Rebecca Hammond Lard

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Rebecca Hammond Lard (born Rebecca Hammond; March 7, 1772 – September 28, 1855) has been described by some commentators as "the first poet in Indiana."

Her poetry explores the lives of the early inhabitants of Indiana and Vermont's colonists.

Lard's works are primarily religious and meditative in spirit, but they do take inspiration from Bucolics and Georgics of Virgil.

She is best known for her debut book of poetry, On the Banks of the Ohio, a poem she is said to have written, and she is best known for Indiana's first book of poetry, On the Banks of the Ohio.

Life and work

Rebecca (also Rebekah) Lard (Laird) was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on March 7, 1772, to parents Jabez and Priscilla (Delano) Hammond. She was baptized at Mattapoisett in Rochester, Massachusetts, the following month. Lard was the oldest of ten children. Jabez Hammond Jr. named his children from the oldest to the youngest, including Abigail, Caleb, Jabez Delano, Priscilla, Rhoda, Thankful, and Philip. Rebecca and her father's family immigrated from Rochester to Woodstock, Vermont, at age ten. On her mother's side of the family, her great grandmother was sibling to William Penn.

Rebecca began teaching at a school at the age of fourteen, becoming a tutor despite a lack of training herself but still relying on her own strengths. Jabez Delano Hammond, her brother, followed in her footsteps and began teaching at the age of fifteen, eight years later. Hammond continued to read and practice medicine in Reading, Vermont, as well as the study and practice of law in Cherry Valley, New York, where he was elected a member of Congress. Rebecca would dedicate her first book to her brother later this year.

Rebecca Hammond married Samuel Laird in Woodstock, Vermont, on February 12, 1801. She had four children at the time. She continued to teach, being her chief occupation there. About 1807 Samuel moved the Laird family from Hancock, Vermont, to Cherry Valley, New York, where her brother was living at that time. Samuel was born in Indiana and migrated to Indiana.

Rebecca refused to join him, instead bringing her children back to Vermont to be with her own family. "Her life struggle seems to have been a serious one, with a family of four children dependent on her for help from their childhood," Marcus Davis Gilman said of her.

In 1815, Samuel Laird filed land entry papers for 160 acres in Montgomery Township, Jennings County, Indiana. Samuel Jr., the son of their father, joined his father in 1817. On Graham Creek, they had a permanent home. Samuel Jr. returned to convince his mother to move the family west in 1819.

Samuel changed the spelling of his surname to LAIRD from LARD at an unknown time, long before the birth of their children. LAIRD is the acronym that refers to both their children and grandchildren.

Miscellaneous Poems by a Lady, Rebecca Watson's first collection of 143 pages of poetry, Miscellaneous Poems, was first published by David Watson of Woodstock in 1820 as Miscellaneous Poems on Moral and Religious Topics by a Lady. Jabez Delano Hammond, Jabez Delano Hammond, was given permission to do this work. She explores beauty, death, and feeling by comparing them to natural phenomena.

On the Banks of the Ohio, Rebecca's twelve-page poem, On the Banks of the Ohio, was published as a booklet in 1823 and was widely distributed in many magazines and newspapers. This is Indiana's first published poetry. Rebecca explores the area's landscape and the beauty of undisturbed nature in this poem. Native people are also considered dangerous, according to her.

An old version of Rebecca's five-page book of verse is kept in the collection of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, Cincinnati, Cincinnati, and an undated clipping of the Cincinnati Gazette describes the work as that of Mrs. Lard, "a lady of Indiana."

Rebecca left Montgomery, Alabama, in 1823, to become a school coach in Vernon, Indiana. John Vawter's cabin was constructed there to serve as the area's schoolhouse and board Mrs. Laird as a method of payment. She was one of the first female school teachers in Jennings county and she taught some of Indiana's finest minds. Squire Billy Deputy's children were among her students.

Samuel started divorce proceedings against Rebecca in 1826 for not returning after leaving him. In the Jennings County court, he was given a divorce on March 4, 1828. Rebecca moved to Jennings county later in life and returned south. She began teaching at Solomon's Temple by Coffee Creek.

Rebecca Laird died on September 28, 1855, and she is buried at the Coffee Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Paris Crossing, Indiana. "She has done what she could," the epitaph on her tombstone reads.

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