Samuel Woodworth was an American author, literary journalist, playwright, librettist, and poet.
Biography
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 in 1842 at the age of 56. 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 was named for him.
"The Old Oaken Bucket"
Woodworth is best known for the poem "The Old Oaken Bucket". The first stanza reads: In 1826 the poem was set to music by George F Kiallmark and has been sung by generations of American schoolchildren. It was recorded in 1899 by The Haydn Quartet, the most famous barbershop quartet of the time, and was released on Berliner Gramophone.
The Old Oaken Bucket trophy has been awarded every year since 1925 to the winner of the Big Ten Conferencecollege 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.
Bubble & squeak, or, A dish of all sorts : being a collection of American poems
New-Haven : a poem, satirical and sentimental, with critical, humorous, descriptive, historical, biographical, and explanatory notes
The poetical works of Samuel Woodworth
Quarter-day, or, The horrors of the first of May : a poem
Erie and Champlain, or, Champlain and Plattsburg : an ode
Plays
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 forest rose, or, American farmers : a drama in two acts
Novel
The Champions of Freedom; or, The Mysterious Chief. A Romance of the Nineteenth Century, Founded on the War between the United States and Great Britain.
Hymn
Samuel was a founding member of the New York Society of the New Church and one of his poems became a hymn - "Oh for a seraph's golden lyre" - which is still sung by some New Church congregations.
