FAMILY HISTORY: POETRY Collection written by Elsie Strawn ARMSTRONG
  
  File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Les Howard Strawn
  
  Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
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  A trip to visit brother Jacob's family.  (At the Matteson house with Eaton 
  Goodell and family.)
  
  Brother Jacob came to Ottawa
      In the year of sixty-three,
  Invited me to Jacksonville
      To see his family.
  
  And gladly I went with him,
      A pleasant trip for me,
  We all got on the car,
      A cheerful company.
  
  When we arrived at Bloomington,
      There we made a call
  At sister Phoebe's cousins,
      Ourselves and niece and all.
  
  A pleasant time we had,
      The family all so kind,
  So much delicious fruit,
      And the fare it was so fine.
  
  We took supper and took breakfast,
      And on the car at two o'clock,
  In the morning got to Springfield,
      And then we made a stop.
  
  A bright spot in my life
      The day that I spent there,
  With a special old acquaintance,
      And he took us to the car.
  
  When we arrived at Jacksonville,
      To Jacob's house we went,
  And there about three weeks
      Most pleasantly we spent.
  
  Then we received some presents
      And came up to Lacon,
  To see our friends and nephews,
      Nieces and brother John.
  
  And there about six weeks
      We spent, in going round
  To visit sixteen families,
      Before we left the ground.
  
  Again we took the cars
      And came up to Ottawa,
  The seventh of September,
      While the fair was under way.