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A hanging causes quite a stir.
"Surely they won't hang her.
She is only a young girl.
I have never heard of such a thing
In the whole world."
"What I would gauge
Is that she is only about nineteen years of age."
Frankie, married at age sixteen,
To Charlie Silver, she was a queen.
But something went terribly wrong,
And she no longer was the subject of his song.
Rumor was he two-timed his wife.
Such action is likely to cause strife.
They say she killed Charlie because of jealousy,
But many say this is only a fantasy--
That he was true to her to the end
And was not guilty of sexual sin.
To kill him with an axe, would Frankie have nerve?
Would she claim he got what he deserved?
Or could it have been just an accident.
Maybe revenge was not what she meant.
She could have raised the axe in self-defense.
That would make more sense.
Under the axe he could have stumbled
And that is what caused all the rumble.
But could little Frankie handle a man so strong?
Could she do her loving husband so wrong?
They had not been married long.
She had no history of violence.
Nor was her life one of discontent.
She worked very fast at the loom
Making clothes while she whistled a tune.
She was welcomed by her neighbors
And helping them make quilts was one of her labors
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Is it possible
that she did not kill at all?
And her big brother, Blackstone, caused Charlie's downfall?
Or maybe by his family the body was never found.
Could his grave be now only a mound
Made by a friendly Indian where he fell in the snow
Up in the wilds where people seldom go?
Folks say up in the village
of Kona lie Charlie's
bones
In three separate graves with three rough head stones.
People say the body of Frankie lies
In one single grave, one would surmise,
Near Buckhorn Tavern where travelers stopped to drink a toddy,
And get rest for their body.
The Tavern no longer exists,
But I will show the grave to anyone who insists.
In front of her grave is a descriptive headstone
Placed there by Miss Cobb, who is said her death to moan.
For the courts to judge one of any age before the facts are in
Seems to me to be a very gross sin.
All the pieces missing in this story
Are known only by the King of Glory.
Someday we all shall know.
The many pieces the Lord will show.
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