Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor)

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Frank Taylor, a bach'lor I am, I'm keeping old batch on an elegant plan, You'll find me out west in the county of Lane, A-starvin' to death on a government claim." After much moaning about the bad conditions, the settler gives up and goes home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ed Kepner MS., according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: pioneer settler hardtimes bachelor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 20, 1862 - President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Randolph 186, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 135, "Hurrah for Greer County" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 8-9, "The Gerer County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 120-122, "The Lane County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 144-146, "The Alberta Homesteader" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 34, "The Alberta Homesteader" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 70, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 434, "Greer County" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 146-149, "The Lane County Bachelor" (2 texts)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 500-502, "The Lane County Bachelor (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 22, "The Lane County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 83, pp. 178-180, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 457-459, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 32-34, "The Lane County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 121, "Starving To Death On A Government Claim" (1 text)
DT, STARVDTH*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 33, #1 (1987), pp, 50-51, "The Bent County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune, learned by Sam Hinton from Jared Benson)
Roud #799
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender, The Happy Cowboy, "Lane County Bachelor" (Varsity 5144, c. 1940)
Edward L. Crain (Cowboy Ed Crane), "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (Conqueror 8013, 1932; Broadway 4056 [as Cowboy Carson], c. 1932)
Benjamin Kincaid, "The Lane County Bachelor" (Supertone 2574, c. 1933)
Pete Seeger, "Greer County Bachelor" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a, AmHist1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune)
cf. "The Railroad Corral" (tune and references for the "Irish Washerwoman" tune)
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES [247 words]: The song clearly dates back to the latter part of the nineteenth century, the period of Homestead Claims. The Homestead Act of 1862 had opened large areas of the western U.S. to settlement, allowing settlers to lay claim to 160 acre sections in return for nominal payments. However, the settlers were required to live on their claims for five years before they could "prove up" and gain title to the property. Many settlers, like the one here, wound up living in impossible conditions because it was the only way to stake the claim. It was not at all rare for the homesteader to give up, sell the reversion on the claim, and head back east.
Fowke's Canadian version, "The Alberta Homesteader," is very much the same song, slightly adapted to the north country and the minor differences in Canada's homesteading laws (created when Canada took over the western part of the continent from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1871, although most migrants did not start out until the 1880s).
At least three widely-known tunes have been used for this piece, "The Irish Washerwoman," "Vilikens and his Dinah," and "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane." But the largest number of collections seem to use "The Irish Washerwoman"; I suspect that was the original melody.
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest credits this to "Frank Baker," but that is merely the name used in his text. Since the name is "Frank Taylor" in other versions, I don't think that can be regarded as definitive. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R186

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