Source: E.E. Gardner and G.J.Chickering, "Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan", Folklore Associates, 1939.Two versions, both collected in 1934
Tune from Mrs. Maude Simpson, Detroit, who learned it from her grandfather, Mr. Seth Evilsizer who learned it from an aunt near Zanesville, OH 75 years earlier. She had learned it from an English neighbor who affirmed that she knew personally the principals of the story. The words are a combination of Mrs. Maude Simpson's and the version from Mr. E.W. Harns, Greenville who learned the song in Kalamazoo Co, MI about 1875.
Notes: I took out a refrain of Tra-la-liddle-te-I-de-O after each of the first two lines and used the tune of those refrains to modify the tune of the verses. (2020)
The story of Kate & the cowhide has been found in British broadsides as far back as the 1600's, but Gardner & Chickering collected several versions in Southern MI, one of whom learned it from her grandfather, who learned it from his aunt, who learned it from a neighbor who "knew personally the principals in the story." And a fine story it is
In Gardner & Chickering?s Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan sung by Mr. Seth Evilsizer Alger who learned it more than 75 years earlier from his aunt near Zanesville, OH. She had learned it from an English neighbor who affirmed that she knew personally the principals in the story, although scholars have traced the genealogy of this ballad to a broadside dated 1689-90. I used text of versions from Michigan and IN
