Headrick, Hughes, and Gentry Kin in an Appalachian Folk Song Project

I had some old notes from Mrs. Amanda Winkler (Headrick-Young researcher) among my genealogy scraps about a 1938-1939 folk-song project, in which some of the descendants of Mary "Polly" (Rice) Headrick took part. She had taken some notes from the research of the teacher who had been involved in the project. The teacher mentioned the Headrick-Young kin as part of an old folk-song project. The Headrick granddaughter and several great-granddaughters were mentioned as rich sources for old Appalachian songs and ballads they had learned from their parents and grandmother. Winkler quoted the teacher as saying,

"They learned the songs as small children sitting on their father's knee or seated on a stool at the feet of their grandmother or great-grandmother, watching them weave. I have never heard anything like the wealth of old songs stored in their memory, and the amazing thing is that they are all right at their tongue's end, ready to be sung. It is by them more than any other family, that I have been able to see how the songs are handed down through the years by oral transmission."

I'm sorry that I can't give more specifics about the source. This was just something another researcher sent me by email, and didn't share the name of the teacher or the circumstances--whether she had read this old material in an archives, or had attended a lecture, or what.

According to Winkler's email to me, the teacher had not specifically mentioned by name the great-grandmother (Polly), grandmother (Martha "Moffie" Jane), or mother (Georgia Ann), but did mention Georgia’s daughters and granddaughters by name--among them, daughters, Rosa Hughes, Ethel Welch, Exona Hughes, and Mollie Green; and granddaughters, Pearl Green Gentry and Ella Hughes.

Mrs. Winkler’s note to me said that the teacher had called the family (Headrick-Young-Green) a rich source of songs and ballads, and said that the women sang the songs. (So, I infer that the teacher listened to their versions of the ballads and wrote down the lyrics).

I decided to do a search on some of these family names in connection to Appalachian music, and was able to find a nice reference on a website. The site just gives a long list of cataloged song titles. Unfortunately, it doesn't cite any recordings, though the women did actually sing songs during the project. But the list does give the titles for which the women contributed text versions of the old songs. Possibly, their text versions might be found in some library archives--that would be nice!
The website cites a 1946 article which lists the titles and the names of contributors:

"A Check List of the Titles of Tennessee Folksongs," by Edwin C. Kirkland. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 59, No. 234 (Oct. - Dec., 1946), pp. 423-476.
Edwin C. Kirkland was with the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 

Bluegrass Messengers

http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/a-check-list-of-ternnessee-folk-songs--1946.aspx

To understand the list on that website:

The researcher apparently collected as many versions he could of all the Appalachian songs he could find, so there are sometimes several contributors of the same song--in other words, the same song was perhaps handed down orally in several different versions, with differences in text or music, and the researcher collected each different version. In some cases, he has only the text. In others, he has the text and/or a recording. For the Headrick descendants, he only cites text versions.

You may find other songs or family members mentioned in the list. It's a pretty long list. haven't had time to really give it a complete going-over.

Pearl Green Gentry, of Sale Creek, and Mrs. Rosa Hughes, of Flat Top, were listed as two contributors of text versions of "Gypsie Laddie" to the project.

Pearl Green Gentry also contributed a text version of "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard," "Pretty Cold Rain," and "A Pretty Fair Maiden."

Kirkland's Bibliographical Citation

Kirkland cites the following as his source for the collection in which the Headrick song contributions appear: 

Duncan, Ballads. Ruby Duncan, Ballads and Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County (Knoxville, Tenn., University of Tennessee, Master's thesis, I939). Play Party. Ruby Duncan, The Play Party in Hamilton County (Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 6: I: I-I5, March, I940).

I believe this probably would have been part of the 1937-1938 Federal Music Project (FMP), one of the "New Deal" projects of the Great Depression era. Sure wish they had recordings of our kinfolk!

