Noah Webster

Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – may 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer, word enthusiast, and editor. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education." His "Blue-Backed Speller" books were used to teach spelling and reading to five generations of American children. In the United States, his name has become synonymous with dictionaries, especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary that was first published in 1828 as an American dictionary of the English language.

Biography

Noah Webster was born on October 16, 1758, in the west division of Hartford, Connecticut, to a family who had lived in Connecticut since colonial days. His father, Noah, Sr. (1722–1813), was a farmer and a Sower. His father was a descendant of Connecticut Governor John Webster; his mother, mercy (born Steele; D. 1794), was a descendant of Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony. Noah had two brothers, Abram (1751–1831) and Charles (D. 1762).

At the age of 16, Noah began attending Yale College. His four years at Yale overlapped the American revolutionary war, and, because of food shortages, many of his college classes were held in Glastonbury, Connecticut. During the American Revolution, he served in the Connecticut militia.

Having graduated from Yale in 1778, Webster wanted to continue his education in order to earn his law degree. He taught school in Glastonbury, Hartford, and West Hartford in order to pay for his education. He set up many small schools that didn't thrive, but he was a good teacher because instead of whacking his students to get them to learn, like most teachers did, he rewarded them. He earned his law degree in 1781, but did not practice law until 1789. Once he started he found the law was not to his liking.

Webster married Rebecca Greenleaf (1766–1847) on October 26, 1789, in New Haven, Connecticut. They had eight children: Emily Schotten (1790–1861), who married William W. Ellsworth, named by Webster as an executor of his will. Emily, their daughter, Married Rev. Abner Jackson, who became president of both Hartford's trinity college and Hobart College in New York State.

Webster married well and had joined the elite in Hartford but did not have much money. In 1793, Alexander Hamilton lent him $1500 to move to New York City to edit a federalist newspaper. In December, he founded New York's first daily newspaper, American Minerva (later known as the commercial advertiser), and edited it for four years.

For decades, he was one of the most prolific authors in the new nation, publishing textbooks, political essays, a report on infectious diseases, and newspaper articles for his federalist party. he wrote so much that a modern bibliography of his published works required 655 pages.

The Websters moved back to new haven in 1798. He then served in the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1800 and 1802-1807. He is buried in the grove street cemetery.

Politician Daniel Webster was Noah Webster's cousin. As a senator, Daniel sponsored Noah's proposed copyright bill. The first major statutory revision of U.S. copyright law, the 1831 Act was a result of intensive lobbying by Noah Webster and his agents in Congress.