LYR. ADD: GOVERNMENT CLAIM (GOVERMENT CLAMES)
Attrib. Frank Baker, c. 1889

"Frank baker is my name and a bachler I am
Ime keeping old bach just like a man
Youl find me out west in the county of ford
A starving to death on a goverment clame
Hurah for ford county tis the land of the free
The home of the bedbug grasshopper and flee
Ile sing loud its prases and tell of its fame
While starving to death on my goverment clame

My clothes they are ragged my language is ruf
My bread is case hardened both solid and tuf
The do it is scaterd all over the room
The floor it get scared at the site of a broom
Then come to ford county there is a home for you all
Where wind never ceases and the rain never falls
Where the sun never sinks but always remains
Till it cooks you all up on your goverment clames

My house it is built of the natheril soil
The walls are erected according to hoil
The roof has no pitch tis level and plain
I always get wet when it hapens to rain
There is nothing that makes a man more hard and profane
The dishes are scattered all over the bed
They are covered with sorgum potatoes and greas
How happy I feel when I crol into bed

When the rattlesnakes rattle a tune at my head
And the gay little bedbug so cheerful and bright
Thay keep me a lafing to thirds of the night
And the gay little flee with sharp tax in his toes
Play rattle logketchem all over my nose
Hurah for ford county hurah for the west
Where the farmers and lofers are ever at rest
Fore there is nothing to do but s(w)eetly remain
And starve like a man on a goverment clame

How happy I feel on my goverment clame
Ive nothing to loze and nothing (to) gain
Ive nothing to eat ive nothing to wear
And nothing from nothing is honest and fair
O its here I am and here I will stay
My money all gone and I cant get away
There is nothing that makes a man more hard and profane
Than a starving to death on a goverment clame

Hurah for ford county where blizerds arize
Where the wind is never clenched and the fall never dies
Then come join its cores and tell of its fame
You poor hungry men that stuc on a clame
Good by you clame holders I wish you all well
Just stic to your clames and ride them to bad (hell)
But as for myself ile no longer remain
And starve like a man on a goverment clame

Farewell to ford co farewell to the west
Ile travel bac east to the girl I love best
Ile stop in Mosoura and get me a wife
And live on corn dodgers the rest of my life"

(I have separated the lines into stanzas and put caps on the first word in each line to make reading easier.)

Notes by Myra Hull with song: "I have obtained from George A. Root of the Kansas State Historical Society a copy of a poem which is either a parody or a forerunner of "Starving to Death on a Government Claim' (Pound, op. cit., p. 178).
Of this production Mr Root says: "This was sent in as a contribution to the North Topeka Mail, about the year 1889, but was never used. My father, the late Frank A. Root, together with my brother and me, was engaged in the publication of the Mail. The poem struck me as full of humor and homely philosophy, and I rescued it and stowed it away, intending to print it if I could find any excuse for doing so." (The Mail rarely published verse of any sort.)
This curiosity is here printed for the first time and in exactly the form that it was submitted, almost fifty years ago."

"Cowboy Ballads," by Myra Hull, Kansas State Historical Society Quarterly, February, 1939.
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1939/39_1_hull.htm

This seems to be the earliest verified copy of this well-known poem about a government claim.

In 21 Mar 00, Jim Krause submitted a note to mudcat, "Subject: Lane County Bachelor From: Dennis Bosley/ Topeka Kansas." Joe Offer reprinted the post in thread 19494, History of Songs. History of Songs

"Frank Baker is the correct name (commenting on the version in the DT), not Frank Bolar. I used to farm in Lane County, Kansas, 10 miles, as the crow flies, from Frank Baker's homestead." The letter states that Frank Baker wrote the song in the 1880's. The record of his filing is preserved.

A version of the poem appeared as "Greer County" in J. A. Lomax, 1910 (1925), "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads," The Macmillan Co., pp. 278-279.

I will post this later today.