Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam. Here. If you visit the
Speaker 1: town of Sterling, Massachusetts today, you'll find a small copper
Speaker 1: statue of a wooly little creature meant to be a
Speaker 1: replica of the original lamb that followed nine year old
Speaker 1: Mary Sawyer to school in eighteen fifteen. Below the statue
Speaker 1: is a plaque inscribed with the famous opening verse and
Speaker 1: an inscription, Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was
Speaker 1: white of snow, and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb
Speaker 1: was share to go, John Rawlstone. So who exactly was
Speaker 1: Mary Sawyer? And who was this John Rawlstone who allegedly
Speaker 1: wrote to the original poem. According to a sixty page
Speaker 1: book titled The Story of Mary and her Little Lamb
Speaker 1: and published in ninety eight by none other than car
Speaker 1: Mogul Henry Ford More on that later, Mary Sawyer was
Speaker 1: a typical New England schoolgirl who nursed a starving lamb
Speaker 1: back to health, winning a lifelong friend. In this book,
Speaker 1: an adult Sawyer recounted, I got the lamb warm by
Speaker 1: wrapping it in an old garment and holding it in
Speaker 1: my arms beside the fireplace in the morning, much to
Speaker 1: my girlish delight, it could stand, and from that time
Speaker 1: it improved rapidly. It soon learned to drink milk, and
Speaker 1: from the time it would walk about. It would follow
Speaker 1: me anywhere if I only called it. The books behind
Speaker 1: the Music story of the song explains that before leaving
Speaker 1: for school one morning, Sawyer whistled for the lamb and
Speaker 1: it came faithfully trotting over, at which point her brother
Speaker 1: Nat suggested, let's take the lamb to school with us.
Speaker 1: She tried to hide the lamb in a basket under
Speaker 1: her chair, but it was discovered when she stood up
Speaker 1: to recite a lesson and the fluffy critter started to
Speaker 1: bleat her. Teacher, Polly Kimball laughed outright, which caused Sawyer
Speaker 1: some embarrassment, so she took the lamb out to a
Speaker 1: shed until school was over for the day. John Rawlstone
Speaker 1: was a local boy preparing for college who happened to
Speaker 1: be visiting the old Red schoolhouse that day and was,
Speaker 1: according to Sawyer, very much pleased with the incident of
Speaker 1: the lamb. So Ralstone went home, wrote a three stands
Speaker 1: a poem, and returned the next day. On horseback to
Speaker 1: hand deliver the original of Mary had a little lamb
Speaker 1: to sawyer herself, or so the story goes in Sterling, Massachusetts. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: in Newport, New Hampshire, the folks celebrate hometown hero Sarah
Speaker 1: Joseph Hale as the author of this beloved nursery Rhyme.
Speaker 1: Hale is also famous for her role in creating the
Speaker 1: modern American Thanksgiving via a long running letter campaign to
Speaker 1: five U S presidents. As a young poet and writer,
Speaker 1: Hale moved to Boston in eighty eight to become the
Speaker 1: editor of the first women's magazine in the United States,
Speaker 1: later known as Goody's Ladies Book. It was in Boston
Speaker 1: that Hale met Lowell Mason, a young musician and composer
Speaker 1: intent on bringing music education into America's public schools. Mason
Speaker 1: and Hale shared the belief that simple children's poems set
Speaker 1: to music could be used to teach good Christian morals
Speaker 1: to kids that would help them grow into productive and
Speaker 1: upright citizens. At Mason's request, Hale wrote a short book
Speaker 1: of fifteen poems called Poems for Our Children, which was
Speaker 1: published in eighteen thirty. Mason then wrote simple melodies to
Speaker 1: accompany each poem, including these six verse poem then known
Speaker 1: as Mary's Lamb. Interestingly, the tune Mason wrote for Mary's Lamb,
Speaker 1: which was included in his eighteen thirty one book Juvenile Liar,
Speaker 1: likely the first public school songbook, sounds nothing like the
Speaker 1: melody we know today. That melody was borrowed later from
Speaker 1: the course of a popular minstrel show song called good
Speaker 1: Night Ladies. So which story is true? Sawyer claimed that
Speaker 1: the first three verses of Hale's poem were identical to
Speaker 1: the one written by young John Rawlstone, although the piece
Speaker 1: of paper gifted to Sawyer had long since disappeared, and
Speaker 1: Rawlstone tragically died while a freshman at Harvard, so he
Speaker 1: wasn't around to corroborate. When Hale's version was included in
Speaker 1: school readers nationwide in the eighteen fifties. Sawyer assumed that
Speaker 1: the author had simply expanded on Rawlstone's original three verses,
Speaker 1: but Hale denied ever seeing another version of Mary Had
Speaker 1: a Little Lamb, and swore she had conjured the story
Speaker 1: wholly from her imagination. Both Sawyer and Hale signed letters
Speaker 1: and sworn statements in old age. Hale just days before
Speaker 1: her death in eighteen eighty nine, professing that they were
Speaker 1: telling the truth of the origin of what had already
Speaker 1: become a classic nursery rhyme. Enter Henry Ford, after both
Speaker 1: of the women were long gone, automobile magnate Henry Ford
Speaker 1: stepped into the fray. In ninety seven he took up
Speaker 1: the cause of Mary Sawyer, moving the wooden frame of
Speaker 1: Mary's original red schoolhouse from Sterling, Massachusetts, to the nearby
Speaker 1: town of Sudbury, where Ford owned an inn, and then
Speaker 1: in n eight he published the aforementioned book, which gives
Speaker 1: ral Stone full credit for the original verses, and asked
Speaker 1: why a respected local woman who served as a matron
Speaker 1: of the local hospital would make up such a wild
Speaker 1: story and repeat it her entire life. Hale's defenders asked
Speaker 1: the same question. Sandra Sonicsen volunteer archivist of the Sarah J.
Speaker 1: Hale Collection at the Richards Free Library in Newport, New Hampshire,
Speaker 1: writing for the library's website, said, the story of Mary
Speaker 1: Sawyer implies that somehow Sarah Hale came across the never
Speaker 1: published schoolhouse poem and plagiarized it. How could she have
Speaker 1: come across it? Henry Ford's book explains the two towns
Speaker 1: where Sawyer and Hale lived were close to each other.
Speaker 1: They're ninety miles apart over the most direct route that
Speaker 1: would have been followed in eighteen fifteen. Henry had not
Speaker 1: yet invented the automobile, so the distance was considerable. In
Speaker 1: a Baltimore Sun story from about the ongoing feud between Stirling,
Speaker 1: Massachusetts and Newport, New Hampshire, a hail supporter and Newport
Speaker 1: librarian weighed in, let's face it, Henry Ford made good cars.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's a good historian. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler. Playing brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other surprise and controversies,
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