The Mothers of Kansas - A poem by Ed Blair

The Mothers of Kansas.

A song of the mothers of Kansas
Who came with the first pioneers,
Who lived in the tent covered wagons,
Whose lot oft was hardships and tears,
Who worked with the fever burned temples
For others they saw in distress,
Who never would give up their homesteads
Nor any misgivings confess.

A toast to the queens of the cabins
The wives of our bold pioneers
Who kept the light burning for lov'd ones
Whose absence was mingled with fears,
Who pressed to their bosoms the children
And bade them put terror to flight
While the wolves' dismal, howl from the
prairie
Pierced the dark deathly stillness of night.

A song of the queens of the prairie
Whose cabins were never too small,
Who welcomed the way-faring strangers,
Who always found shelter for all,
Who made each a guest tho' a stranger,
Without thinking once of the pay,
And sent them away on the morrow
Regretting so short was their stay.

A song of the mothers of Kansas
Who cared for the trees by the door
And tenderly nurtured the flowers
Ere the day's weary labor was o'er.
Whose labor gave shade to the prairies
Wherever the dwellings now stand,
A boon to the homes of the present
Wrought out by her generous hand.

Oh, mothers who toil'd for the homestead
When famine and fever prevailed,
Oh, mothers who stayed when the war's
blast,
Was high; when the stronger hearts quailed.
Their names shall he ]inked with the heroes
Of Mine Creek and Marais des Cygnes,
Whose glorious page in the annals
Of Kansas, time never will screen.

^__Ed Blair.