Posted by Morbidia on March 30, 1999 at 14:58:31:
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely
coincidental. Do not try to emulate the actions in this story at home. The
authors reserve all rights.
Anne Coldfield was a rancher's wife. She found out that her husband was
cheating on her. In a jealous rage, she kills her husband and his
lover. Now she is slated to be the guest of honor at A Hanging in
Deadwood.
A HANGING IN DEADWOOD - By Morbidia. Epilogue by Barbanne.
Prologue.
SANTA FE TIMES.
HORIZON CITY DOUBLE-DUTCH JUMP ROPE TEAM WINS STATE CHAMPIONSIP
A team of 12-year-old girls from Horizon City won the State Annual
Double-Dutch Jump Rope Contest with a dazzling display of footwork and
rhythm. With this victory, they broke the five-year winning streak of the
team from the town of Gorman. Each girl on the winning team receives a $50
gift certificate to CorMart and a $250 scholarship if she goes to the
State University.
One of the mothers on the losing team demanded that the winners be dis-
qualified because she said that the rhyme that they were using during
their routine promoted violence against women. One of the mothers of the
winning team retorted that the rhyme was a folk song handed down from
mother to daughter for over a century in Horizon City and that it marked
a historical event. The rhyme is given below:
Old Annie Coldfield what have you done?
You've kilt your husband and now been hung.
With a noose around your neck and a cord around your knees,
you're swinging from the gallows in the Deadwood breeze.
A call to the Horizon City Historical Society confirmed that the rhyme had
been around for a long time and that inquiries about its origins had been
made from time to time. While they have no doubt that it records some event,
they did note that there is no grave for an Anne or Annie Coldfield in the
old cemetery at Horizon. There is, however, a grave with a stone marker on
it on which has been carved: Jacob Coldfield, Died 1871. Jake, you shouldn't
have done it. Barbanne - 1918. It is not known whether the Barbanne who had
the stone placed was a relative of the mysterious Annie Coldfield.
Because of the historical nature of the rhyme, the objection was overruled
and the prizes awarded as judged.
The mother of another girl on the Horizon City team was heard to comment
that she had wondered ever since her own childhood who Annie Coldfield had
been and what her real story was. This reporter tried to look in the oldest
files of the Santa Fe Times to see if there were any references, but any
records of that time were destroyed in a fire that consumed the paper's first
offices back in 1924.
The last line of the rhyme is thought to refer to the now long-deserted town
of Deadwood that dried up with the end of the cattle drives in the area. If
this event took place in Deadwood, only the foundation stones of the jail,
saloon, and the bank - or poor Annie's spirit - are left to tell the tale.