52 Ancestors challenge Week 6 "So Far Away"

[dragonfly]

For this week's topic I'm just going to post my grandmother's poem. She wrote it from memories her own grandmother told her of emigrating from Holland as a little girl with her family. My grandmother's grandmother was Jennie Schreurs.

To Find A Home
By Mildred Bigsby

My grandmother's family
Left the dykes and sea of Holland.
They came by sailing ship to New Orleans
Then took the first riverboat north that spring
To find a new home and a better life.
Sailing up the Mississippi they stared, wide-eyed
At wild animals in the dense woods.
Indians watched the large craft
Steam up the river to Casey's Woodpile.
The far away flat lands looked like Holland
But the high river bluffs were new to them.
Four blocks from the river
They founded the "Young American Flour Mill"
Their son fought in Shiloh in the War Between the States.
When the fighting was done, he walked
Overland to the Mississippi and caught a steamboat north
Back home to his place along the river.

Jennie's brother in the Civil War was Gerrit Jan Schreurs. The night he arrived home to the farm, it was late and he was dirty from traveling, so he slept in the barn. That morning Jennie found him there and woke him with a kiss. He said it was the best wake-up he'd ever had.