Ellen Smith [Laws F11]
DESCRIPTION: Peter Degraph claims that he has been falsely accused of murdering his sweetheart Ellen Smith. He describes his apprehension and sentence. He will be hanged, but says "My soul will be free when I stand at the bar"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: murder execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1893 - Peter Degraph (sometimes spelled De Graff) is sentenced to die for the murder of Ellen Smith
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws F11, "Ellen Smith"
BrownII 305, (No title; in a section headed "Ellen Smith and Peter De Graff" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Hudson 67, pp. 193-194, "The Ellen Smith Ballet" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus 65, pp. 188-189, "Ellen Smith" (1 text)
Fuson, p. 132, "Poor Ellen Smyth" (1 defective text, too short to classify with certainty; Laws places it here though I would incline to classify it with "Poor Ellen Smith (I)")
Darling-NAS, pp. 204-206, "Poor Ellen Smith" (2 text, of which the "B" text goes here and the "A" text with "Poor Ellen Smith (I)")
DT, ELLNSMT2*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 21, #2 (1772), p, 21, "Poor Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune, the Mollie O'Day version. The notes make the curious observation that, soon after recording this song with a hymn tune, O'Day gave up singing secular songs and turned to singing just gospel music)
Roud #448
RECORDINGS:
Henry Whitter, "Ellen Smith" (OKeh 40237, 1924)
Mollie O'Day and the Cumberland Mountain Folks:, "Poor Ellen Smith" (Columbia 20629, 1949)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Ellen Smith (I)"
SAME TUNE:
How Firm a Foundation (Bellevue) (Original Sacred Harp/Denson Revisions. 1971 edition, p. 72)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Poor Ellen Smith
Notes: To distinguish this from the other Ellen Smith ballad (which begins "Poor Ellen Smith, How was she found, Shot through the heart, Lying cold on the ground"), refer to these stanzas:
Come all kind people, my story to hear,
What happen'd to me in June of last year.
It's of poor Ellen Smith and how she was found,
A ball in her heart, lyin' cold on the ground.
...
I choked back my tears, for the people all said
That Peter Degraph had shot Ellen Smith dead!
My love is in her grave with her hand on her breast
The bloodhound and sheriff won't give me no rest.
The crime took place near Mount Airy, North Carolina. Folklore has it that DeGraph sang this song as he awaited execution. Richardson reports that "So great was the feeling, for and against Degraph, that it had to be declared a misdemeanor for the song to be sung in a gathering of any size for the reason that it always fomented a riot."
Paul Stamler notes that various versions of this song end with Degraph sentenced to prison rather than execution. This may be derived from the other ballad, "Poor Ellen Smith," which often ends before sentence is passed. The two often exchange verses.
A column by Dan Barry in the February 1, 2009 New York Times describes meetings with Peter DeGraff's grand-niece and other relatives, one of whom has a Bible DeGraff apparently took with him to the gallows. The story also gives a few details of the crime. Ellen Smith was a "poor, simple" woman, a teenager, who apparently was impregnated by Peter DeGraff (the spelling prefered by Barry and now used by the family). The child died at birth, but Smith continued to pester DeGraff even though he rejected her. At last, he sent her a note, full of orthographic errors, telling him to meet him. She came; he shot her. He fled, but later returned to town. He disclaimed responsibility for the murder, but the note in his hand was on Smith's body. He was sentenced to be hanged, and finally admitted shooting her. Her last words, according to DeGraff, were "Lord, have mercy on me." Supposedly it was the last public hanging in the county. - RBW
File: LF11
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