Poor Ellen Smith: A Song History
The song grew out of a real North Carolina killing. On July 20, 1892, a young woman named Ellen Smith was shot dead,[1] and suspicion fell on Peter DeGraff (the name is also spelled DeGraph), a man she had been romantically involved with.[1][2] Sources differ on the setting: a state history post puts the shooting near a Winston-Salem hotel and describes Smith as a maid in a merchant's household,[1] the Ballad Index places the crime near Mount Airy,[2] and Sing Out! says she worked at a Winston-Salem hotel that also employed DeGraff.[3] In the state account, DeGraff fled, lived under another name in Mount Airy, and was arrested when he came back in June 1893.[1] His trial opened that August, a jury found him guilty on August 15, and his hanging was set for February 8, 1894.[2] He claimed innocence at trial but is reported to have confessed before the crowd at his execution.[1] Accounts of the hanging's date also disagree: the state post and the Ballad Index put it in 1894,[1][2] while Sing Out! places it roughly thirteen months after the killing.[3]
Ruger & Stoner, Bird’s Eye View of the Twin Cities, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1891 (detail). Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. No known restrictions.
The ballad G. Malcolm Laws catalogued as F11, usually titled “Ellen Smith” and also known as “Poor Ellen Smith,” is sung by DeGraff as he declares himself innocent, and it uses the tune of the hymn “How Firm a Foundation.”[2] According to Sing Out!, the case produced at least two songs in the same meter but with somewhat different melodies; the longer hymn-tune ballad is now the rarer of the pair, and the shorter “Poor Ellen Smith” is the one bluegrass musicians made a standard.[3] Verses pass freely between the two, and in some versions the singer ends up in prison instead of on the gallows.[2] Opinion about DeGraff's guilt was so divided that public singing of the song was outlawed, one early account saying it “always fomented a riot.”[2][3] Folklore has DeGraff singing the ballad before his hanging, and Sing Out! mentions an unconfirmed report that he wrote one of the songs.[2][3]
Henry Whitter recorded “Ellen Smith” for OKeh in 1924, and Mollie O'Day and the Cumberland Mountain Folks released “Poor Ellen Smith” on Columbia in 1949.[2] Later performers associated with the song include Peggy Seeger, Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, the Country Gentlemen, Laura Cantrell and Neko Case.[3]
Find books with Poor Ellen Smith for sale →