Letter from Gerald Hitt
History – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Hello, you two:
This is about “Where was the Home on the Range?” in your September edition.
I have enclosed a copy of “The Western Home,” from 1871. The credit goes to a poem by a Dr. Brewster M. Higley of Smith County, Kansas. Your article did mention the same version in the Smith County Register in 1873, but since poems normally precede songs, I believe Mr. Higley’s poem predates all the other versions in your article.