Mike Tuggle, male, 60s
poet and painter
American, born in Oklahoma
Nov 30, 2001
Cazadero CA (residence)
JOSEPHUS & BOHUNKUS
(Sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne)
There was a father had two sons
and these two sons were brothers.
Josephus was the name of one,
Bohunkus was the other.
Now these two boys to college went
for reasons quite specific.
Josephus was religious bent
Bohunkus, scientific.
Now these two boys are dead and gone.
Long may their ashes rest.
Josephus of the cholera died.
Bohunkus, by request.
I first heard Mike Tuggle sing this song to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, at a poetry reading he was giving in 1980, in Sonoma County, Ca. Since then, I have heard him sing it at dozens of readings; it’s become somewhat of a trademark of his. And though I’ve sung the song to many others over the years, no one else seems to have heard of it, nor is it in any of my songbooks including my Irwin Silber Songbook, and my Alan Lomax folk song collections.
Mike said that his father taught it to him when they lived in Oklahoma, and that it was passed down through the family. Mike is Irish-American and Cherokee descent. He thinks it’s a folk history of sorts, modeled after a real event. I agree. I think there was also a middle verse with mules too.
I like to sing the song, because there’s more of it than first meets the eye. Even though it has a biting, moral tone, it offers an interesting world view. Given that the song is at least 75 to 100 years old, it refers back to an earlier era, perhaps the early 1800s, and the idea of both brothers going to college would have seemed unusual (and expensive) for midwesterners. (It turns up as a college song in at least two midwestern colleges).
It doesn’t strike me as a particularly eastern song, it seems to fit within the cowboy lament genre, even though one brother is a scientist and the other, a preacher/scholar. And the fact that they’re cremated seems a bit fantastic. Most songs—laments of the funereal genre, like The Streets of Loredo—tend to have coffins and graves in them. I like the irony of the last stanza, whether they were good or bad, they both still died in the end.
NB (7/2104): With a little sleuthing (the internet 13 years later is fantastic: this piece was collected and researched in the pre -Google era!) I later found variants of the ditty in several collections, but Mike's version, handed down to him by his father in the early 1940s, is older, by far—which makes his verified collection date from around 1915, and if it was handed down in the family from his grandfather (25 years = a generation), that dates the song back to the 1890s, easy.
Cholera arrived to America in the early 1900s via the port of New York City; arriving in 1849 with the Irish coffin ships. President Polk died of cholera in 1849. The thing that gets to me is that the bodies were burned. Not a normal practice—unless there was an outbreak of cholera or the plague. Cremation became popular in the late 1850s after major cholera epidemics. There was another major cholera outbreak in 1890.
Josephus and Bohunkus are definitely not Irish names. Josephus is Biblical while Boohunkus sounds like secular slang—like Hunkie. So how did these tow polar opposites meet up? Sacred and profane?
Mudcat also has early references to the Grimes version dating back to the 1920s. Last entry at bottom of page has this: Roud #764, Albert G. Greene, said to be the author of the ballad of " Old Grimes," in the 1822, a fugitive poem circulating in the oral tradition that went rogue when it met up with Bohunkus. Reference: Brown III 321, "Josephus and Bohunkus" (2 texts plus a fragment). Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 83-84, "Bohunkus" (1 text). Recorded by Ernest V. Stoneman, "Josephus and Bohunkus" (Victor, unissued, 1927).
In the oldest documented version I could find online, at Missouri State Ozark Folksong Collection, both verses are there but Josephus and Bohunkus have swapped places. But Josephus is a Biblical name…he's the good guy. Cain & Abel.
Collected by Parler Dick Upton, West Memphis, Ark. Mark Williamson, Little Rock; Lem McCrary, Lonoke, Ark. Phillip Purifoy, Texarkana, Ark.
January 14, 1960, Reel 356, Item 5
Bohunkus
There was a farmer had two sons,
And these two sons were brothers,
Bohunkus was the name of one, (swapped lines)
Josephus was the others.
Now these two boys had suits of clothes
And they were made for Sunday,
Bohunkus wore his every day,
Josephus his on Monday.
Now these two boys to the theater went
Whenever they saw fit,
Bohunkus in the gallery sat,
Josephus in the pit.
Now these two boys are dead and gone,
Long may their ashes rest.
Bohunkus of the cholera died, (swapped lines)
Josephus by request.
Now these two boys their story told,
And they did tell it well,
Bohunkus he to heaven went,
Josephus he to_____.
But only the first stanza is similar.
VERSE 1
There was a man, he had two boys (sons)
An' these two boys were brothers
Josephus, was th name of one
Bohunkus was the other
Cat. #0658 (MFH #332) - As sung by Reba Dearmore, Mountain Home, Arkansas on January 7, 1969
Ironically a similar second stanza was collected in Santa Rosa.
VERSE 6 (Grimes' two sons)
Now these two boys are dead an' gone
They now are laid to rest (Long may their ashes rest)
Bosephus died for want of bread (Bo-Josephus of the cholera died)
Bohunkus by request
Bohunkus by request
Cat. #1474 (MFH #332) - As sung by Bill Ping, Santa Rosa, California on September 20, 1972
Apparently, a variant sendup of it is also the song of Ohio State University.
Mudcat: From Yale Songs, compiled and edited by Frank B. Kellogg* and Thomas G. Shepard (New Haven, Conn.: Shepard & Kellogg, 1882), page 43:
BOHUNKUS
1. There was a farmer had two sons,
And these two sons were brothers.
Bohunkus was the name of one.
Josephus was the other's.
2. Now, these two boys had suits of clothes,
And they were made for Sunday.
Bohunkus wore his every day;
Josephus his on Monday.
3. Now, these two boys to the theatre went,
Whenever they saw fit.
Bohunkus in the gallery sat;
Josephus in the pit.
4. Now, these two boys are dead and gone.
Long may their ashes rest!
Bohunkus of the cholera died;
Josephus, by request.
5. Now, these two boys their story told,
And they did tell it well.
Bohunkus, he to heaven went;
Josephus he to—Sing-sing. (was opened in 1826)
More Mudcat parodies here. Roud Index lists a dozen entries (No.6360), all from the USA or Canada, with titles like Josephus and Bohunkus, Bohunkus, Old Grimes is Dead.
So I'm sticking with my 1849 cholera epidemic theory. Who was Bohunkus, anyway? A parallel song to Old Grimes. Fodder for another day.
UC Berkeley Folklore Collections
Kroeber Hall, Dr. Alan Dundes
- Mike Tuggle on By Request
- Note, this is filed in 2001, but I didn’t finish it until 2014, but it made more sense to file it with the other folklore.
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