The Old Oaken Bucket In The Well – Unfortunately, Stolen

1916

THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET.

That Famous Moss Covered One That Hung In the Well.

Not far from Boston is located the well which inspired the familiar lines of Samuel Woodworth to the "Old Oaken Bucket." Every time the place is visited many new traditions are told concerning the famous old bucket about which people have been singing these many years. Having drunk deep of the sparkling waters between whistled snatches of the familiar refrain, how disconcerting it was to have the charm broken by learning that the original "old oaken bucket" was stolen shortly after his well known poem became famous!

The youngest daughter of Samuel Woodworth, the author, who died in Berkeley, Cal., often used to tell about the real old oaken bucket and of the sadness which came over the household on the day it was stolen. It seemed as if one of the family were missing. In this age of souvenir collection who knows but that some day the real old "moss covered bucket that hung in the well" may turn up in a museum or serve as a water tank in the show windows of some enterprising advertiser?

There is no other water bucket in the world so enshrined in homely, genuine romance as this one. Even the golden goblets of royalty and the treasured chalices of the crusaders have never awakened the universal and popular interest attained by the "old oaken bucket that hung in the well" until it was stolen and carried away in the zenith of its fame. — Joe Mitchell Chapple in National Magazine.