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Sam Walter Foss
(1858–1911)
Writer, poet, and librarian Sam Walter Foss was born in Candia, N.H. on June 18, 1858. Foss’s mother died when he was only four years old, and he toughened up quickly—working on his father’s farm during the harvest and attending school in the winter months. Working his way through high school and college as a janitor, Foss graduated from Brown in 1882 and was named class poet.
Writing was his chosen career path, and with a partner, he took over the Lynn (M.A.) Saturday Union. Foss moved to Boston in 1887 to edit the Yankee Blade and write editorials for the Boston Globe. He contributed to Tidbit in New York, and to satirical magazines Puck and Judge, Youth’s Companion, The (N.Y.) Sun, the Christian Science Monitor, and the New York Tribune. In 1893, Foss brought out his first book of verse, Back Country Poems, followed by four more books of poetry published during his too-short life. These included Whiffs from Wild Meadows (1895), Songs of War and Peace (1898), The Song of the Library Staff (1906), and Songs of the Average Man (1907).
In 1929, his poem “The House by the Side of the Road” was named the second most popular poem in America. It has been said that the poem’s refrain “Let me live in a house by the side of the road / And be a friend to man,” was embroidered on more samplers during this period than “Home Sweet Home.” Foss’s words once graced the stone in the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
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Catherine Beyer Hurst, MBA, Writer and Community Historian
Gallery
Foss: Gallery
Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911)
Most days in the first decade of the twentieth century, a handsome man with close-cropped, curly hair and a twinkle in his eye would hop on the Highland Avenue trolley in Somerville, right in front of his house, and ride the scant mile to the Somerville Public Library at the other end of the avenue. Once there, Sam Walter Foss assumed the duties of Head Librarian, a job he held for the last 13 years of his life, and one that gave him time to do what he loved—mingle with the common man, give help to others, hone his sense of humor, and work on his poetry and essays.
At the time of his death after a failed surgery in 1911, Sam Walter Foss, author of more than 700 poems and five published books of poetry, was heralded by the Somerville Journal as “the most beloved man in Somerville.” Foss had pioneered many modern innovations in library service and had built the library’s circulation to the second largest in New England—lagging behind only that of the Boston Public Library. (This despite the fact that Somerville was only the 14th largest city in New England, outranked by other cities with Ivy League universities, such as Providence, Cambridge, and New Haven.)
Sam Walter Foss was a product of three New England states: New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. He was born in Candia, N.H., son of Dyer Foss and Polly Foss (née Hardy) on June 18, 1858. Foss’s fifth great-grandfather, John Foss, had emigrated from England to New Hampshire in the 1630s, making Sam an eighth-generation scion of hardy New Hampshire farming stock.
Foss’s mother died when he was only four years old, and he toughened up quickly—working on his father’s farm during the harvest and attending school in the winter months. But he had his mind set on education from an early age. When the family moved to Portsmouth, N.H. after Dyer Foss’s remarriage, Foss walked three miles each way to attend Portsmouth High School and hatched a plan with a high school classmate, Arthur Gage, to attend college. Gage recalled these events in a 1921 letter. “At the end of our second year in the high school, Foss and myself made up our minds that we wanted to go to college. To enter college at that time Latin and Greek seemed to be necessary. Classes in Latin were given in high school but there was no Greek class.”
After a year of postgraduate work at what is now the Tilton School, where they performed janitorial labor in exchange for reduced tuition, both young men were accepted to Brown University on scholarship. This outcome may have been influenced by a Tilton School math teacher, Professor Dixon, and his nephew, Professor Nathaniel “Toot” Davis, who taught at Brown. Arthur Gage’s family took the unusual step of moving to Providence, and Sam Foss boarded with the Gage family during much of his time there. “At other times,” continued Gage, “he obtained jobs like taking care of furnaces and did not board with us.”
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Foss: Full Bio
Foss graduated from Brown in 1882 and was named class poet (as he had been at Portsmouth High School). Writing was his chosen career path, and with a partner, he took over the Lynn (Ma.) Saturday Union. By 1883, he was the sole proprietor and editor of the paper and started a weekly humor column, which met with great success. The paper was sold a few years later. Foss moved to Boston in 1887 to edit the Yankee Blade and write editorials for the Boston Globe. It is said that he wrote a poem a week for the Blade, and, in the last two years of his tenure, he penned a daily poem for a syndicate. He contributed to Tidbit in New York, writing most of the paper’s jokes and poetry in the paper, and to satirical magazines Puck and Judge, Youth’s Companion, The (N.Y.) Sun, the Christian Science Monitor, and the New York Tribune.
