WEBVTT - What's the Controversy Behind 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.520 Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:09.799 brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam. Here. If you visit the 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.240 town of Sterling, Massachusetts today, you'll find a small copper 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:15.720 statue of a wooly little creature meant to be a 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.640 replica of the original lamb that followed nine year old 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:22.640 Mary Sawyer to school in eighteen fifteen. Below the statue 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.239 is a plaque inscribed with the famous opening verse and 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.360 an inscription, Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:30.640 white of snow, and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:35.800 was share to go, John Rawlstone. So who exactly was 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.840 Mary Sawyer? And who was this John Rawlstone who allegedly 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:42.000 wrote to the original poem. According to a sixty page 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.520 book titled The Story of Mary and her Little Lamb 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.400 and published in ninety eight by none other than car 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.640 Mogul Henry Ford More on that later, Mary Sawyer was 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.680 a typical New England schoolgirl who nursed a starving lamb 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:57.600 back to health, winning a lifelong friend. In this book, 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.640 an adult Sawyer recounted, I got the lamb warm by 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:02.680 wrapping it in an old garment and holding it in 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.480 my arms beside the fireplace in the morning, much to 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.000 my girlish delight, it could stand, and from that time 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.039 it improved rapidly. It soon learned to drink milk, and 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:12.920 from the time it would walk about. It would follow 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.880 me anywhere if I only called it. The books behind 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:19.920 the Music story of the song explains that before leaving 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.399 for school one morning, Sawyer whistled for the lamb and 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.120 it came faithfully trotting over, at which point her brother 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.520 Nat suggested, let's take the lamb to school with us. 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:29.720 She tried to hide the lamb in a basket under 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:31.840 her chair, but it was discovered when she stood up 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:34.319 to recite a lesson and the fluffy critter started to 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:38.600 bleat her. Teacher, Polly Kimball laughed outright, which caused Sawyer 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:40.679 some embarrassment, so she took the lamb out to a 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.760 shed until school was over for the day. John Rawlstone 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.440 was a local boy preparing for college who happened to 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.040 be visiting the old Red schoolhouse that day and was, 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:52.920 according to Sawyer, very much pleased with the incident of 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.600 the lamb. So Ralstone went home, wrote a three stands 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:58.720 a poem, and returned the next day. On horseback to 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.600 hand deliver the original of Mary had a little lamb 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:08.240 to sawyer herself, or so the story goes in Sterling, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.799 in Newport, New Hampshire, the folks celebrate hometown hero Sarah 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.800 Joseph Hale as the author of this beloved nursery Rhyme. 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:17.440 Hale is also famous for her role in creating the 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.800 modern American Thanksgiving via a long running letter campaign to 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.600 five U S presidents. As a young poet and writer, 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.359 Hale moved to Boston in eighty eight to become the 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.920 editor of the first women's magazine in the United States, 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.280 later known as Goody's Ladies Book. It was in Boston 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.480 that Hale met Lowell Mason, a young musician and composer 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:41.120 intent on bringing music education into America's public schools. Mason 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.160 and Hale shared the belief that simple children's poems set 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.760 to music could be used to teach good Christian morals 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.239 to kids that would help them grow into productive and 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.160 upright citizens. At Mason's request, Hale wrote a short book 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:56.239 of fifteen poems called Poems for Our Children, which was 0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:00.040 published in eighteen thirty. Mason then wrote simple melodies to 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.360 accompany each poem, including these six verse poem then known 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:07.960 as Mary's Lamb. Interestingly, the tune Mason wrote for Mary's Lamb, 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.000 which was included in his eighteen thirty one book Juvenile Liar, 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.440 likely the first public school songbook, sounds nothing like the 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.919 melody we know today. That melody was borrowed later from 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.560 the course of a popular minstrel show song called good 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:26.120 Night Ladies. So which story is true? Sawyer claimed that 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:28.760 the first three verses of Hale's poem were identical to 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.560 the one written by young John Rawlstone, although the piece 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.720 of paper gifted to Sawyer had long since disappeared, and 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:37.560 Rawlstone tragically died while a freshman at Harvard, so he 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.080 wasn't around to corroborate. When Hale's version was included in 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.640 school readers nationwide in the eighteen fifties. Sawyer assumed that 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.920 the author had simply expanded on Rawlstone's original three verses, 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.040 but Hale denied ever seeing another version of Mary Had 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.760 a Little Lamb, and swore she had conjured the story 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.800 wholly from her imagination. Both Sawyer and Hale signed letters 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.960 and sworn statements in old age. Hale just days before 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.400 her death in eighteen eighty nine, professing that they were 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:06.720 telling the truth of the origin of what had already 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:12.040 become a classic nursery rhyme. Enter Henry Ford, after both 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.280 of the women were long gone, automobile magnate Henry Ford 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.960 stepped into the fray. In ninety seven he took up 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.880 the cause of Mary Sawyer, moving the wooden frame of 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.440 Mary's original red schoolhouse from Sterling, Massachusetts, to the nearby 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.640 town of Sudbury, where Ford owned an inn, and then 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.120 in n eight he published the aforementioned book, which gives 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.080 ral Stone full credit for the original verses, and asked 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:37.719 why a respected local woman who served as a matron 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.279 of the local hospital would make up such a wild 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:44.880 story and repeat it her entire life. Hale's defenders asked 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:49.400 the same question. Sandra Sonicsen volunteer archivist of the Sarah J. 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.960 Hale Collection at the Richards Free Library in Newport, New Hampshire, 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.640 writing for the library's website, said, the story of Mary 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:00.280 Sawyer implies that somehow Sarah Hale came across the never 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.560 published schoolhouse poem and plagiarized it. How could she have 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.600 come across it? Henry Ford's book explains the two towns 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:08.760 where Sawyer and Hale lived were close to each other. 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.440 They're ninety miles apart over the most direct route that 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.240 would have been followed in eighteen fifteen. Henry had not 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:18.240 yet invented the automobile, so the distance was considerable. In 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:22.600 a Baltimore Sun story from about the ongoing feud between Stirling, 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:26.080 Massachusetts and Newport, New Hampshire, a hail supporter and Newport 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:30.040 librarian weighed in, let's face it, Henry Ford made good cars. 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:37.800 I don't think he's a good historian. Today's episode was 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.520 written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler. Playing brain 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:42.839 Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:45.560 For more on this and lots of other surprise and controversies, 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.320 visit our home planet how stuff Works dot com, and 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.760 for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.480 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:54.159 favorite shows.