For nothing could he say
For George, himself was captured
And taken to Carters jail
I once had a Mamma,
A Mamma so kind and true
Those wicked men they shot her
Shot my Pappa too
VERSE 6
And now I am an orphant
With no one to care for me
May God's blessing be with her
Wherever she may be