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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 212, 22 August 1927, Page 4

A recent paragraph stated that Mrs Mary Hughes, of Tyissa Farm, Llangdon (Wales), who claims to have inspired the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little lamb,” celc brated her 86th birthday in May (says a writer in an exchange). It now appears that Mary, her lamb aud the authorship of tie verses are claimed by the United States of America. Mr Henry Ford has taken a keen interest in the history of the rhyme. Several years ago he acquired a wayside inn at Sudbury immortalised by Longfellow, and nad it restored, and then he proceeded in the poetic atmosphere of Suabury to research—not less interesting to him—the tracing of the genealogy of Mary, fhe owner of the lamb, and “the boy author of fhc poem who penned the original 12 lines of the verse, when he was 12 and alary 11. Mr Ford bought “Old Redstone Schoolhouse,” the school attemloq by Mary and her lamb, which had been converted into a garage, removed the building intact, and sot it down near Longfellow’s inn.