How the West Was Won

When he emigrated to North Dakota
Daddy came to help fill needed quota
Of young, strong men of honest worth
For untamed land at its new birth.

He met my mother, strong as he,
Raised seven kids including me.
He broke wild mustangs to the halter
And from cold or heat would never falter.

The settlers in this brand new land
Weren’t looking for the wild cow-hand,
The drifter who’d collect his pay,
Then casually be on his way.

Some would then join an outlaw band,
Before the law came to the land. 
Though their kind earned infamous glory,
Men like my dad were the real story.

North Dakota had only been a state,
Ten years when Daddy tested fate.
He left Eastern standards and aesthetics,
Armed only with his strong work ethics.

He and his kind would build the schools,
And churches and towns and follow rules.
It took big men to build the west.
I claim my dad one of the best.

He homesteaded in nineteen hundred one
And that is how the west was won.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2013

Poem

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Idudje Avatar
May 14, 2020 at 1:50 AM
Interesting Sublime Congrat On your First win
Marcum Wong Avatar
May 14, 2020 at 1:44 AM
I loved this Joyce! Congratulations on your much deserved First Placement! You have given us a real taste of the West as your family lived it! A Fave for me! xxoo
A   Avatar
January 13, 2016 at 12:59 AM
Joyce, Congratulations on your win. Luv ~LINDA~
Lamoureux Avatar
January 10, 2016 at 10:45 AM
What a great piece of history you have shared with us. Congrats, your dad was quite the fellow.
Manassian Avatar
January 9, 2016 at 2:51 PM
Thank you for sharing the story of your dad, Joyce. :) It's so good to know individual stories of how the west was won. Congrats on your win.
Lamoureux Avatar
January 10, 2016 at 10:46 AM
Hi Eileen, I see you are also reading dad poems.
A  Avatar
January 6, 2016 at 12:00 PM
Joyce, Congratulations on your win, in Judy Konos Dad contest. Love **SKAT**
Tunick Avatar
January 6, 2016 at 5:06 AM
What a great story! I envy your dad.
Konos Avatar
January 5, 2016 at 3:51 PM
Thank you for being in my contest. I found your tribute to your dad to not only be filled with love and admiration but to be a complete story as told by his daughter..thank you
Zerbst Avatar
April 2, 2013 at 9:37 AM
Nice to read about your daddy today. He must have had a hard but interesting life. He sounds like a nice man; I almost feel as if I just met him.
Roberts Avatar
March 13, 2013 at 7:02 PM
Congrats on a brilliant poem....Seren
Bauer Avatar
March 13, 2013 at 4:18 PM
a wonderful and thoroughly delightful tribute to your father. the rhyme and rhythm are spot on!
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