In this first poem he tells of his familys migration to Indiana from New York.

Was the year and date of my birth

Thomas Main was the name for my grandfather given

The first year that I dwelt upon earth.

 

Of this year, now what shall I say?

I have been toldof this and of that

My grandfather said I was a fine boy anyway

And he guessed he must buy me a hat.

 

I was nursed by my mother this my second year

So I think I have often been told

Long years I enjoyed her kindness and care

She died when near ninety years old.

 

With Autumnal sickness, then misery began

And woes and sorrows were many.

My mothertold father if she were a man

Their home it would be Indiana.

 

Throw powder on fireit quick will explode,

Amidst cold winds and deep snows and hard frost

Father and two sonswere soon on the road

On foot the Alleganys they crossed.

 

The snow on the ground was all that could be seen

Spring, summer, and autum were gone.

January twenty-nineth, eighteen hundred nineteen

My youngest sister was born.

 

(1820),Cayuga County State of New York

Was the land of our birth and first childhood.

From here we were soon southwesterly brought

To Indiana to dwell in the wildwood.

(They traveled by wagon train)

 

On the road in the wagon I nearly did smother

For o'er me the clothes they were piled.

Here for the first time I remember my mother.

She gave help to her struggling child.

(He was rescued from beneath a big feather bed.)

 

I was then too young my father to miss

Though he had been gone for over a year.

When we met on the road he gave me a kiss

This to my memory is clear.

(Written About 1891

 

From the East, Northeast, and Southeast came the wisest and best

Left their own native homes for the far distant West,

Attracted by beauty of a counry so great

Left their own native homes to dwell in this state.

So settled was Schuyler, Hancock, and McConough,

By the bold pioneers of renown and of honor.

Privations and hardships of course they endured.

But homes for their children, by toil they secured.

There was room for the farmers to have land and a home

Among the wild grass and woodlands their stock they could roam.

They arose in the morning while birds were singing.

But the best music of all was the cowbell a ringing.

No cow no breakfast-- No cow no supper was got;

 Sometimes no dinner whether there was cow or not.

They always found some way to be fed

If bacon was out they would dine on cornbread.

Soon cabins were built, with split boards were roofed o'er.

And split slabs we called pumheon were laid for the floor.

A door pinned together on hinges was hung,

And a chimney of sods and the house it was done.

What was undertaken was never known to fail

So houses were biult without hammer or nail.

In the woods there were deer and turkey for meat

It was Nimrod not Peter could there stay and eat.

Some killed the wild deer and made pants of their skin.

Sometimes they would shrink and were tight round the shin.

Built for activity they then would declare

"With a leg like a deer and a foot like a bear".

Deer skins for clothingwere dressed and put on

And vests, they were made of the skin of the fawn.

Turkey, vinison, and honey they had for to eat

Made pets of the squirrel and gay parakeet.

The head in the winter no covering would lack,

Of the skin of the coon they would make a warm cap.

When boots and shoes were worthless and old,

Then deer skins were worn to keep off the cold.

Honor fathers and mothers who are now dead and gone,

And we who are grown old that in those days were young.

The old log cabins are now crumbled to dust;

Old guns and old plows are ruined with rust.

The old creeping oxen, hard worked and half fed

Long years ago are all gone and all dead.

The old log cabins we see them no more,

With the old cows head stuck in at the door.

Where dogs, guns, and coon skins were jumbled together

And hogs brought in the house in the stormiest of weather.

Bold youths and fair maidens now blooming and gay

Rejoice that the old times have now passed away.

We, that are aged and have now gathered here

We are glad for to meet you, to our hearts you are dear.

Nature's wild grandeur is now passed and gone;

And beautiful houses the land does adorn,

Large orchards of fruit and fields clothed with grain

Long labor it cost, these blessings to gain.

The aged are happy these scenes for to view;

And those that are younger they can rejoice too.

But youth is the springtime; It's life's joyful morn;

But soon, oh too soon, It will be passed and gone.

Infancy and childhood will soon be blessed with youths bloom

And soon will the aged be laid in the tomb.

Such now is life; it is too joyful to last;

One day that is present is worth thousands that's past.

This beautiful world our Creator has given

And a dear treasured Bible to guide us to Heaven.