An Address to Bovina - 1855

The Bloomville Mirror's April 10, 1855 issue published this poem about Bovina on page 2. Little else is known about it. There's no author. It's dated from March and references "The Observer." I don't know if this represents a newspaper or not.

AN ADDRESS TO BOVINA

Hurrah for Bovina, the pride of the county,

In harmony dwells, and shears free of their bounty.

The sons of old Scotia are both hardy and true –

They are upright and honest, and equaled by few.

We live by the mountains where rivulets play,

Enriching the valleys the length of their way,

Where each honest farmer continually feast,

With abundance of produce for both man and beast.

The crops have been falling some years that are past,

Yet happy are we in Bovina are cast –

We draw from our farms enough for support

And something to spare to our neighbors for sport.

Both Andes and Delhi our surplus they want –

In common good years they are very scant,

Where honest industry inclines to prevail

Bovina shall flourish when others shall fail.

The first of our race, some fifty years back,

Came into Bovina when money was slack –

They took up their farms, and had not a dollar

To buy them an axe, or to clear up a fallow.

But mutual forbearance, the strength of our race,

In truth and affection each other did place –

No discord of union each harbored at all,

A band of true brothers, to stand or to fall.

And now they are risen to honor and fame,

Their sons and their daughters do honor their name,

And left an example to those that remain

With honest endeavors to their living to gain.

Then hurrah for Bovina I freely may say,

Her faults and her failings are few in the way,

Compared to her neighbors that round her do stand,

She’s the root and the branch of the old fatherland.

Bovina, March 18, 1855

The Observer