"Forefathers" by Dan Fogelberg

They came from Scandinavia, the land of midnight sun 
And crossed the North Atlantic when this century was young 
They'd heard that in America every man was free 
To live the way he chose to live and be who he could be 

Some of them were farmers there and tilled the frozen soil 
But all they got was poverty for all their earnest toil 
They say one was a sailor who sailed the wide world round 
Made home port, got drunk one night, walked off the pier and
drowned 

My mother was of Scottish blood, it's there that she was
born 
They brought her to America in 1924 
They left behind the highlands and the heather-covered hills

And came to find America with broad expectant dreams and
iron wills 

My granddad worked the steel mills of central Illinois 
His daughter was his jewel, his son was just his boy 
For thirty years he worked the mills and stoked the coke-fed
fires 
And looked toward the day when he'd at last turn 65 and
could retire 

And the sons become the fathers and their daughters will be
wives 
As the torch is passed from hand to hand 
And we struggle through our lives 
Though the generations wander, the lineage survives 
And all of us, from dust to dust
We all become forefathers by and by 

The woman and the man were wed just after the war 
And they settled in this river town and three fine sons she
bore 
One became a lawyer and one fine pictures drew 
And one became this lonely soul 
Who sits here now and sings this song to you 

And the sons become the fathers and their daughters will be
wives 
As the torch is passed from hand to hand 
And we struggle through our lives 
Though the generations wander, the lineage survives 
And all of us, from dust to dust
We all become forefathers by and by