Our Foreigners - A Chronicle of Americans in the Making by Samuel P. Orth
page 28 of 224 (12%)
page 28 of 224 (12%)
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So shall the nation's pioneer go joyful on his way,
To wed Penobscot water to San Francisco Bay. The mighty West shall bless the East, and sea shall answer sea, And mountain unto mountain call, praise God, for we are free! Again a popular chorus of the pathfinder rang: Then o'er the hills in legions, boys; Fair freedom's star Points to the sunset regions, boys, Ha, Ha, Ha-ha! Many a New Englander cleared a farm in western New York, Ohio, or Indiana, before settling finally in Wisconsin, Iowa, or Minnesota, whence he sent his sons on to Dakota, Montana, Oregon, and California. From Tennessee and Kentucky large numbers moved into southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and across the river into Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Abraham Lincoln's father was one of these pioneers and tried his luck in various localities in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Nor had the movement ceased after a century of continental exploitation. Hamlin Garland in his notable autobiography, _A Son of the Middle Border_, brings down to our own day the evidence of this native American restiveness. His parents came of New England extraction, but settled in Wisconsin. His father, after his return from the Civil War, moved to Iowa, where he was scarcely ensconced before an opportunity came to sell his place. The family then pushed out farther upon the Iowa prairie, where they "broke" a farm from the primeval turf. Again, in his ripe age, the father found the urge |
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