North Dakota Is The Best

North Dakota Is The Best

(By J.E. Backman)

Come here and listen to this, my friend
And listen to it from beginning to end.
I was born in Europe's northern part
And from there I thought never to depart.

In the year of eighteen sixty-nine,
I emigrate'to the United States to find
A piece of land to make a home
Where I could live till I was old.

In the eastern hills I settled down
And there I worked my field and ground
I worked and worked, like a nigger all day.
I grubbed the trees and stumps away.

And when that work once was done,
And when the harvest came it wasn't too fun
To go in the hills and bind the wheat,
The chink bugs had ate so it was white as a sheet.

Of the country I got tired at last,
So one fair day I started for the west,
With but few dollars and some cent,
To the county of Burleigh went.

There in the county's northern part,
With my farming business I did start
No. 1 hard I raised evry year;
That is the place to live in, my dear.

Bismarck Daily Tribune, 1/8/1890