Old Grimes

the title of an old and well known song by the Honorable Albert G. Greene of Rhode Island. The first verse of the song was not written by Mr. Greene. Its authorship is unknown. In 1822 or 1823 Mr. Greene, then a young man, was attending a law school at Litchfield. A small barber shop in the town was kept by a fugitive slave from Virginia, who had taken the name of his former master, William Grimes. Mr. Greene was in the habit of turning off rhymes at short notice on any and every subject, and when the negro asked for some verses the young student took the old verse beginning, "Old Grimes is dead," and added thereto, humorously mingling praises of the old man's virtues with descriptions of his clothing. The song was published in a Providence newspaper in 1823.