“Born in Oregon…Covered Wagon to Michigan”
by Kyle Haswell
Rochester Hills, MI
This poem was written in 1960 by my father’s only sister who helped as midwife when he was born in Oregon. He lived there only until he was 5 yrs old and then the family came to Michigan on a covered wagon in 1910 or so. He never made it back there, but I am meeting so many wonderful people from there from blogging and when I realized it was Oregon’s birthday, I wanted to share this with everyone:
“Family History 1905″
We had wandered far–the brood of us
and were tired to the very bones
The day had been long
and the mountain trail rough
When we came ot the ranch of Jones.
The lusty Umpqua chaffed at its banks
and the fall winds made us shiver
as we saw, setting snug ‘neath a
wide-spreading oak
a shack at the curve of the river.
A two-room shack, that was squat and gray
but to us it seemed cozy and warm
as it welcomed us in and tucked us away
like a hen does her chicks in a storm
Then, in the sign of Capricorn,
on a dark and stormy morning
a blue-eyed laddie
joined the tribe
he was ours–by right of “borning”.
Like the fir trees on the mountain side
this lad grew straight and tall
he was “full of hell” plumb to his ears
and could “out-fox” us all.
His soul, like the lusty Umpqua
Is resentful of each restraint
a man’s man–a clver hunter
can’t be bothered to be what he ain’t.
***
written by Dorothy Lea Haswell to honor her brother’s birth on 12-28-05, my father Dana Meredith Haswell, Sr. Hard to say where it was but his birth certificate said Wilbur.
