Boy the Burned in the Berryville Jail. The

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Floyd Eddings the son of old Dock, He truly disowned me but I am one of his flock." Eddings turns robber, is arrested, and is imprisoned. His father won't help. The jail catches fire; the jailor does not rescue him; the jail burns around him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: robbery father prison fire
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 27-28, "The Boy That Burned in the Berryville Jail in 1888" (1 text)
Roud #15764
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Flor Ednings
NOTES [181 words]: According to the web site for Carroll County, Arkanses, where Berryville is located, "In 1887, a young inmate named Floyd Eddings set fire to the Berryville Jail and it burned to the ground. Floyd was a troublemaker and the son of a well-respected physician in Carrollton. He had been jailed in Berryville for breaking into a store in Carrollton and stealing an overcoat. In his effort to burn a hole in the wall of the jail, he was unable to escape as he had planned, and was the sole victim of the blaze."
There are at least three collections of this (by Fred High of Berryville, Arkansas, in the northwestern part of the state; by "Mr. Alford" of Delmar, Arkansas, a short distance to the east, and by "Mrs. Rubibow" of Seligman, Missouri, in the southwestern part of that state), plus a version sung by Neal Morris at Mountain View (which might be a revival version). Curiously, the transcriptions give different names for the victim (Floyd Eddings, Floyd Edings, Flor Ednings), but the rest of the text seems to be almost the same. I suspect an undiscovered broadside somewhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: Hogh027B

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