Rock of ages cleft for me Now that could be the
voice of John F Morgan in the Ripley jailhouse
singin' hymns Well ol' Johnny might just be
singin' hymn this mornin' Cause this is gonna be a
hangin' day for him Now people say that Johnny was
a bad man and that he had a name for bein' mean He
took a hatchet one cold dreary morning he killed
two children and the widow Greene Five thousand
people gathered there in Ripley invited by the
sheriff J.O. Shinn Havin' fun and drinking
moonshine liquor and listenin' to ol' Johnny
singin' hymns The day dawned cold in Ripley West
Virginia the scaffold stood in silence in a field
Johnny kept on singin' in the jailhouse waiting
there to eat his final meal Then the rumor started
flying through the gathering That John F Morgan
might get his reprieve The people started yelling
Find more similar lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.com/UvRfor the sheriff Afraid they'd miss what all they'd
come to see But J. O. Shinn the sheriff of Jackson
County Afraid that such a thing could have been
done Said I said there was gonna be a hangin' and
I still mean it there's a gonna be one They led
John Morgan from the Ripley jailhouse And he rode
through that happy laughin' crowd But when John
Morgan stepped upon the scaffold They grew quiet
when he tip his hat and bowed They listened to the
preacher say the last words They fixed the noose
and tied John Morgan's hands The signal came and
someone sprang the death trap that sent John
Morgan to another land It was The last public hanging in
all West Virginia there's a true story written in this
song On the sixteen of December in eighteen ninety
seven John F Morgan paid the price for doing wrong