NEW  ZEALAND
FO LK * SONG

The Ballad of Minnie Dean
Helen Henderson 1999
and Doug Hamblin

Song List - Home
Minnie Dean was a Southland baby-farmer, hanged in 1895 for killing a baby.

 
       C                         D            G 
Chorus Minnie Dean, Minnie Dean, she's gonna ge'cha
                                         D 
      And take you away on the afternoon train. 
                C                        D            G
      Oh, you'd better be good or Minnie Dean's gonna ge'cha
           C             G       D        G 
      And you'll never, ever be heard of again. 

   G  
1. She dressed in black and she carried a hat
                                              D 
   in a hat box when early to the station she came.
       C          G             C             G 
   But on her way back, she'd always wear the hat 
        C          G              D          G 
   Invercargill to Winton, on the 5 o'clock train. 

 Chorus        
          
   G 
2. She was so sweet and gracious to the girls and the ladies 
                                             D 
   A home for their babies she said she'd provide.
          C           G           C            G 
   It was all done in private and money was provided 
          C                G               D          G
   As she wrapped up their little ones and took them away.  

Chorus
    
        D                     C 
Bridge. Here lie the children nobody wanted 
          D                         C           D 
   Minnie died for her sins and the people they cried 
        C                             G 
   They cried for themselves and they cried for their children 
                                 D             G 
   They cried for Minnie and for closing their eyes.

   
Instrumental followed by Chorus 

   G 
3. She dressed in black and she carried a hat
                                               D 
   in a hat box when early to the courthouse she came. 
         C            G            C        G 
   "I'm innocent" she cried, "They just disappeared" 
             C                    G         D           G  
    But they hanged her from the gallows until she was dead 
     
Chorus (x2) Repeat the last line of the final chorus, slower; 

             . . . No, you'll never be heard of again.

Sound and Video

Here is a link to the full length, high fidelity 4700 k MP3 on Helen Henderson's website.

It can take 15 minutes to download that if you have a slow connection, so I have made a couple of small-sized low-fi clips from it. You can learn the tune easily with these.
Ist verse and chorus, 158 k MP3.
Bridge and instrumental, 160 k MP3.

Rose Bauer has made an excellent video of this song. My thanks to Helen Henderson for permission to put it on Youtube.

As well as the You Tube version, you can link to high quality on-line versions of the video here.

Helen Henderson

Helen was brought up in Invercargill. "Minnie was like the bogeyman of our town when I was a kid," she says. "If you were giving cheek to your mum or being naughty it was like 'You better watch or I'll send you off to Minnie Dean's farm and you'll never be heard of again.'

Helen in a scene from the Bauer video
Helen grew up in a family that loved classical music. She was a dedicated member of the school choir and avid rock'n'roll fan. She left Invercargill in the late '70s to embark on the typical Kiwi OE.

After working for a theatre company in London, she embarked on a singing career, initially fronting covers bands. "I went on tour in Europe singing with a couple of bands. It took me about two tours to realise 'I don't want to do this' so I went back to London, borrowed some money off my mum and dad, and made a demo." She recorded The Sonora Sessions, a 5 track EP which included The Ballad of Minnie Dean.

Her original songs got her work with Ensign Records in London, and then Geffen Records in Los Angeles. She has been in LA ever since, living on advances by the publishing company. "The idea is that your songs will be recorded by other artists," says Helen, "Accruing you royalties. If a big name act picks up your song, you will of course make more money." Condensed from Jennifer Scott's article in The New Zealand Musician, Feb 2001.

Read more about Helen and her songs at her website. She has recently (2003) written two new NZ-inspired songs, Manukau, and Whale.

Minnie Dean

Illegitimate babies

New Zealand's adoption laws came into being in the later 19th century during the Victorian period. The Victorian mindset was that children were parental possessions, and that birthmothers of bastards should be punished.

Humiliation of unmarried mothers

Before 1900 illegitimacy was seen as a major threat to public morality. It was unthinkable for Charitable Aid Boards to assist unmarried mothers to keep their babies. Many children ended up in orphanages or industrial schools, others died. The 1907 death rate of illegitimate children was 2.5 times higher than legitimate children. Unmarried mothers faced humiliation in 'Homes for Fallen Women'.

Baby farming 1880-1920

This provided quick, confidential disposal of illegitimate children, and hid family shame. For a down payment the baby was taken off their hands with no questions asked and adopted out. The sooner a baby farmer got rid of the child, the greater the profit. Some infants suffered an early demise. Taken from Keith Griffith's article, The History of Adoption in NZ.

A young Scottish widow

Minnie Dean was born Williamina McCulloch in 1844, at West Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland. She was the fourth in a family of eight girls of Elizabeth Swan and her husband, John McCulloch, an engine driver. She appeared in Invercargill in 1868 as Mrs McCulloch, a widow with two small daughters.

