- Potpourri - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- [Photograph of Frances M. FORD]
-
- Author denied credit for 40 years
- "Puff, puff, chug, chug, went the little blue engine.
'I think I can - I think I can - I think I
- can...'
- "Over the mountain at last, with its load of Christmas
toys for the children on the other side,
- the engine puffed happily: 'I thought I could - I thought
I could.'"
-
- The life of Frances M. FORD, the author of that famous
tale - "The Little Engine That Could" -
- has at least one similarity to her ode to childhood stick-to-itiveness:
Mrs. FORD, who once lived in Janesville, had to wait some
40 years before she was given credit for writing the kids' classic.
- Born in upstate New York, she rode a covered wagon to a farm
near Janesville when she was
- only 6 months old.
- As a girl, she played the organ at the Court Street Methodist
Church and was married here. She
- stayed in Janesville for more than 30 years.
- She became a newspaper reporter after leaving, and later
was a professional organist and an
- insurance salesman. At age 60, she became children's editor
of the Chicago Daily News.
- The writing career which led to her famous story, started
when she wrote for a children's magazine,
- The After School Club Library. She wrote under the name of
Uncle Nat.
- She wrote "The Little Engine That Could" in 1912,
but it was unprotected by copyright. The story
- was reprinted many times without crediting her authorship,
but she never made an attempt to establish her claim to gain
royalties.
- A newspaper account said, "she seemed content to have
pleased children."
- A Boston mother once wrote a publisher to say that her little
boy would not eat his breakfast until
- he learned to say "I think I can." A university
student credited the little engine with getting him through exams.
And a torpedoed sailor in the South Pacific said he owed his
life to the story - about to give up his fight against the sea,
the sailor kept saying, "I think I can."
- In 1949, Mrs. FORD's cousin began pestering publishers
with the claim that "Cousin Franke" was
- the author of "The Little Engine That Could."
- A firm that had always credited the story to an ex-teacher
named Mabel Bragg looked back in its
- records to find that Miss Bragg had never claimed to do anything
more than retell another author's story.
- At first, publishers were reluctant to take sides and continued
to reproduce the story without credit
- to Mrs. FORD. Mrs. FORD's friends jumped on
the bandwagon.
- Finally, publishers were convinced and a contract was signed
with Mrs. FORD recognizing her as
- the author. She was nearly 100 years old.
- She died at 102.
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