Gold Rush Lore from an Ozarkian

Gold Rush Lore from an OzarkianAuthor(s): Merlin P. MitchellSource: The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Summer, 1950), pp. 120-124Published by: Arkansas Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40037885 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 01:29

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Arkansas Historical Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheArkansas Historical Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:29:24 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=arkha

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40037885?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


GOLD RUSH LORE FROM AN OZARKIAN

By Merlin P. Mitchell

Fayetteville, Arkansas

In the middle of February, 1950, in the interests of the new folklore project at the University of Arkansas, I interviewed an old settler at his home near Berryville. Fred High is his name. He is 72 years old and has lost none of his alertness and philosophical demeanor as well as none of his cordiality.

"Uncle Fred/' as I soon called him, had not talked to me more than 15 or 20 minutes before he had decided that I should spend the night with him, and with this concern out of the way we relaxed before his big comfortable fire- place for an evening of song-singing and story-telling.

The essence of Fred High's conversation and his songs would have been the envy of Coleridge as well as the pre- sent-day ardent folklore collector. His opinions spring from keen and animated observation and not from the effects of his isolation and disadvantaged schooling. And he sings the old songs in the old way - clear and plaintive without excess emotion.

This old-timer lives within 12 feet of where he was born and has never been beyond a 100 mile radius of his home, but his character and accomplishments warrant just the opposite of the typical comments of hillbillyism that arise from the average outsider at the mention of the Ar- kansawyer.

Fred High founded the little town of High, Arkansas. He was commissioned to establish the postoffice there in 1907; was himself postmaster for years; ran a general store until it was necessary to close out because of the unredeem- able credit he had given ; started a canning factory and lost it when the price of tomatoes dropped; bought a sawmill and worked it and his farm to pay interest on his notes ; and finally cleared himself of debt in 1938 - a sadder and a wiser man. During 30 years of this time he was Justice of



GOLD RUSH LORE FROM AN OZARKIAN I2J

the Peace and married over a ioo couples. With old-fashion- ed proverbial wisdom he remarked that "to know the public you must deal with the public." It was good roads, cars, and better markets that put him out of business but his sense of deeper values is not changed. He has raised seven chil- dren and endowed them with respectable economic circum- stances.

Fred had an uncle named Dow High who was much admired by the young Fred and most others who knew him in the old days. This man drove 500 head of cattle over the Santa Fe Trail to Frisco in 185 1. Here's how Fred describ- ed the preparations : "The difficulty was who to get to go with him on a long trip like that. So he had to call a meeting at Antioch to get volunteers to go with him and he had to have two or three meetings to get enough cowboys to go.

"And there has been many a tear shed in that old house. When a young man would go up to the stage and say he would go three others would be by his side and say, 'You can't go'. This would be his mother and daddy and sweetheart.

"Next would be a young married man come to go and at once five would be as his side crying and drag- ging him back. This would be his wife and dad and mother on both sides.

"After two or three meetings of this the boys were chosen. Two of them were Standlees and one of them was Dow's youngest brother. All were single but Dow.

"While the two Highs were in California a song was made. When my dad heard it he said the hair raised on his head. Here's the last verse of it : "They are falling on the mountains high and in the

Valleys too, And sinking in the briny deep no more to rise to view. The gold of California is passed away and gone, And many a poor miner no more will see his home."

These were the experiences that ballads were made from and people like Fred High are the preservers of them. One of the more widely known gold-rush ballads is called Joe Bowers. It's full of frontier humor. Fred knows the song and knows the son of Joe Bowers. He has information



I22 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

pertinent to its authorship which varies considerably from what most collectors have turned up. Here's the way he sang the song to me and his ideas of its origin follow.

My name it is Joe Bowers, I have a brother, Ike. I came all the way from Missouri, And all the way from Pike.

I'll tell you how it happened And how I came to roam, And to leave my dear old mother So far away from home.

I used to court a girl there By the name of Sally Black, I asked her to marry me, She said it is a rack.

She says to me, 'Joe Bowers Before we hitch for life, You ought to get a little place To take your little wife'.

O Sally, Darling Sally, 0 Sally for your sake I'll go to California And try to raise a stake.

She says to me, 'Joe Bowers You are the man to win, Here's a kiss to seal the bargain'. And she hoved a dozen in.

When I got to that country 1 hadn't nary a red, My feelings at that moment, I wished myself most dead.

At length I went to mining,



GOLD RUSH LORE FROM AN OZARKIAN I2^

Struck in my biggest lick, I come down on the border Like a thousand pound of brick.

I worked both late and early Through rain and hail and snow. I was working for my Sally 'Twas all the same to Joe.

At length I got a letter It came from brother, Ike. It came all the way from Missouri And all the way from Pike.

It brought to me the darndest news That ever you did hear, My heart was almost busted So please excuse this tear.

It said that Sal was false to me Her love for me had fled. It said she'd married a butcher And the butcher's hair was red.

And more than that the letter said, 'Twas enough to make me swear, Said Sally had a baby And the baby had red hair.

Fred says "In the early days there was a man by the name of Frank Standlee who lived in Stone County, Missouri, not far from here. He was my wife's uncle. I named my first boy after him, though this Standlee's nick- name is "Joe Bowers". Frank got into trouble here and went to California (apparently one mentioned earlier as ac- companying Dow High on the cattle drive) and there he wrote a song about himself and his troubles back home."

I asked Uncle Fred about the word "Pike" and he said it refers to a postoffice over in Stone County, Missouri. Whether this is the truth and Missourians have eased the



I2. ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

concept by just saying he came from Pike County, or whether the old balladeer, Fred High, has attached local biographical and geographical interest to a fabulous character, we'll never know. But a curious fact about it is that Fred has a photograph sitting on his mantle which he says is Joe Bower's son and he doesn't attach any literary significance to the fact. The man is just his wife's cousin whose dad changed his name to Joe Bowers wThen he got into trouble over in Missouri and went west and wrote a song about himself.



Documents

Gold Rush Lore from an Ozarkian