An Idea of the Sound of One Folk Ballad

I was able to find a solo, a cappella, folk version of the ballad, Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, as sung by Jean Ritchie. It is really long. (The audio file is about halfway down the following webpage):

Singout.org: Matty Groves, Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard
https://singout.org/2012/02/20/matty-groves-little-musgrave-and-lady-barnard/

Zoilus Bell Deed to Jacob Hedrick, Murray County, Georgia, 1853

Murray County, Georgia
Deed Record Book I, page 542-543

[Transcript begins]:
________________________________

Zoilus Bell
Mortgage Deed   To
Jacob Hedrick
No 56  10   3

Georgia     }
Murray County    }

This Indenture made this 2nd day of April 1853 between Zoilus Bell of the one part and Jacob Hedrick of the other part both of the County and State aforesaid Witnesseth that Zoilus Bell has this day made and delivered to the said Jacob Hedrick his Certain promissory note Subscribed with his hand and [illegible] even Sale with these presents whereby the said Zoilus Bell

[page 543]:

has promised to pay the said Jacob Hedrick or heirs the sum of fifty five on or before the fifteenth day of September ensuring the Sale here of for value Received Now for and in consideration of the sum of five dollars by the said Jacob Hedrick in hand paid at and before the Sealing and delivery of these presents the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged as well as for the better securing the payment of the afore mentioned promissory note the said Zoilus Bell has granted bargained and Sold and by these presents doth grant bargain and sell unto the said Jacob Hedrick his heirs and assigns all that tract or parcel of land situate lying and being in the County aforesaid known as the South half of lot Number fifty sise of the 10 district & third Section containing Eighty acres more or less with all the rights members and appertenances to said lot of land in any wise belonging  to have and to hold said bargain premises to the said Jacob Hedrick his heirs and assigns to his and their own proper use benefit and behoof for ever and the Said Zoilus Bell for him self his heirs, & assigns, the said bargained premises unto the said Jacob Hedrick will warrant and for ever defend against the claim of him self & his heirs, and against the claim of all other persons whatever provided nevertheless that if the said Zoilus Bell his heirs Executors and Administrators, shall well and truly pay or cause to be paid unto the said Jacob Hedrick his heirs and assigns the afore mentioned sum of forty five dollars in the day and time mentioned and appointed, for the payment thereof in the Said promissory note mentioned with lawful intrest for the same according to the [illegible] of the Land do note then & from thence forward this present indenture and the right to the property thereby consigned as the said promissory note shall cause determine and be void to all intense and purposes,

In witness whereof the said Zoilus Bell has here unto set his hand and seal the day and year above written

Signed Sealed and delivered in presence of Zoilus Bell {seal}

Robt. McCamy
A. Logan J. P.

Recorded and Certified for the 18th May 1853
F B Morris  Clk
       
__________________________

[Transcript ends]

Transcription note: The clerk’s handwriting is highly compressed and hard to read. Also, he  rarely crossed a “t,” but I transcribed each obvious “t” as a “t,” not an “l.”

Brick-Wall Family: Jacob Jr. "Jake" Headrick + Harriet "Hattie" Hall, of Murray County, Georgia, and Polk County, Tennessee

Brick-wall family of Jacob and Harriet "Hattie" (Hall) Headrick, of Murray County, Georgia; Polk County, Tennessee; and Bradley County, Tennessee. This family resided in Murray County, Georgia, in 1880.

GENERATION I:
Jacob "Jake" Headrick (Born to Jacob and Polly Rice Headrick).
          FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch ID: KL7D-4V7.
​Married Harriet "Hattie" Hall (Born to C. Martin Hall + Mildred Ann Barksdale).
     (Married 20 October 1861, Polk County, Tennessee).
had these children, all born in/near Cisco (old Cohuttah Springs/Hughes) Georgia, all of northern Murray County, Georgia:

GENERATION II:
II. William H. Headrick, also known as W.H. Headrick.
Born 1862.
Resided in Hanceville, near Cullman, Alabama, in 1905.
Probably never married.
Died 7 August 1927 in Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee. Buried 8 August 1927 in Dalton, Whitfield, Georgia.

II. Myrtle Ann Headrick
Born 1866. (mystery girl)

II. Mary "Mollie" Headrick, born 1867 (mystery girl)
In 1900, boarded with Mrs. Dr. Joseph A. Price (a widow) in Dalton, Whitfield, Georgia; her younger sister, Minnie Headrick, also boarded there.

