John Whipple's Mill

DESCRIPTION: The singer, goes to work in (John Whipple's) mill and finds himself in a race. He vows to "keep up if I did myself kill." After work, he goes out, fills his pipe, and relaxes. The men are made to work hard but the singer intends to stay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: work contest
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 171, "John Whipple's Mill" (4 fragments, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 69-71, "John Hopper's Hill" (1 text) (pp. 56-58 in the 1919 edition)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #50, "Shanelly's Mill" (1 text, tune referenced)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 4, "John Thompson's Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC171 (Partial)
Roud #3675
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Harper's Hill
Trickeyside Hill
NOTES [81 words]: Roud equates this song with item dC54, "Shanel's Mill," in Laws's Appendix II. But he does not cite the one reference in Laws (NYFQ 11); I cannot verify the connection. Fowke, however, accepts the equation, so here we lump them.
More surprising is that Laws did not notice all the other texts that seem to go together, whether they include the NYFQ song or not. Clearly the family is large enough to deserve its own Laws number. On the other hand, the details seem to vary a lot. - RBW.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSC171

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