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marmorset OP t1_j31wlas wrote

Reply to comment by sinevigiliamentis in TIL about Sarah Josepha Hale. She wrote the poem "Mary had a Little Lamb" and was editor of the most influential women's magazine of the time. Helping to found Vassar College. Over the course of 17 years she wrote five different presidents urging them to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. by marmorset

That story is nonsense. It's written to suggest that the tale happened in 1815 and fifteen years later Hale published it as her own poem, but that's not remotely the truth. Hale's poem was published in 1830 and almost 50 years later a woman came forward claiming that she was the Mary in the poem and that a young man visiting the village wrote the poem for her on a slip of paper. She never produced the paper and there's no evidence that Roulstone wrote the poem other than the word of Mary Sawyer.

Roulstone himself died very shortly after having supposedly written the poem, he never wrote anything else and there's nothing tying Roulstone to the poem, Sawyer, or Hale, other than the word of Sawyer. It was never seen or published by anyone anywhere until Hale, a prolific author, journalist, and poet, put it in her book.

There's also no evidence that Mary Sawyer was the Mary in the poem. She came forward with that story only several months before the death of Sarah Josepha Hale.

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sinevigiliamentis t1_j31xbhw wrote

Wow, you're already quite invested in something you just learned today.

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marmorset OP t1_j31yig6 wrote

I didn't learn it today, I wrote about it today. I had read about Hale a while ago, I think when I took my family to New England. Last night I happened to see something that reminded me of the story so I found a link and posted it this morning.

Sawyer claimed the story as her own and tried to make a living off of it, selling wool and memorabilia. Sometime after her death Thomas Edison got involved. He'd heard the poem and they were the first words recorded on phonograph. Years later he had a book published supporting Sawyer's unfounded claims.

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swazal t1_j324n2j wrote

Did you find out anything about her faith? Surprisingly it is not obvious. Quaker?

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marmorset OP t1_j32apb8 wrote

Though she often wrote about religion and morality there's no information about specific religion. Her father's side of the family was from Wales and they appear to have been Baptists, but I couldn't find anything about her mother's side. I suspect if she had been a Quaker that would have been mentioned.

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krectus t1_j33ck8u wrote

This sub is for things you just learned about today. Not something you’re quite knowledgeable on for awhile.

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