In 1887, he married Carrie Conant, whom he must have begun courting during his time at Brown. She was the daughter of the Reverend Henry W. Conant, a Methodist minister and a temperance advocate in Providence, and a successful woman in her own right. She had graduated from the Rhode Island State Normal School (now Rhode Island College) and served as principal of the Potters Avenue School in Providence at the time of their marriage. The Fosses had two children—a son, Saxton Conant (named for Carrie’s brother) in 1888, and a daughter, Mary Lillian, known as Molly, in 1893.
By 1893, Foss had accumulated a growing reputation and enough poems to bring out his first book of verse, Back Country Poems. He quit his job at the Yankee Blade in 1894 and turned to full-time writing, publishing four more books of poetry in his too-short life. These included Whiffs from Wild Meadows (1895), Songs of War and Peace (1898), The Song of the Library Staff (1906), and Songs of the Average Man (1907).
His poetry, often written in New England vernacular, captured the voice of the common man. Foss was never far from his country roots. His poems, largely optimistic and often nostalgic, championed the power of the individual and a strong work ethic. He was sometimes critical of societal institutions and poked fun at organized religion (although he was married to a minister’s daughter and was a church-going Methodist himself).
In one of the most significant moves in his career, Foss was unanimously elected head librarian of the Somerville Library in 1898, a post he would hold for the next 13 years. Although Foss was not trained as a librarian, he was certainly a lover of books and honed his craft on the job. During his tenure in Somerville, he initiated many revolutionary programs and policies that spread to other New England libraries through his advocacy. He was an active member of the Association of New England Librarians of Public Libraries and was accorded the respect of his fellow librarians when he was elected president of the Massachusetts Library Club in 1904. In Somerville his innovations included opening the stacks to patrons; installing a children’s room, a reference room, and a school department; adding books to the collection that “ordinary” men and women would enjoy reading; stocking multiple copies of popular books; establishing traveling collections; and opening the library every evening.
In 1908, Brown University awarded him an honorary degree, “master of arts, librarian and man of letters, singer of kindly songs in many keys, spreading by the poet’s art the elemental virtues of courage, sympathy, and faith.”
He was a frequent speaker at many clubs and meetings, and his speeches, neatly hand-written on the back of his Somerville Library stationery, clearly articulated his point of view on writing, books, libraries, and many other topics of the day. He advocated an activist role for the community librarian. “Don’t stay in the library all the time yourself and stagnate in the musty atmosphere of your dead books. Be a public and not a private man. Get out and feel the dynamic thrill that comes from contact with live men. The club, the exchange, the street, the philanthropic and economic organizations that are feeling out for the betterment of mankind are the places where the librarian should be found frequently. He should be the best-known man or woman in the city . . . Nearly every librarian ought to double the circulation of his books and treble the circulation of himself.”
Foss clearly took this last bit of advice to heart. When he died in 1911, the Somerville Journal reported that flags flew at half-mast; the mayor was an honorary pallbearer; and the city clerk, city treasurer, building commissioner, and engineer served as ushers. The church filled beyond capacity. In his honor, the public library closed for the afternoon and the city hall from noon to 2:30 P.M.
Foss’s poetry would continue to gladden hearts and make the author’s points for years to come. In 1929, his poem “The House by the Side of the Road” was named the second most popular poem in America. It has been said that the poem’s refrain “Let me live in a house by the side of the road / And be a friend to man,” was embroidered on more samplers during this period than “Home Sweet Home.” Foss’s words once graced the stone in the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs as well as the South Wall in the American Adventure Pavilion at Walt Disney’s Epcot’s World Showcase.
And Sam Walter Foss is also remembered every time a ceremonial occasion takes place at Brown University—since he is one of 12 distinguished alumni whose names are engraved on the Gorham silver mace carried by the University President. (His fellow engravees include Horace Mann, Samuel Gridley Howe, and John Hay.) The mace was given to Brown in 1928 when Foss, 17 years deceased, was at the height of his popularity. Foss is buried at North Burial Ground.
Catherine Beyer Hurst, MBA, Writer and Community Historian
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