Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell) [Laws C13]

DESCRIPTION: The orphan Harry Bahel is at work in a sawmill when he is dragged onto the saw. He dies the next day and is buried as his siblings grieve
AUTHOR: Charles Bahel?
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: orphan death burial technology lumbering grief
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 1879 - Death of Harry Bahel, at age 19, in Arcadia Township, Lapeer County, Michigan
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws C13, "Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 418-419, "Harry Bale" (1 text, in which the hero is called "Harry Dale")
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #33, "Harry Bale" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 80, "The Little Shingle Mill (The Death of Harry Vail)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 27, "Harry Bail" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 27, "Harry Bail" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 113, "Harry Bail" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 61, "Harry Bail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 141-144, "Harry Bahel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 75, "Harry Bail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 33-35, "Harry Bale" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 412-413, "Harry Bahel (Bail)" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 222, "Harry Bale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 92, "Harry Bell" (1 text) (pp. 79-80 in the 1919 edition)
MidwestFolklore, Ivan H. Watson, "Folk Singing on Beaver Island," Volume 2, Number 4 (Winter 1952), p. 247, "Harry Dale" (reference only)
DT 700, HARYBALE
Roud #2217
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)" [Laws C25]
NOTES [67 words]: Two of Gardner and Chickering's informants, John B. Redhead and William Rabidue, both of whom worked in lumber mills in the general vicinity, credit this to Harry Bahel's brother Charlie (Rabidue, who supplied Gardner and Chickering's main text, also mentions a Johnny Coffey). There does not seem to be any actual proof of this.
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps cites a copy of Harry Bahel's tombstone. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: LC13

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