| Rita's ~
VINTAGE READING®
~ Notebook
Since 1947, "Mrs. B" has found and verified countless people, events . . .
and--at times--even figments of imagination. We offer an example.
OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2007 :: © 2007 Buday Books / Vintage Reading ® |
Story of George and His Cherry Tree
Adapted from an 1868 Account
By Rita Buday
For
most Americans until about 1840, attending "public school" for any
length of time was just a daydream. The well-to-do could afford
individual tutors, private academies, & colleges; the
not-so-well-to-do settled for "catch-as-catch-can" basics of reading,
writing, & ciphering. Working for a living to stay alive started
early--school was a luxury reserved for those who could afford to pay.
Young men who were inclined to the Ministry had a better time of it.
Preaching was considered so worthy a calling that their families
willingly accepted severe hardships to finance schooling; clergymen
made extra efforts to help with tutoring; colleges including Harvard,
Yale, & Bowdoin reduced tuitions for divinity students. It's not
surprising that clergymen were among 19th-cent. America's educated men.
Ministers contributed to religious publications; many also wrote
popular books & magazine articles as another way to extend their
Ministry to the public at large.
Though most worked quietly, one member of their fraternity did things a bit differently.
THE REVEREND MASON LOCKE WEEMS
Ah yes--Parson Weems--Episcopal priest, book salesman, & "best seller" author of his time--born 1759 in Maryland.
He studied for the Anglican priesthood in London where he developed a
passionate belief in "the value of good books." After difficulties and
delays due to the war between Britain & the U.S., he was eventually
ordained & returned home in 1784 to serve at All Hollows Church,
& St. Margaret's Parish in Maryland for some eight years.
He was happy in the priesthood, though fascinated with the idea that
through "good books" he could reach much larger audiences. That brought
him to reprinting and selling uplifting works by the Scottish
Presbyterian Hugh Blair, & religious writer Hannah More, among
others.
In 1792 he started a 31-year circuit, traveling
up & down the Atlantic seaboard from New York to Georgia, selling
his own books & being a salesman for Mathew Carey's Bibles.
Parson Weems was a warm, friendly man, but as he made his rounds, people saw him as ONE OF THOSE! -- A BOOK SALESMAN! -- a pest with a cast-iron head who didn't understand "NO!!" -- about as welcome as a plague of angry hornets. Clergyman Weems may have felt rebuffed, but book salesman
Weems used his fiddle & a rollicking sense of humor to break the
ice, to sell his books, & to fit in sermons here & there.
One thing led to another. It wasn't too far a jump from reprinting & selling books to writing them.
In 1800, a year after George Washington died, Rev. Weems published his Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington. It was immensely popular, going through something like 70 printings! Whatever
the virtues of the book, as each printing was made ready for the press,
he refined a bit here, added a bit there. By the 1806 printing, the
Parson told a famous fiction known to every schoolchild--the story of a
cherry tree, a hatchet, & a young boy's answer to his father.
Critics complained there was absolutely no evidence, anywhere, to
support that story. Weems countered that it was a parable to show Washington's life-long devotion to honesty. If he had chopped
down a cherry tree, that was how he would have answered. Parables were
told to make a point, not to be taken as historic fact!
There were also loud complaints when he added "Former Rector of Mt.
Vernon Parish" in the 1809 printing. "That," said the Parson, "was a
bit of literary license. The President attended Pohick Church--more or
less in Mt. Vernon--for a time before I went there to preach. My book
about him in 1800 was one of the very first, but now everybody
is putting out books about the man. All most of them know of Washington
is what they 'skim' & 'borrow' from here & there. I spent years
learning & understanding the President from people who were his
close associates in Philadelphia, New York, Virginia, & Maryland.
I
admit that calling myself 'Former Rector of Mt. Vernon Parish' may have
stretched facts a bit, but there was no intent to deceive--it was to
put forth my credentials, so to speak."
~
Historians take a dim view of Parson Weems' books, saying he was so
intent on making moral points that he played fast & loose with the
facts. Truth is, Weems never felt his mission was to write chapter
& verse of dry history. In those days before daily newspapers &
universal literacy, he told stories of great Americans--
Francis
"Swamp Fox" Marion, Ben Franklin, William Penn, George Washington--to
fellow Americans who had heard those names but knew little else about
them.
Parson Weems passed away in May 1825, satisfied
that by using his fiddle & a rollicking sense of humor to break the
ice, he could then tell stories of virtue & morality, sell books,
& blend in sermons here & there to congregations far larger
than any church ever built could hold.
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