about
The lyrics of this song are believed to be based on a letter which told of the death of a New Englander at sea while on a voyage to California as part of the Gold Rush of 1849. The letter was published in December 1854 in the temperance magazine ‘New England Diadem’. When gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, California in 1848 many thousands of prospectors in United States were swept up in a rush to the California Gold fields. There were three main methods of passage: overland via the Oregon and California Trails, by sea to Panama where passengers had to cross the dangerous swampland of the isthmus to reach another vessel, and also a final route by ship around Cape Horn.
Many ’49’ers', as they came to be called, died from starvation, disease, accident, exhaustion or shipwreck. Countless others left everything behind to search for gold and never found even a handful of the precious dust.
lyrics
Lay up nearer, brother, nearer,
For my limbs are growing cold,
And thy presence seemeth nearer
When thine arms around me fold.
I am dying, brother, dying,
Soon you'll miss me in your berth;
For my form will soon be lying,
‘Neath the ocean's briny surf.
Tell my father when you see him
In death I prayed for him
Prayed that I might only meet him
In a world that's free from sin.
Tell my mother, God assist her
Now that she is growing old,
That her child would glad have kissed her
When his lips grew pale and cold.
Listen, brother, catch each whisper
'Tis my wife I speak of now,
Tell, oh how much I missed her
When the fever burned my brow.
Tell her she must kiss my children
Like the kiss I last impressed,
Hold them as when last I held them
Held them closely to my breast.
’Twas for them I crossed the ocean,
What my hopes were I'll not tell;
But they gained an orphan's portion,
Yet He doeth all things well;
Tell them I have reached the haven
Where I sought the precious dust,
And I gained a port called Heaven
Where the gold will never rust.
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