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Lyr Req: My Harding County Home (Glenn Ohrlin)

19 Mar 03 - 04:16 PM (#913806)
Subject: Lyr Req: Ohrlin Lyrics
From: GUEST,Harding county resident

Just happened to stumble onto this site while looking for lyrics to Glenn Ohrlin's "My Harding County Home". I am a college student, now living away from my Harding County home (the song's namesake and subject location) and a copy of the lyrics would mean a lot to me! Much thanks in advance!

19 Mar 03 - 04:36 PM (#913833)
Subject: ADD: My Harding County Home (Tex Fletcher)
From: Joe Offer

MY HARDING COUNTY HOME
(Tex Fletcher)

Not so many years ago I left old Buffalo,
The place that I have always loved the best.
Where the antelope they play, I'm yearning today
For my Harding County home out in the West.

I can see the mustang band grazing by the river Grand.
I see the range where white-faced cattle roam.
And the lights in Buffalo will guide me home, I know,
Guide me to my Harding County home.

As I wander down Broadway, my memory does stray
To the buttes that rise like mountains to the sky.
I can hear a coyote wail as he roams along the trail,
"Come back to your prairie home" is his cry.
Chorus:


Notes:
"My Harding County Home" is Tex Fletcher's song about the great ranching county in the northwest corner of South Dakota. Tex Fletcher landed in Buffalo, South Dakota, in the hungry thirties and remained to work on local ranches. He began a career as a movie cowboy and entertainer before World War II, based on his experiences in Harding County. During the war Tex was wounded in Italy and wrote this song while convalescing in a hospital there.
Harding County went through the era of huge cattle outfits on the free range, such as the E6, the Turkey Track, the Mill Iron, the CY, and others. When the big outfits began breaking up and cowboys started their own small outfits, it wasn't long till the homesteaders, or "Honyockers," came in droves. The trend was reversed in the early thirties; the farming is about over, and the entire county is mainly taken by family ranches. Some of the ranches go back to the earliest settlers, such as the Catron ranch at the little cow town of Camp Crook.
We got this song about Harding County from Dean Tarter, a young rancher from the Camp Crook area. We met Dean at a dance at Mill Iron, Montana, in June, 1968, and taped him the next day at his ranch home. There were ranch people from thirty miles in all directions at the Mill Iron dance. While Dean Tarter's ranch was in South Dakota, his summer range was just over the line in the Long Pine Hills of Montana. This whole area is unspoiled by tourist junk, and it is, in my estimation, as beautiful a country as you'd find. It is a rolling prairie country broken by numerous coulees and streams and badlands' breaks. The "buttes that rise like mountains to the sky" are another feature of the country. The main river in Harding County is the Grand, which eventually runs to the Missouri River just above Mobridge, South Dakota. The county seat of Harding County is Buffalo.

Source: The Hell-Bound Train (Glenn Ohrlin, 1989)

Is Tex Fletcher related to Curly?
-Joe Offer-

19 Mar 03 - 04:46 PM (#913847)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ohrlin Lyrics
From: GUEST,Dale

That is one that has slipped by me, never heard Glenn do it, though I know he does it. I don't know his Email, or even if he has one, but I will forward the request to someone who would know.

Oh, I just happened to think ~~ I bet that might be in his book. I have no time now, but will check and look back in this evening.

19 Mar 03 - 04:47 PM (#913851)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ohrlin Lyrics - My Harding County Hom
From: GUEST

No point in doing it now, is there? Joe is ON the ball!

19 Mar 03 - 06:01 PM (#913927)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ohrlin Lyrics - My Harding County Hom
From: GUEST,Dale

That unnamed guest was me, the named guest. Just wanted to add, after reading the section from Glenn's book that it has cleared up a life long mystery for me.   As a kid in Northern Illinois, a common term to call someone was a "honyock." We pretty much equated this with hayseed, and I'd say it was a bit on the derogatory side, but not extremely so, as it was probably used more on friends than on the not-so-friends. A later similar term was "cotton-picker", used when you might be just a bit exasperated with a friend.

Well, anyway, back to honyocks.   After going on to college and the life that followed, the term slipped out of usage, and finally nearly out of memory, only to be recalled again in the lyrics of a Chris Ledoux song that I can't quite come up with at the moment, except for the phrase, "We were a bunch of honyocks . . ."

So a "honyock" was a "homesteader" ~~ now I know.   Not so different from the meaning we attributed to it 50 or so years ago.

20 Mar 03 - 11:44 AM (#914575)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ohrlin Lyrics-My Harding County Home
From: GUEST,Harding County Girl

Thanks a bunch! My home will always be Harding County, no matter where life may lead me, so the lyrics to this song have special meaning to me. Also my late great-grandmother used to sing it to us, but I couldn't recall all of the words. Your help is greatly appreciated!

20 Mar 03 - 12:21 PM (#914608)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ohrlin Lyrics-My Harding County Home
From: Mark Ross

Actually the term I heard in Montana was "honyocker", and it did mean homesteader.

Mark Ross

20 Mar 03 - 02:41 PM (#914699)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ohrlin Lyrics-My Harding County Home
From: GUEST,Dale

I noticed the difference, but figured they meant the same thing. Chris LeDoux is from Wyoming, and he used the shorter term, as we did in Illinois.   I have not actually heard anyone USE the term since the mid 50s, other than the song lyric mentioned above.

Honyocker, as quoted by Glenn in his book, is a new term to me. That is a worthwhile book, by the way. Used copies can be found if you look hard enough, and can sometimes be found on ebay.

I just looked, there is one available right now, $5.89, including the flexidisc, which is so often missing. Get your Hell-Bound Train right here! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3506992747&category=23923

21 Mar 03 - 06:25 AM (#915216)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ohrlin Lyrics-My Harding County Home
From: cetmst

Where I grew up in western Pennsylvania honyack was a derogatory term for people of central European origin, usually steel workers, coal miners or farmers. Related terms were hunky and bohunk and our mouths were washed out with soap for using them. See wordorigins.org.
George Korson's 'Pennsylvania Songs and Legends' has related songs.

17 Jan 10 - 09:45 PM (#2814665)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Harding County Home (Glenn Ohrlin)
From: GUEST,john

i was good friends with his son and tex. did you know he played left handed martin