Martha Dexter

DESCRIPTION: Young Martha Dexter and her niece set out to visit the niece's mother. When they come to the river, the water is high and Martha's excitable horse throws her. She drowns. When her body is found at last, the family mourns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: death river drowning horse mourning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 1, 1824 - Death of Martha Decker near what is now Wilawanna, Pennsylvania
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 417-418, "Martha Dexter" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 29, "Martha Deckert" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 171-177, "Martha Decker" (1 text, 1 tune, with extensive notes including a transcription of Decker's tombstone)
Roud #4134
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballad of the Drover (Death of Harry Dale)" (theme)
cf. "The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water" [Child 216] (theme)
NOTES [76 words]: This is item dG34 in Laws's Appendix II.
My first reaction, upon reading the first half-dozen stanzas in Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, was that this is basically a variant of a "Marian Parker" ballad. It has that same cloying feel. But, of course, the song is based on an earlier event, and it takes a different direction at the end. The similarity is presumably due simply to the way semi-professional balladeers treat children. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Beld417

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