Forefathers

They came from Scandinavia, the land of midnight sun

And crossed the North Atlantic when this century was young

They'd heard that in America every man was free

To live the way he chose to live and be who he could be

Some of them were farmers there and tilled the frozen soil

But all they got was poverty for all their earnest toil

They say one was a sailor who sailed the wide world round

Made home port, got drunk one night, walked off the pier and drowned

My mother was of Scottish blood; it's there that she was born

They brought her to America in 1924

They left behind the highlands and the heather-covered hills

And came to find America with broad expectant dreams and iron wills

My granddad worked the steel mills of central Illinois

His daughter was his jewel; his son was just his boy

For thirty years he worked the mills and stoked the coke-fed fires

And looked toward the day when he'd at last turn 65 and could retire

And the sons become the fathers and their daughters will be wives

As the torch is passed from hand to hand

And we struggle through our lives

Though the generations wander, the lineage survives

And all of us, from dust to dust, we all become forefathers by and by

The woman and the man were wed just after the war

And they settled in this river town and three fine sons she bore

One became a lawyer and one fine pictures drew

And one became this lonely soul who sits here now

And sings this song to you

And the sons become the fathers and their daughters will be wives

As the torch is passed from hand to hand

And we struggle through our lives

Though the generations wander, the lineage survives

And all of us, from dust to dust, we all become forefathers by and by

By and By; By and By