Sutter's Mill

In the Spring of forty-seven
 So the story, it is told
 Old John Sutter went to the mill side
 Found a piece of shining gold.
 Well, he took it to the city
 Where the word, like wildfire, spread.
 And old John Sutter soon came to wish he'd
 Left that stone in the river bed.
 For they came like herds of locusts
 Every woman, child and man
 In their lumbering Conestogas
 They left their tracks upon the land...
 Some would fail and some would prosper
 Some would die and some would kill
 Some would thank the Lord for their deliverance
 And some would curse John Sutter's Mill.
 Well, they came from New York City
 And they came here at Alabam'
 With their dreams of finding fortunes
 In this wild unsettled land.
 Well, some fell prey to hostile arrows
 As they tried to cross the plains.
 And some were lost in the Rocky Mountains
 With their hand froze to the reins
 Oh, some would fail and some would prosper
 Some would die and some would kill
 Some would thank the Lord for their deliverance
 And some would curse John Sutter's Mill...
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 Some pushed on to California
 Rather stopped to take their rest.
 And by the Spring of Eighteen-sixty
 They had opened up the west.
 
 And then the railroad came behind them
 And the land was plowed and tamed
 When Old John Sutter went to meet his maker
 He'd not one penny to his name.
 Oh, some would fail and some would prosper
 Some would die and some would kill
 Some would thank the Lord for their deliverance
 And some would curse John Sutter's Mill.
 And some would curse John Sutter's Mill
 Some men's thirsts are never filled.