Life History of Ralph Julius Lauper
The following is a poem that Dad wrote about his father, Emile Louis Lauper, copied from Mom and Dad's Book of Remembrance.
My father was a pioneer
Of worthy stock and true
For the sake of his religion
He crossed the ocean blue.
He never was a lady's man
He seldom thought of play
His pride was in his family
For them he worked each day.
A man of principals was he
Work never did he shirk
For six days did he labor hard
The seventh went to church.
Foreign ways were deemed peculiar
By many of his friends
But none denied his wealth in things
Which tend to make great men.
He was powerful in stature
More powerful in mind
And yet his courage rose o'er all
With a manner clean and kind.
Dad would never squander
Like many fathers would
But he always paid his tithes
And offerings as he could.
He always was an optimist
Things never got him down
He accepted all obstructions
With hardly ever a frown.
I long to have the hope Dad did
The will to do or die
A quality so lacking
In mortals such as I.
His education born of knocks
Enforced by life's hard school
Diploma won by habit
To fight the thing "clear" through
Now father's life is over
But his work is just begun
May he find the path less stormy
Now the battle's nobly won.
He will build himself a castle
Across the distant sea.
He will see the plan more clearly
Amid greater powers that be.
Then will he not be happy
For the lickins that he took
For those many years of trial when
It seemed he was "forsook".
Sure, he'll set his house in order
Upon that fruitful loam
And then he'll be all ready
To call his family home.