Belle Brandon

DESCRIPTION: "'Neath a tree by the margin of the woodland... There I saw the little beauty, Belle Brandon, And we met 'neath the old arbor tree." The singer tells of carving their names in a tree. Now she is dead, and "sleeps 'neath the old arbor tree."
AUTHOR: Words: T. Ellwood Garrett (1828-1905) / Music: Francis Woolcott
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (sheet music published by Balmer & Weber, St. Louis)
KEYWORDS: love courting death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 805, "Belle Brandon" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 48, "Belle Brandon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #125, p. 10, "Belle Brandon" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 59 and #1/64 p. 48, "Belle Brandon" (1 text)
Roud #7423
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as100900, "Belle Brandon", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as100890, "Belle Brandon"
NLScotland, L.C.1269(154a), "Belle Brandon, The Beauty of the Valley," Poet's Box (Glasgow?), 1865
NOTES [101 words]: Randolph, probably based on Spaeth's History of Popular Music in America, p. 130, reports the publication of a song called "Bell Brandon" in 1860 (by T. E. Garrett and Francis Woolcott), and a report that sheet music was printed in 1854. He apparently did not know if they were the same song. They are.
On the other hand, "Spirit Voice of Belle Brandon," found in Dime-Song-Book #6, is a separate song. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as100900: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R805

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