| STAGE DRIVING |
| Many of the old time Stage Drivers and Guards sang songs to pass the time away while on the road. The song below is one that had been composed by Frank Churchill who had driven the Stage out of Park Rapids, Minnesota. He was a brother of Mary Elizabeth Ottarson whose son Frank Ray Ottarson and William Lewis Kimball had both driven this same Stage. |
In the fall of �93 There's an idea came to me That I'd like to see more of this creation, So, regardless of the weather I put on my patent leather And I hied me to the Indian Reservation, Then, with my bottom dollar, I bought a standing collar, So the people wouldn't know how poor I am, And, as sure as I'm a sinner, Before I'd eaten dinner, I'd a job of driving stage for Uncle Sam. ( Chorus I ) We're up and away, Before the light of day O'er the longest fifty miles in creation. With a whale bone in my hand, Ceasar, how we pound the sand, From the Rapids to the Indian Reservation. Monday morning just at nine, we are ten miles down the line. Three miles past the Henrietta Station. And it's four more they say To the town of Ojibway. And it's fourteen more to where we get our rations. There's a twenty-eight mile drive, And still we're all alive. And I needn't say we're ready for our dinner So we'll fill us up on fish Or of venison if you wish So for stopping we are not a bit the thinner. ( Chorus II ) We're up and away, It's fifty miles a day O'er the rockiest road in creation We'll beat Nancy Hanks or bust, Holy Moses, what a dust, From the Rapids to the Indian Reservation. Then it's five miles down the track To the town of Hackensack Were the Landlady's forty, fat and fair. She has pretty daughters three And they're slick as they can be, So my feet are always cold when I get there. They can dance and they can sing. Oh, they make the welcome ring, They can bake the ginger cakes to beat the nation, But we mustn't waste our time, We must be out on the line. For it's fifteen miles from here to the Reservation. When we reach the lake shore, It is six o'clock or more. So we take a lot of bundles on our backs And distribute them around To the people in the town. While we take their orders for another pack, Here's a plug of Piper Heidzick We got for Nebertigesac Here's a sack of flour from the roller mills. Beads and laces for the ladies, Parygoric for the babies, Butter, gambo, fiddle strings and pills. ( Chorus I ) We're up and away, Before the light of day O'er the longest fifty miles in creation. With a whale bone in my hand, Ceasar, how we pound the sand, From the Rapids to the Indian Reservation Here comes a sumptious Red With something in his head, So it's get your little book and write it down. It's tobacco, soap and tea, And a jug of Jubilee That he wishes you to bring to him from town. And it's nothing more than right, His tobacco fills your pipe,' And half that's in the jug for tote you take You are fifty cents ahead And it's better for the Red If you fill his jug with water from the lake. ( Chorus I ) We're up and away, Before the light of day O'er the longest fifty miles in creation. With a whale bone in my hand, Ceasar, how we pound the sand, From the Rapids to the Indian Reservation. |
| Stage Driving from The Rapids to the Indian Reservation |
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