OFFICIAL SONG OF THE KEYSTONE STATE

PENNSYLVANIA STATE SONG AUTHOR

EDGAR M. DILLEY

Copy of cover of his rendition. This is a very large oversized item, 3 pages of song and notes. Please use your scroll bars to see the entire photograph (my scanner isn't large enough to catch the whole cover).

I have placed this item under Bios in the hope that a Dilley researcher may be able to give us the details and ancestry of Edgar M. Dilley, Songwriter. Notice this was copyrighted in 1908. If you can help with identifying this individual, please contact Teddy Noye. Thanks.

Words to the song:

Tho' we may go across the sea, Far from Columbia's gates

Our first allegiance is to theee, Our own United States

And while we name the land we love, How gladly we shall tell

The glory of the story of The State we love so well

chorus:

Pennsylvania! Pennsylvania! Pennsylvania, The Keystone State

To thee we raise our song, To thee our hearts belong

Pennsylvania! Pennsylvania! Pennsylvania, The Keystone State

 

'Twas by the silv'ry Delaware, The Nation had its birth

When North and South joined hands to dare, The strongest pow'r of earth

And loud, from Independence Hall, The Bell of Liberty

Proclaimed to all the world the fall Of foreign tyranny

(chorus)

The Union's safety on the sea, Its wealth and pow'r on land

O Pennsuylvania, is of thee, from thy lavish hand

Along the Allegheny's tide, Thy heart of steel is won

And from thy side the warships glide; Thy coal shall drive them on

(chorus)

From Valley Forge's ice and snow, To Gettysburg's red field

Tho' centuries may come and go, And battle wounds are healed

None truer fought o'er land or sea, None braver faced the guns

To die for thee, Land of the Free, Than Pennsylvania's sons.

(chorus)

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