Vecteezy--"Night Starry Sky and Pink Clouds Sunrise" "Land, give me land, under starry skies above," "Don't Fence Me In" You probably recognize these words penned in a 1934 text by Robert Fletcher, a poet and engineer with the Department of Highways in Helena, Montana.  When Cole Porter was asked to write a "cowboy" song, he used the text and "Don't Fence Me In" quickly became the #1 song in 1944.  It was recorded by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, by Kate Smith, and Roy Rogers used it in at least two movies. While the text and song may have been 1930s/1940s era and still popular today, the sentiment was anything but new.  The cry of "give me land!" has been heard in every corner of the United States since its birth in 1783.  "Give me land!" has been uttered in the language of every immigrant who ever set foot on our shores. The "don't fence me in" spirit was evident from the very beginning...

Dorothea-Lange-Florence-Thompson-and-her-children-in-a-pea-pickers-camp.- Nipomo-California.-March-1936; courtesy of PBS Until you begin the hunt, you never know what you'll find . When I began a research report for my great-grandmother, Nancy Jane Booth, (my mother's father's mother) I thought that I knew all about her from previous research. So I was shocked to see a Newspapers.com hint about a Sheriff's sale in Hugoton, Kansas. I knew that they had briefly lived there with their daughter's family, but had no clue they ever owned property there. The text isn't that interesting, but the details matter, so here is a transcription: (First published June 29, 1917) Notice of Sheriff's Sale Notice is hereby given, that in pursuance of an Order of Sale issued out of the District Court of Stevens County, Kansas, on the 13th day of June, 1917, an action wherein J.D. Newcomer Company, a corporation, is plaintiff, and Samuel McBee and Nancy McBee his wife, are defend...