BrainStuff Classics: What's the Controversy Behind 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'?

No, it's not the lyrics -- the author of this nursery rhyme is what's in question. Learn why (and how Henry Ford was involved) in today's classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/literature/controversy-behind-mary-had-little-lamb.htm

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogelbaumb here with a classic episode
from the vault. In this one, we explore the perhaps
surprisingly tangled story behind the common nursery rhyme Mary had
a Little Lamb, proving that even before the Internet, people
would argue about anything.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Hey Brainstuff, Lauren vogelbaumb Here. If you visit the town
of Sterling, Massachusetts today, you'll find a small copper statue
of a wooly little creature meant to be a replica
of the original lamb that followed nine year old Mary
Sawyer to school in eighteen fifteen. Below the statue is
a plaque inscribed with the famous opening verse and an
inscription Mary had a Little Lamb. Its fleece was white

(00:49):
of snow, And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was
sure to go John Ralstone. So who exactly was Mary Sawyer?
And who was this John Rawlstone who allegedly wrote to
the original poem, According to a sixty page book titled
The Story of Mary and Her Little Lamb and published
in nineteen twenty eight by none other than car Mogul
Henry Ford more on that later Mary Sawyer was a

(01:11):
typical New England schoolgirl who nursed a starving lamb back
to health, winning a lifelong friend. In this book, an
adult Sawyer recounted, I got the lamb warm by wrapping
it in an old garment and holding it in my
arms beside the fireplace in the morning. Much to my
girlish delight, it could stand, and from that time it
improved rapidly. It soon learned to drink milk, and from

(01:32):
the time it would walk about, it would follow me
anywhere if I only called it. The books behind the
Music story of the song explains that before leaving for
school one morning, Sawyer whistled for the lamb and it
came faithfully trotting over, at which point her brother Nat suggested,
let's take the lamb to school with us. She tried
to hide the lamb in a basket under her chair,
but it was discovered when she stood up to recite

(01:53):
a lesson and the fluffy critter started to bleat her.
Teacher Polly Kimball laughed outright, which caused sawyer somembarrassment, so
she took the lamb out to a shed until school
was over for the day. John Ralstone was a local
boy preparing for college who happened to be visiting the
old Red schoolhouse that day and was, according to Sawyer,
very much pleased with the incident of the lamb. So

(02:15):
Ralstone went home, wrote a three stands a poem, and
returned the next day on horseback to hand deliver the
original verses of Mary had a little lamb to Sawyer herself,
or so the story goes in Sterling, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, in Newport,
New Hampshire, the folks celebrate hometown hero Sarah Josepha Hale
as the author of this beloved nursery rhyme. Hale is

(02:36):
also famous for her role in creating the modern American
Thanksgiving via a long running letter campaign to five US presidents.
As a young poet and writer, Hale moved to Boston
in eighteen twenty eight to become the editor of the
first women's magazine in the United States, later known as
Goody's Lady's Book. It was in Boston that Hale met
Lowell Mason, a young musician and composer intent on bringing

(02:58):
music education into America's public schools. Mason and Hale shared
the belief that simple children's poems set to music could
be used to teach good Christian morals to kids that
would help them grow into productive and upright citizens. At
Mason's request, Hale wrote a short book of fifteen poems
called Poems for Our Children, which was published in eighteen thirty.

(03:19):
Mason then wrote simple melodies to accompany each poem, including
these six verse poem, then known as Mary's Lamb. Interestingly,
the tune Mason wrote for Mary's Lamb, which was included
in his eighteen thirty one book Juvenile Liar, likely the
first public school songbook, sounds nothing like the melody we
know today. That melody was borrowed later from the course

(03:39):
of a popular minstrel show song called good Night Ladies.
So which story is true? Sawyer claimed that the first
three verses of Hale's poem were identical to the one
written by young John Rowlstone, although the piece of paper
gifted to Sawyer had long since disappeared, and Ralstone tragically
died while a freshman at Harvard, so he wasn't around
to corroborate when Hale's version was included in school readers

(04:02):
nationwide in the eighteen fifties. Sawyer assumed that the author
had simply expanded on Ralestone's original three verses, but Hale
denied ever seeing another version of Mary had a Little Lamb,
and swore she had conjured the story wholly from her imagination.
Both Sawyer and Hale signed letters and sworn statements in
their old age, Hale just days before her death in

(04:23):
eighteen eighty nine, professing that they were telling the truth
of the origin of what had already become a classic
nursery rhyme. Enter Henry Ford, after both of the women
were long gone, automobile magnate Henry Ford stepped into the
fray in nineteen twenty seven, he took up the cause
of Mary Sawyer, moving the wooden frame of Mary's original

(04:43):
red schoolhouse from Starling, Massachusetts, to the nearby town of Sudbury,
where Ford owned an inn, and then in nineteen twenty
eight he published the aforementioned book, which gives Ralhstone full
credit for the original verses, and asked why a respected
local woman who served as a matron of the local
hospital make up such a wild story and repeat it
her entire life. Hale's defenders asked the same question. Sandra Sonison,

(05:08):
volunteer archivist of the Sarah J. Hale Collection at the
Richard's Free Library in Newport, New Hampshire. A writing for
the library's website said, the story of Mary Sawyer implies
that somehow Sarah Hale came across this never published schoolhouse
poem and plagiarized it. How could she have come across it?
Henry Ford's book explains that the two towns where Sawyer
and Hale lived were close to each other. They are

(05:30):
ninety miles apart over the most direct route that would
have been followed in eighteen fifteen. Henry had not yet
invented the automobile, so the distance was considerable. In a
Baltimore Sun story from nineteen ninety eight about the ongoing
feud between Stirling, Massachusetts and Newport, New Hampshire, a Hale
supporter and Newport librarian weighed in let's face it, Henry
Ford made good cars. I don't think he's a good historian.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Today's episode is based on the art of the surprising
controversy behind Mary Had a Little Lamb on how Stuffworks
dot com.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Written by Dave Ruse.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Brain Stuff is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks.
Dot com and is produced by Tyler Playing. Four more
podcasts from my Heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.