She married Charles Dean in 1872, and lived with him on a small farm at Winton, 19 miles north of Invercargill by railway. Minnie set up a baby-farming business, accepting children for adoption in return for payments of £20 or £30. ($4000 to $6000 in NZ today)

Her nefarious activities were revealed in 1895 when an alert railway guard noticed her get onto the Lumsden train with a baby and a hatbox, but get off with only the hatbox. He alerted the police who found railway workers who had carried the box onto the train - when it was light - and from off the train - by which time it was heavy.

Police enquiries

Police enquiries led to a Mrs Hornsby who resided in Dunedin. She told police she had handed over her one-month-old grand-daughter with money to Minnie Dean at Milburn, four miles north of Milton.

Police brought Mrs Hornsby to Dean's residence. There she recognised not only Dean but a piece of baby's clothing belonging to her grand-daughter.

Police searched a recently-dug flowerbed and found two babies' bodies buried, (where the wooden cross is in this contemporary photo.) The search continued and another baby's body was found (where the police are sieving dirt). Dean was charged with the murder of two infants.

Even though Dean was identified by Mrs Hornsby as the woman she gave her grand-daughter to, she denied it, but finally admitted it under duress and with the evidence of the clothes.

Trial and execution

During the trial, miniature hatboxes with baby dolls in them were sold outside the courthouse. (photo)

The verdict was guilty of murder of one baby, although she had probably accounted for over 20 children in this way. The sentence - death by hanging. She is the only woman in New Zealand ever to be hanged by the law.

She was a woman of contradictions. According to folklore, she had killed the other babies with hat pins and had thrown their bodies into streams. But she was also capable of demonstrating warmth and affection to her wards. Letters she wrote to women with children for adoption are charged with religious and benevolent concern.

Most assume that Minnie Dean was both insane and money-fixated. Her unmarked grave is in the cemetery just north of Winton. It is said that nothing will grow on her grave. Condensed from Minnie Dean in Crime.co.nz

Biographies of Minnie Dean

Lynley Hood, Minnie Dean: Her Life & Crimes, Penguin, Auckland, 1994

Minnie Dean's business of caring for illegitimate babies was an unwelcome reminder to righteous Victorians that their campaign for the suppression of fornication was a dismal failure.

Was she guilty as charged, or did the weight of public condemnation press heavily enough on the police, the judge and the juries involved to unbalance the scales of justice? Was the Winton baby farmer a mercenary cold-blooded killer? Or a scapegoat sacrificed at the altar of Victorian hypocrisy?

Lynley Hood's book leads the reader through the labyrinth of myths and legends to the real Minnie Dean and raises some disturbing questions. It is far from certain whether the real Minnie Dean deserves her terrible place in New Zealand's folklore.

The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

There is a shorter on-line biography of Minnie Dean, also by Lynley Hood, at the DNZB website.


The Ballad of Minnie Dean in the Media

Audio recording

Helen Henderson recorded The Ballad of Minnie Dean on The Sonora Sessions, a 5 track EP produced by her own label, Bad Minnie Productions, Los Angeles (2000)

Bauer Video

The song and its story appealed to filmmaker, Rose Bauer, who heard Helen play the song, and they have subsequently filmed a video on 35mm for it.

Greenstone Documentary

The song also featured on a Greenstone Pictures TV documentary about Minnie Dean, based on Lynley Hood's biography.

Run the Cutter

And another Minnie Dean ballad has been written by Marylyn Hayes and Brendon Fairbairn.
It is on the Passing time CD, Invercargill, N.Z. 2000, by New Zealand celtic folk music group Run the Cutter. - Run the cutter
- Six Mile Beach
- Ross's jig
- Minnie Dean
- General Grant (ship wrecked with gold on board)
- A glance at Tokanui (mental hospital)
- Delivering Hokonui
- Chunuk Bair (soldiers at Anzac)

The Ballad Writers' Toolbox

In Her Hat Box
The Ballad of Minnie Dean is an good example of the Lights, Camera, Action! method of writing a story-ballad (revise that method here).
Helen has constructed these verses like the story board of a short film.

She has started by getting straight into the action.
...with a series of "camera shots"- a vivid opening image (woman in black) - a panning shot (across to the station platform) - dialogue (She's goin'ta get you...) - a close-up (wrapping up the little one) - action (here lie the children) - the climax (in the courthouse).
She has jumped quickly from scene to scene...
describing two or three details so vividly that the audience feel they can really see everything. (The hatbox, the baby-buying, the demented defence in court)
She has used direct speech.
No need to identify the speaker. ("You'd better be good..." -obviously an Invercargill mother)
She has repeated the key scene containing the main action.
...but with a significant change in meaning.
Dressed in black - to the early morning station - and on her way back...
Dressed in black - to the early morning courthouse - and never comes back...
And she constructed this 'film storyboard' so vividly, that Rose Bauer did make a film of it!


Main Song List - Home

December 2001, published on web.
Nov 2003, up-dated and MP3 links added.
Aug 2006 font changed.