When Brewster Higby moved to Smith County, KS, in 1871 and built his log cabin on Beaver Creek, he was so inspired by the beauty of the country that he wrote the poem "Oh, Give Me a Home." Higby took his poem with him when he visited Gaylord, KS, in 1873 and showed it to Daniel Kelly, a full-time carpenter and a part-time violinist with the Harlan Brothers Orchestra, consisting of Kelly and the Harlan brothes Marcus and Clarence. Kelly found himself humming a tune to Higby's poem as he rode his horse home that afternoon and he felt compelled to write down the notes on a piece of wrapping paper that night. When Kelly visited the Harlan home to call on their daughter Lulu the next evening, he brought the tune with him to show her brothers. They all liked it, but their father, Judge Harlan, said it needed a refrain, which the brothers and Kelly fashioned that night. The judge's granddaughter Virginia suggested they play it at the next county dance "and surprise everybody." The boys agreed and "Home on the Range" was premiered by Virgie and Kelly the next Friday night while refreshments were being served. The song proved immensely popular, so popular that alternative versions of it soon sprang up in many other Western states. When President Franklin Roosevelt declared that "Home on the Range" was his favorite song in 1933, radio stations across the country began playing it. When William and Mary Goodwin of Tempe, AZ, claimed that they had composed the song and brought suit against 35 individuals and corporations, they stopped all performances of the song. But when lawyers located the 86-year-old Cal Harlan and he was able to sing the song from memory, the authorship of "Home on the Range" was settled. It became the official state song of Kansas in 1947 and Higby's log cabin has been preserved as a memorial. The song itself has a triadic melody set above plagal and perfect cadences, with a secondary dominant to the dominant in the refrain. The graceful simplicity and gentle longing of Kelly's melody coupled with the sentimental emotions of Higby's lyrics are what make the song so wonderfully affecting.

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