#folkballads

By: Lisa Timmerman, Executive Director

Ready for a folk ballad involving a local Marine?

“When Morgan first came to this country, 

he came in a four-wheeled carriage. 

He put up at Parson Weem’s house 

and proposed to his daughter in marriage. 

The colonel had a nice gold watch, 

It hung at his right side. 

He gave it to Miss Fanny 

and his bulldog besides. 

Morgan, Morgan move along, you’re movin’ mighty slow. 

Morgan drank buttermilk, and Tansill drank the whey. 

So ride up Col. Morgan, while Tansill gains the day.”

In 1841, William D. Dowell wrote to Mr. William A. Hawley, editor of the newspaper Vermont Telegraph, regarding a reputable man in Dumfries. Dowell wrote, “This man Morgan came to this place last March & put up at a public house kept by a widow woman named Merchant where he remained perhaps two or three weeks & visited about with his fiddle.  He attracted the attention of several gentlemen who made him an associate. He then fell in company with Mr. Weems & his daughters at a meeting.” This fiddler notably liked the title “Captain Morgan” and had a trusty dog at his side – “…he had with him a tremendous dog which always followed him, this dog had a brass collar…” Morgan lodged with Jesse Weems at Somerfield, and Weems served as the administrator of Morgan’s estate when he died in 1840. Dowell noted “…he was what the Virginians sometime say a good looking man yet he looked to me suspicious & seemed restless.” While hindsight often clouds our perceptions, restless might have been an appropriate description of Morgan.

(Source: Vermont Telegraph, Volume XI, No. 21, 02/16/1839. Library of Congress: Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers)

This letter was part of a Chancery Court case regarding the property and money earned from the sale of Morgan’s inventory. While Morgan may have charmed Frances Weems and the residents of Dumfries with his fiddling (apparently Dumfries attracts fiddlers…note to self: look into that), the citizens of Vermont had discovered his duplicitous character. According to a series of letters published in the Vermont Telegraph (02/16/1839 and 02/20/1839), the “dancing master” Morgan married Jane Anson in 10/1835, but left the following year supposedly under “…the pretense of going to the house of Wm. Waltermyer, in the town of Milan…to play the violin, at a ball” and never returned. In 12/1838, Moses Swanzey inquired into the character of a dancing master named James Morgan in New York, “Mr. Morgan has a school at my house of great respectability; and since it has been in operation, some reports concerning his character, (of a damning nature to one of his profession)* have been circulated among us.” The Vermont Telegraph asked other newspapers to “…assist in putting the public generally on guard against a consummate villain – a nefarious marauder – who appears to live only to indulge his barest lusts, rioting on the affections of as many as he can deceive…degrading human nature, and subverting the institution of Heaven, which lie at the foundation of good society on earth.”  In 02/1839, S.K.P. responded to the Vermont Telegraph contradicting their claim that Morgan taught in Highgage.

Enter the Town of Dumfries! By 1840, Morgan had traveled through Dumfries to Richmond with a companion but returned to Dumfries after the death of his fellow traveler. Dowell speculated Dumfries was the perfect location as a “great many persons pass through this place from North & from the South”. Weems apparently liked Morgan enough to lodge him and become involved in the matters of Morgan’s estate when Morgan died in 1840. So where does Robert Tansill fit into this story? Frances Weems, Mason Locke Weems granddaughter (not daughter), married Robert Tansill in 1843. The Marine Corps Officers list from 1790-1900 noted Tansill as a Second Lieutenant on 11/03/1840, becoming a First Lieutenant in 1847, Captain in 1858, Brevet Captain in 1847 with a dismissal in 1861. He was court martialed in Florida in the early 1840s, but we will save his interesting biography for another post. Regardless, whether Tansill actively courted Ms. Weems before Morgan’s death is a fun speculation as this ballad has origins in some source.

(Source: Robert and Frances Tansill, Colorado College: Charles L. Tutt Library Digital CC, Robert Weems Tansill Family)

Lastly, besides for rhyming, why would Tansill’s notable characteristic be drinking whey and not buttermilk? Before the 20th century, buttermilk could be old milk that soured, the sour byproduct of churning sour milk or the byproduct of churning fresh milk. Today, our society embraces whey for supposed health benefits associated with whey proteins. It can be difficult to wade through the numerous articles regarding the modern use of whey, but we can throw back to “Little Miss Muffet” eating her “curds and whey” to see it was not an unfamiliar practice.

Note: There is still one spot left in our Ghost Walks: Return to the Shadows Tour at 7pm! Call and/or email to put your name on a waitlist – we may be able to offer a 9pm tour on some October weekends! Click here for more info about our popular Ghost Walks program – your participation helps support us throughout the year!

“The Brisk Young Plow Boy,” in The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore