This poem was in my third grade state history class in the late 1960s. If you’re interested, here’s a rather scathing review of it. Well, it was a different time, what can we say? She did write a fair number of other poems, mostly for children, but that was the only one in our history book.
Anyway, I happened to remember this poem a while back and tried to find out any info on the poet. She seemed rather elusive, but assuming all these names are for the same person, here’s what I could find:
The poet is Annette Wynne Steigman (1889-1952). She was born in Brooklyn and after graduating college got a job as a teacher/nurse/governess in Alaska (1911). I don’t know how long she was there, but she later moved to Portland Oregan for most of the 1910s, where she was a newspaper editor. Around 1920 she moved back to Brooklyn where she apparently married one Benjamin Steigman, teacher. She was also a teacher, so possibly that’s how they met. Can’t tell how long they were together, but I don’t think it lasted. And census records show that he did quite a bit of traveling!
I didn’t find her in the 1930 or 1940 census, but there could be some spelling discrepancies not showing her. Now I swear that in one census search, I found her in 1950 census as an inmate in an “insane asylum,” but now I can’t put my hands on it. She died in Westchester County NY in 1952.
Now, why am I posting this? This post will show up in a Google search, and if there’s anyone else out there (or, heck, anyone here for that matter) that remembers this poem or poet, possibly they might be able to corroborate/refute/add to the info I’ve posted. And it will give them a head start if they want to go down that rabbit hole.