Patrick Russel

歌詞

My name is Patrick Russell, I've led a Christian life I speak of family history as it's transcribed by my wife I sit here in New Hampton, the year is nineteen ten Looking back from Iowa towards mother Ireland I was born in Templemore in eighteen twenty-five Recalled a happy boyhood until my mother died Starvation crept across the land, America's our dream Six cruel weeks on stormy seas aboard the ship Tyrene American primitive man In an American primitive land I washed my face in a frying pan American primitive man At last we docked in old Quebec, the English offered farming ground But we'd lived too long under English rule, to United States we're bound By train and then by cattle boat, ah, the filth down in that hold We landed in Milwaukee, trekked two hundred miles or more A sack of new potatoes was carried by each man Four spades for cultivation, we'd brought from Ireland We worked at splitting railroad ties, bought one old milking cow A quarter section uncleared land, two oxen and a plough At night we heard the wolves howl on our newly purchased farm And starving lads from the civil war took shelter in our barn The Larsens and the Cooneys, the Russells, the Molloys We tilled the soil of Iowa and grew a spate of girls and boys American primitive man In an American primitive land A whiskey still in an oatmeal can American primitive man I'm an American primitive man