Mountain Mother Goose: Child Lore of West Virginia

Mountain Mother Goose is a collection of jingles, jangles, rhymes, riddles, games, and lesson stories chanted and sung by children of Central Appalachia on the playground, recited in one room school settings, and echoed in backyards and churchyards throughout the small villages and farms that dotted the hills and valleys of West Virginia. Stretching from the early 20th century practically to its end, this collection of melodies traces the regional attitudes and traditions of American children at play over 100 years. Dr. Walter Barnes (1880-1969) was a nationally recognized leader of progressive education and an early president of The National Council of Teachers of English. As an administrator, professor, and linguist at the then Fairmont State Normal School, he was a keen preserver of the state’s oral literary heritage, helping to found the West Virginia Folklore Society (1915) which eventually evolved into the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center. He mentored Dr. Ruth Ann Musick (1897-1974) when she first came to Fairmont State in 1946, encouraging her to collect folklore and giving her many examples that he had heard from children in the rural schools around the state. Following his lead, she became the archivist for the West Virginia Folklore Society, longtime editor of West Virginia Folklore Journal, and a primary folktale scholar of Appalachia. Throughout her vast collecting experiences, she shared Dr. Barnes’s passion for child lore and continued to add her own examples of nonsense, counting out, and spelling out rhymes; riddles; and sayings, along with clever childhood games, songs, and magical lesson stories.