Poor Ellen Smith
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
Poor Ellen Smith, how was she found?
Shot through the heart, lying cold on the ground
Blood began to fly, blood began to run,
They shot my poor sweetheart with a 44 gun.
. Saw her on a Monday before that sad day,
They found her poor body and took it away.
Who had the heart, who had the face,
To murder my sweetheart in this lonely place?
Oh, I stayed out six months and prayed all the time
They might find the one that committed the crime
So I could go back and my character save,
Though flowers have faded on sweet Ellen's grave.
Now I'm in jail and God knows it's hard
While my sweetheart sleeps calm in the lonesome graveyard.
Now I'm in jail, a prisoner am I now
But God is here with me and hears every vow.
I didn't love little Ellen to make her my wife
But I loved her too dear than to take her dear life.
The jury will hang me, that is if they can
But God knows that I am an innocent man.
"Poor Ellen Smith" is a late 19th-century murder ballad recounting the shooting<br> death of Ellen Smith, a maid in the home of a Winston-Salem merchant,<br> and the trial and execution of her murderer.<br> The song is based on real events in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1894, a<br> ne'er-do-well named Peter DeGraff had a love affair with Ellen Smith, who may<br> have been mentally challenged and was unable to understand his rejection of her.<br> Smith became pregnant by DeGraff, but their child died at birth. Afterwards she<br> began following DeGraff around town, and eventually he sent her a note that asked<br> her to meet him in a secluded area, worded in such a way that Smith would have<br> believed DeGraff wanted to reconcile. Instead, when she arrived, DeGraff shot<br> her through the chest. He later reported that Smith's only words after being shot<br> were "Lord have mercy on me." DeGraff confessed to the crime on the gallows,<br> shortly before he was hanged.<br> The song and its variants have been performed and recorded by many artists<br> including Tommy Jarrell,<br> Jimmy Martin, the Stanley Brothers, Ralph Stanley & Larry Sparks,<br> The Country Gentlemen, John Hartford,<br> The Kingston Trio and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.<br> It was printed in Cohen, Seeger and Wood's Old Time String Band Songbook (1964)<br> (Previously published as The New Lost City Ramblers Songbook).<br>
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