Sweet Betsy from Pike [Laws B9]

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet" Betsy and "her lover" Ike set out from Pike County, Missouri for California. On the way they lose much of their livestock and property, but also have some amazing adventures. (They marry, then divorce.)
AUTHOR: claimed by John A Stone (Old Put)
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster, second edition)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes settler
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Laws B9, "Sweet Betsy from Pike"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 343-345, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Randolph 192, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 (atypical) tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 193-196, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 192A)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 300-301, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (4 fragments, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 153, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 41, pp. 215-218, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #159, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 184-185, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 83, p. 106, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 short text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 750-751, "Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 432, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 112, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 108-109, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 24-25, "Betsy from Pike" (1 tet)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 53, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 424-426, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 173, "Sweet Betsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 19, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 861-863, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 239, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 650-651, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (1 text)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 30-31, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 123-126, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 118, "(Sweet Betsie from Pike)" (1 excerpt, of the Brigham Young verse)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 42-43, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 167-168, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 62, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 57, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 190, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 603-604, "Vilikens and His Dinah -- (Sweet Betsey from Pike)"
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 87, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 mention, from user Crypto-Willobie, posted September 22, 2021)
DT 376, SWEETBET*
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 533-535, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Roud #3234
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Asch 410-1/Elite X19[as "Betsy from Pike"]/Stinson 410-1/Varsity 5135 [as "Betsy from Pike"], n.d.; rec. 1939)
Judy Cook, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #816, recorded 02/28/2024)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Crown 3121/Homestead 22991, 1931)
Logan English, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (on LEnglish02)
The Glasser-Lichtash-Dragan Family, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #872, recorded 06/10/2024)
Bradley Kincaid, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" (Bluebird B-5321/Montgomery Ward M-4421, 1934)
Ken Maynard, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (unissued; on StuffDreams1)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Victor 23704, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-4324, 1933) [may have been released under the pseudonym 'Radio Mac']
Pete Seeger, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (on PeteSeeger31)
John Williams, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" (Piotr-Archive #1552, recorded 09/04/2025)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
SAME TUNE:
Saigon Warrior (RECORDINGS, Saul Broudy, Robin Thomas, on InCountry)
NOTES [129 words]: This song was one of the first examples of references to the people of Pike County, Missouri as "Pikers" -- yokels of, probably, limited intelligence and education. The stereotype was so strong that, when it came time for Mark Twain to write Huckleberry Finn, the main run of the text was written in what was called "Pike County dialect." (So the "Explanatory" preface to the book, which mentions "the ordinary 'Pike-County' dialect; and four modified varieties of this last.") According to Mark Twain, The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, edited with an introduction and notes by Michael Patrick Hearn, W. W. Norton & Co., 1981, 2001, p. 5 n. 1, "Ordinary PIke County" is spoken by Huck, plus Tom Sawyer, Ben Rogers, pap Finn, Judith Loftus in Chapter 11, and Aunt Polly. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: LB09

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