[MHGinTN]

I am 70. When my grandfather on my mother's side was a boy, the family would hitch up a horse to a wagon and ride down to Jonesboro, TN on Saturdays for shopping and entertainment. The entertainment consisted of baked treats for sale and recitation shows. My grandfather memorized a long narrative Poem title ‘The Haunted Pond’, perhaps from James Whitcomb Riley -because it has similar rhyme scheme as found in the Mountain Whippoorwill- which features a Mill, a shady Mill pond, and a 'daddy Joe'.

As I recall from my childhood listening to PawPaw recite the poem, it starts, "As I was riding on my way, one July sultry day".

There were other long narrative poems which burbled up from PawPaw's memories, such as Darius Green and His Flyin' Machine', 'Little Orphan Annie', and 'Twenty Froggies', but I would like to find the correct version of The Haunted Pond.

[EternalVigilance]

Don’t know if this will help in your search, but here you go....

The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley: In Ten Volumes ..., Volume 7

https://books.google.com/books?id=R8VAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1755&lpg=PA1755&dq=the+haunted+pond+++James+Whitcomb+Riley&source=bl&ots=fvfPSN3nuc&sig=bqZK94Lo5swiEDdcj-mRQ2buq14&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-qrSjsZ_JAhUCz2MKHQM7AfsQ6AEIKTAC#v=onepage&q=the%20haunted%20pond%20%20%20James%20Whitcomb%20Riley&f=false

[Fightin Whitey]

Here is as close as I could come by way of a quick search.

The Loehrs And The Hammonds

Likely not what you are after...a haunted house is mentioned.

Good luck!