This tune comes from Knauff's Virginia Reels, a collection of 40 some tunes, depending on which edition you have, collected from eastern Virginia fiddlers, arranged for pianoforte by George Knauff and published in 1939. Knauff first owned the Farmville Music and Fancy Store in the early 1830s wherein he sold all manner of instruments and sheet music. After a fire destroyed the home and store in 1836 Knauff built a pianoforte manufacturing shop and sold sheet music and other music related items. He also arranged a booklet of waltzes and another on cotillions. The business could not compete with other manufacturers and Knauff took a position teaching music at the Female Collegiate Institute in the next county. After 1847 he disappears from public record. (Jabbour: 122-123) A version of this tune has survived today as the fiddle tune “Tom and Jerry.” (Harrison)
