Sunday Special!-Creation of a Legend!

Sunday Special-Marry had a Lamb

 

Mary Sawyer Tyler: 1806-1889

"Mary had a little lamb" wasn't just a nursery rhyme it was a real 9-year-old girl who saved a dying lamb, and that lamb's wool eventually helped save a piece of American history.
You sang it as a child. Maybe you've sung it to your own children: "Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb..."
But did you know Mary was real?

Her name was Mary Sawyer, and this is the true story behind one of the 

most famous poems in the English language.

March 1815. Sterling, Massachusetts. A cold morning with frost still clinging 

to the barn walls.Mary was born

New York Public Library“Birth-place of Mary Sawyer and the little lamb. Sterling, Mass.”

Nine-year-old Mary Sawyer was helping her father with the morning chores when they discovered one 

of their ewes had given birth to twin lambs overnight.One lamb was healthy, nursing contentedly. The 

other lay motionless in the straw rejected by its mother, too weak to stand, barely breathing.Without its mother'smilk and warmth, the tiny creature was dying.

Mary's heart broke

"Can I take it inside?" she begged her father. "Please? I can save it."
Her father shook his head. "No, Mary. It's almost dead anyway. Even if we try, it probably won't survive."
But Mary couldn't bear to watch the lamb die. She pleaded until her father finally relented though he made it clear he thought it was hopeless.Mary carried the freezing lamb into the house. Her mother, seeing her daughter's determination, agreed to let her try.

The nursery rhyme was first published by the Boston publishing firm Marsh, Capen & Lyon, as a poem 

by Sarah Josepha Hale on May 24, 1830, and was possibly inspired by an actual incident.As described 

in one of Hale's biographies: "Sarah began teaching young boys and girls in a small school not far from 

her home [in Newport, New Hampshire] It was at this small school that the incident involving 'Mary's 

Lamb' is reputed to have taken place. 

Sarah was surprised one morning to see one of her students, a girl named Mary, enter the classroom followed by her pet lamb. The visitor was far too distracting to be permitted to remain in the building and so Sarah 'turned him out.' The lamb stayed nearby till school was dismissed and then ran up to Mary looking for attention and protection. The other youngsters wanted to know why the lamb loved Mary so much and their teacher explained it was because Mary loved her pet. Then Sarah used the incident to get a moral across to the class:

Why does the lamb love Mary so? Mary so, Mary so? 

Why does the lamb love Mary so? The eager children smiled, 

Mary loves the lamb, you know, Lamb, you know, lamb, you know,

Mary loves the lamb, you know The teacher’s happy smile

As for Mary herself, she lived a long, quiet life. She married, raised a family, and rarely talked about the famous poem.Until 1876.At age 70, Mary came forward publicly when Boston's historic Old South 

Meeting House needed funds for preservation. She donated the stockings her mother had made from 

her lamb's wool decades earlier.She sold autographed cards tied with yarn from those stockings, telling 

the world:
"I am the Mary. This is my lamb's wool."People were astonished. The woman behind the nursery 

rhyme was real and she was still alive.

Mary Sawyer died in 1889 at age 83.

Today, a statue of her little lamb stands in Sterling, Massachusetts, commemorating the day a little girl's compassion created one of the most enduring stories in children's literature.
The lesson of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" isn't just about a pet following its owner.It's about what happened before that.About a little girl who refused to let a helpless creature die when everyone else had given up.
About showing that kindness and determination can create miracles.About how the smallest acts of compassion can ripple through time in ways we never imagine.
Mary saved her lamb with nothing but determination and love.That lamb became immortalized in verse.

That verse became the first words ever recorded by human technology.And that story has been sung by millions of children for over two centuries.All because a nine-year-old girl in Massachusetts couldn't bear 

to watch something innocent and helpless die.
The next time you hear someone sing "Mary had a little lamb," remember:It wasn't just a nursery rhyme.
It was a true story about a real girl who taught us that compassion matters, that small acts of kindness 

echo through history, and that sometimes the gentlest hearts change the world in the most unexpected ways.The girl who saved a lamb and created a legend.

Searched and Illustrated by Tejinder Kamboj 

  
                            (1940 -20??)