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 (3 citations):
Randolph 805, "Belle Brandon" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 48, "Belle Brandon" (1 text, 1 tune)
WolfAmericanSongSheets, #125, p. 10, "Belle Brandon" (2 references)
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: 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. - 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 4.1
File: R805

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