‘AUNT MARY' DEAD.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 48, 29 November 1890, Page 18

‘AUNT MARY' DEAD.

SHE OWXED THE ‘LITTLE LAMB’ AXt> WAS FOXD OF

CHILDRREX.

Ai’xt Mary Tyler, the original of the well-known nurseryballad, 'Mary had a Little Lamb,' died at her home in Somerville. She was eighty-three years old and a widow. In her early life she attended*school in the town of Sterling, where the episode of the historic little lamb occurred, and where the little old school-house to which the lamb took so strong a liking is still pointed out to strangers. The author of the verses failed to so specify in the lines, but it is a matter of every-day knowledge in Sterling that the real reason why the lamb followed Mary to school on that particular day was because the weather outside was cold and the lamb wanted to warm itself by the comfortable wood stove inside the school-house.

The teacher herselt, it is said, wrote the verses which acquired so wide a reputation. At that time the lamb’s young friend’s name was Mary E. Sawyer. After leaving Sterling she taught school in Fitchburg and then became a matron of the McLean Insane Asylum in Somerville, which position she held for thirty-five years. While at the institution she married Columbus Tyler, who was the steward of the institution and he remained there up to 1862. Mr Tyler built a spacious residence about that year and they occupied it when finished, and both lived a life of charity and devotion to the sick and afflicted.

She was ‘ Aunt Mary ’ to every child on Spring Hill she eame in contact with for years, and could always be found at the bedside of the sick ministering to their wants. Children were invited to have the full swing of the fine estate, and it was always a pleasant sight to see them playing on the well-kept lawn. Mrs Tyler was very much interested in the L'nitarian Church, where she taught the infant class for many years.