THE PLAINS OF ILLINOIS

Come, all you good old farmers that on your plow depend,
Come listen to a story, come listen unto a trienel:
Leave your fields of childhood, you enterprising boys,
Come travel west and settle on the plains of Illinois.

Illinois it is as fine countree as ever has been seen;
If old Adam had traveled over that, perhaps he would say the same
"All in the garden of Eden, when I was but a boy,
There was nothing I could compare with the plains of Illinois."

Perhaps you have a few acres that near your friends adjoin;
Your family is growing large, for them you must provide:
Come, leave your fields of childhood, you enterprising boys,
Travel west and settle on the plains of Illinois.

From Folk Songs of the Catskills, Cazden Haufrecht and Studer
Collected from George Edwards
@American @pioneer @travel
filename[ PLAINILL
TUNE FILE: PLAINILL
CLICK TO PLAY
RG
mudcat.org
PLEASE NOTE: Because of the volunteer nature of The Digital Tradition, it is difficult to ensure proper attribution and copyright information for every song included. Please assume that any song which lists a composer is copyrighted ©. You MUST aquire proper license before using these songs for ANY commercial purpose. If you have any additional information or corrections to the credit or copyright information included, please e-mail those additions or corrections to us (along with the song title as indexed) so that we can update the database as soon as possible. Thank You.