Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2]

DESCRIPTION: A cowboy is dying. He asks to be taken home and buried in his family home. His request is ignored; he is buried in a small and isolated prairie grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: +1901 (JAFL14)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NW,Ro,So,SE) Canada(Newf,West)
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Laws B2, "The Dying Cowboy (Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie)" (sample text in NAB, pp. 81-82)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 37-39, "The Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 13-14, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 387-392, "The Lone Prairie" (5 texts)
Randolph 184, "Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 262, "The Lone Prairie" (2 texts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 93, pp. 222-223, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 147A, "The Dying Cowboy"; Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 147B, "Bury Me Not on the Chickamauga" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 151-154, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a text of "The Ocean Burial")
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 436, "The Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 92-93, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 153-154, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 20, "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 62-63, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 117, "The Dying Cowboy" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 80-83, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Praire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 421-422, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #166, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 169, "The Lonesome Prairie" (3 fragments, 3 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 60, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 78, pp. 171-173, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 54, "The Lone Prairie" (2 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #9, p. 143, "The Lone Prairie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, p. 22, "Oh, Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 203-204, "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 164-165, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 110, "Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 201-203, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 396-398, "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie"
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 77, 'The Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 39, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 78-79, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 370, LONEPRAR*
ADDITIONAL: Louise Pound, "Folk=Song of Nebraska and the Central West: A Syllabus," _Nebraska Academy of Science Publications_, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1915, p. 111 (available on Google Books), "Bury Me Not on the Prairie" (1 text)
Roud #631
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "The Dying Cowboy" (Columbia 15463-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Jules [Verne] Allen, "The Dying Cowboy" (Victor 23834, 1933; on BackSaddle)
Bentley Ball, "The Dying Cowboy" (Columbia A3085, 1920)
Bill Childers, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (OKeh 45203, 1928)
Vernon Dalhart, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Columbia 969-D, 1927) (Romeo 431/Perfect 12361, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5315, n.d. but prob. 1927)
Arthur Fields, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie " (Grey Gull 4239/Radiex 4239, 1928)
Phil & Frank Luther, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Melotone M-12143, 1931)
Asa Martin, "The Dying Cowboy" (Banner 32426/Melotone M12497 [both as Martin & Roberts]/Royal [Canada] 91402, 1932)
Sloan Matthews, "The Dying Cowboy" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Pickard Family, "Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie" (Columbia 15141-D, 1927)
Holland Puckett, "The Dying Cowboy" (Silvertone 25065, 1927; Supertone 9253, 1929)
Herbert Sills, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (on Saskatch01)
Carl T. Sprague, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Victor 20122, 1926; Montgomery Ward M-4099, 1933; on MakeMe)
Vel Veteran [pseud. for either Arthur Fields, Vernon Dalhart, or Irving Kaufman] "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Grey Gull 4239, 1928)
Richard Villmer, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Extremely short fragment, recited rather than sung: Piotr-Archive #718, recorded 10/24/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ocean Burial"
cf. "Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament)" (tune)
cf. "I've Got No Use for the Women" (lyrics)
NOTES [95 words]: Probably adapted from "The Ocean Burial," attributed to Rev. Edwin H. Chapin (1839). For the complex question of the tune, see the notes on that piece.
The 1922 edition of Thorp (quoted also by Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety) claims that the adaption to "The Lone Prairie" is by H. Clemons and written in 1872. I know of no supporting data. - RBW
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest has only the first verse of "Bury Me Not on the Chickamauga" so I cannot judge whether or not this should be a separate song. I have no other text for it. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LB02

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography