Samuel Woodworth

• Name — Samuel Woodworth • Born — 13 January 1784 • Birthplace — Scituate, Massachusetts • Died — 9 December 1842 • Place of death — New York, New York • Occupation — Writer • Children — 10

Woodworth was born in Scituate, Massachusetts, to Revolutionary War veteran Benjamin Woodworth and his wife Abigail Bryant. He was apprenticed to Benjamin Russell, editor of the Columbian Sentinel. He then moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where he briefly published the Belles-Lettres Repository, a weekly. He next moved to New York City, but recalled New Haven in his A Poem: New Haven. Woodworth married Lydia Reeder in New York City on September 23, 1810. They had ten children between 1811 and 1829. Woodworth remained in New York for the rest of his life, dying there on December 9, 1842. Woodworth's son, Selim E. Woodworth, was a U.S. Navy officer who took part in the rescue of the snowbound Donner Party in California. The USS Woodworth (DD-460) was named for him.

• Illustration — Illustration for "The Old Oaken Bucket", 1882 Woodworth is best known for the poem "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1817). The first stanza reads: In 1826 the poem was paired with music by George Kiallmark (a song originally written as a setting of a poem excerpted from Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh). By the early 20th Century it became one of America's most popular songs, and the tune was further adopted for use with other texts. It was recorded in 1899 by The Haydn Quartet, a famous barbershop quartet, and was released on Berliner Gramophone.

The Old Oaken Bucket House in Scituate, Massachusetts is on the National Register of Historic Places. A sign on the house reads: "1630-1930 THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET Homestead and well made famous by Samuel Woodworth in his poem 'The Old Oaken Bucket.' Homestead erected by John Northey in 1675: Poet born in Scituate January 13, 1784. Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission."

The Old Oaken Bucket trophy has been awarded every year since 1925 to the winner of the Big Ten Conference college football game between Purdue University and Indiana University. Although Woodworth was not from Indiana, the trophy's name refers to the sentiment that Hoosiers have for their home state.

• La Fayette, or, The Castle of Olmutz • King's Bridge Cottage: a revolutionary tale founded on an incident which occurred a few days previous to the evacuation of N. York by the British: a drama in two acts • The widow's son, or, Which is the traitor: a melo-drama in three acts • Bunker-Hill, or, The death of General Warren: an historic tragedy, in five acts • The Foundling of the Sea

• The deed of gift: a comic opera in three acts • The forest rose, or, American farmers: a drama in two acts

• The Champions of Freedom, or The Mysterious Chief, A Romance of the Nineteenth Century, Founded on the Events of the War, Between the United States and Great Britain, which Terminated in March, 1815 (1816), the first historical novel by an American author

• Samuel was a founding member of the New York Society of the New Church (Swedenborgian) and one of his poems became a hymn - "Oh for a seraph's golden lyre" - which is still sung by some New Church congregations.