Pretty sure this is her; Dr. Joseph A. Price treated her father, Jacob Headrick, for free, so they may have been family friends; sister, Mary, seems to be boarding there, too; apparently never married or married late in life; unless she is the one who married S.R. Grant in 1886 in Murray Co., Georgia, and perhaps became widowed or divorced before 1900.

II. Jaly L. Headrick (also known as Julia Lovely Headrick; pretty sure she is the same person).
Born 1868. Died 1898-1900, possibly in Oregon.
Married Charles Milton Shields on 12 December 1885, in Bradley Co., Tenn.
Charles and Jaly Headrick Shields had four children: 

(1) Joseph E. Shields
   Born: 2 July 1886, Cleveland, Bradley, Tenn.
   Died: 26 November 1935, Miami, Dade, Florida.

(2) Frank Shields
   Born: March 1888, Oregon.
 
(3) Minnie Ola Shields
     Born: 12 September 1889, Pilot Rock, Umatilla, Oregon.

(4) Mark Shields
   Born: July 1898, Oregon.

II. Lucy Headrick
Born 1869 (mystery girl)

II. Frances "Fannie?" Headrick
Born 1872 (mystery girl)

II. Sarah "Sally?" Headrick
Born 1873 (mystery girl)

II. Andrew Jackson Headrick
Born 1875 (mystery boy)

II. Minnesota "Minnie" Headrick (mystery girl).
Born 1877; lived with guardians, Powell and Frances "Fannie" Hall Lowe before 1899 in Cleveland, Bradley, Tennessee; later may have lived awhile in Cullman, Alabama, with older brother, William H. Headrick.

In 1900, boarded with Mrs. Dr. Joseph A. Price (a widow) in Dalton, Whitfield, Georgia; her older sister, Mary "Mollie" Headrick, also boarded there; (Pretty sure this is her; Dr. Joseph A. Price treated her father, Jacob Headrick, for free, so they may have been family friends; sister, Mary, seems to be boarding there, too).
(mystery girl; apparently never married or married late in life)

II. Martin Headrick
Born 1880 (mystery boy)

II. Cordelia "Cordie, Delia" Headrick
Born 27 September 1883; (alternate birth year, from census: 1882).
Moved to Cullman, Alabama -
         (prob. abt. 1899 when guardian, Powell H. Lowe of Cleveland, Bradley, Tenn., died).

Probably moved to Cullman to live w/older brother, Wm. H. Headrick.
Resided: Pct. 13, Walker, Ala. - 1910. Resided: Cordova, Walker, Ala. - 1930.
Married: Robert Jackson Grubbs, 11 January 1903, Cullman, Alabama.
Died: 24 September 1941, Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee.
Buried: 26 Sept. 1941, Lomenick Cemetery, Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tenn.

Robert J. and Cordelia Grubbs had these children:

(1) Jewell Pearl Grubbs. Born: 1904,

(2) Francis A. Grubbs
   Born: 1908.
   Resided: Pct. 13, Walker, Alabama - 1910.
   Resided: Chicago, Cook, Illinois - 1935.
   Resided: Berwyn, Cook, Illinois - 1940.
   Died: 3 February 1945, Chicago, Cook, Illinois.
   Buried: 6 February 1945, Acacia Park, Chicago, Cook, Illinois.

(3) Emma E. Grubbs. Born: 1911

(4) Minnie G. Grubbs. Born: 1918

(5) Headrick Jackson Grubbs
   Born: 1919. Died: 1987

Guardians of the three minor children, Minnie, Martin, and Cordelia (from 1893 to probably 1899): 
Powell H. Lowe (b.1844; died 1899; lived in Cleveland, Bradley, Tennessee).
Francis "Fannie" (Hall) Lowe (sister of Harriet Hall Headrick).
   (b.1845 Polk Co., Tenn.; d.1920 Mobile, Mobile, Ala.).
            Resided in Cleveland, Bradley, Tenn. May have lived in Mobile, Ala. before 1920.

Surnames: HEADRICK, HALL, GRUBBS, SHIELDS, BARKSDALE, LOWE.

Brick-Wall Lineage: representing one line of descendants of old Jacob and Polly (Rice) Headrick, out of Jacob "Jake" Headrick Jr. and Harriet Hall.

Contact via email (hint): cohuttablue-genes (at Yahoo...)