Pamme Swan: Swan Songs

• MP3 short clip, hi-fi play (broadband)
• MP3 short clip, lo-fi play (modem)

Playing at the Big Moose Inn these past two summers I couldn't help not wanting to learn the history of this tragic story with the framed newspaper articles from 1906 and 07 hung through out the Inn.
The Inn also sells all the books written on this case which I now own and have read.
I've also been to a presentation Jack Sherman did at the Auburn Museum last March 30th on the 100th anniversary of Chester Gillette's electrocution. Mr. Sherman is quite knowledgeable
on the Chester Gillette, Grace Brown tragedy and painted a pretty in depth picture of Chester's personality after obtaining his letters he wrote while her was incarcerated all those months in the Auburn State Prison.
I've been to Grace's Farm in South Otselic and have visited her grave.
The story of the tragedy of the Grace Brown and Chester Gillette is a great story and I highly recommend it as its part of our history here in Central New York.

Boom Town

It was a Boom town round here
When Gillette stepped of that train
Canals flowing hops growing
New towns being raised
There were fortunes to be made
He was a well dressed one man show
A tale spinner a heart winner
With a lusty ego
It was a boom town around here
How I wished I was there
It was a rocking Boom town around here

Smitten with a girl named Grace
Working in a petticoat factory
A simple pearl poor country girl
Gillette promised to marry
She bid her home farewell
Unwed in a way
They traveled forth on a train heading north
In Utica they spent a day
No wayward homes to stay
With trouble on the way
It was a shocking gloom town for Grace

Awww Gillette what were you thinking
Her family would of loved and stood by you
In the darkest moment while she was sinking
Still you thought you’d get to live your whole life through.

He knew she couldn’t swim
When Gillette rented up a skiff
With a camera and a suitcase and a tennis racket tied to it
His last independence day
When they found him light in load
Hiking Black Bear Mountain
A little further down the road
And from a water lily grave
Grace was pulled from Big Moose Lake
There was a rocking murder trial on the way

In a parlor Grace did rest
Gillette got the chair
On a theatrical train at the height of his fame
He was smug with out a care
Headlines a blaze
With his face on every news page
A thousand in all flies on a wall
Poured out in a public rage
Yelling Gillette You should hang
Gillette You should hang
Yelling Chester Gillette
You should hang

Awww Gillette What were you thinking
Your family loved and stood by you
In the darkest moment while she was sinking
Still you thought you’d get to live your whole life through

It was a Boom Town around here
In an Auburn prison cell
Reading and writing while your momma’s out fighting
To save you from sure hell
From his diary I do quote,
“Someday the silver chord will break
And perhaps some taps when I go". Oh for heaven’s sake!
And in the Hotel Glenmore
Grace’s bonnet hangs forlorn
For Grace Billy Brown shall weep no more

It was a Boom town around here
When Gillette went to his grave
A humbled and a thankful man in jesus he was saved
Did he strike the final blow
Only Father Mac would ever know
And he watched him die with a tear in his eye
There was nothing left to do
Cause it was a Boom Town Around here
It was a Boom Town around here
It was a rocking Boom town around here
It was a rocking Boom Town around here
It was a rocking Boom Town around here