SAMUEL THOMAS GREENE:
A Legend in the Nineteenth Century Deaf Community
Reviewed by Cynthia Neese Bailes
The DHI Newsletter (Deaf History International), No. 25, Winter 2005.
Clifton Carbin's biography of Samuel Thomas Greene is an important addition to the history of the North American deaf Community. Sam Greene first attended school at the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb when Laurent Clerc was still teaching at the age of 70. He was a student at the National Deaf-Mute College when Edward Miner Gallaudet was president. Edward Fay a professor, and Melville Ballard, James Denison and John Hotchkiss peers. In his adulthood, he enjoyed a personal friendship with Sophia Fowler Gallaudet. This historical context within which Sam was lived is fascinating in itself. Yet, Sam holds his own as a giant among giants. Leaving his home country to accept a teaching post at the Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (later called the Ontario School for the Deaf, OSD, which Carbin attended from 1954 to 1966), he became the first deaf teacher in the province of Ontario and an outstanding leader in the North American deaf community.
Almost as intriguing as the biography is the story of how Carbin came to write Sam's life story. Carbin, the author of the notable Deaf Heritage in Canada: A Distinctive, Diverse, and Enduring Culture, was fascinated as a young student at OSD by an oil portrait of Sam of which no one seemed to know the origin -- it was too high up on the wall to read the marker that noted Sam's remarkable achievements and his unfortunate early death. Carbin happened upon information about Sam while conducting research for a paper as a graduate student in 1972. Once he realized that Sam was the subject of the oil painting, he developed a "minor obsession" in researching the life and achievements of this remarkable man. Carbin spent years dabbling in this research, and in 1998, he had the good fortune to meet Sam's great grandnephew, Stan Malcolm. Dr. Malcolm, who wrote the foreword to the book, had in his possession a walnut box containing a treasure-trove of photographs and documents that had been handed down through the family. This find lead Carbin to further breakthroughs resulting in this well-researched, informative, and enjoyable book.
Carbin approached Sam's life as a chronology, with each chapter representing a period of his life. He began detailing Sam's genealogy, supplemented by a family tree in the appendices. Sam was born in the wilderness of Maine, the last child of a family of seven children. His only sister Sarah, eight years his senior, was also deaf. Although Sam had no formal schooling until the age of twelve when his parents reluctantly sent him to the American Asylum in Hartford, he was taught at home. Carbin speculated that his parents likely used homemade signs and fingerspelling, and noted that Sarah began teaching Sam sign language on her holidays from school when he was four years old. A rambunctious young boy, he was forced to leave the American Asylum at the age of 16. He returned four years later a more serious student, and began to develop his lifelong love of literature and debate. His college days were marked by participation in the literary society in which he continued to hone his debating skills, and in the newly formed baseball team.
Shortly before graduation at the age of twenty-seven, Sam accepted a teaching post at his alma mater, the American Asylum. He stayed only a few weeks, leaving with good graces for the then-new Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. Of special note, he was offered this post as the first deaf teacher in Ontario upon a strong recommendation from Edward Miner Gallaudet, son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet who brought Laurent Clerc to the United States. Sam remained for twenty years, until his untimely death in an ice-boating accident. Carbin showed Sam to be a dedicated and respected teacher, frequently promoting vigorous engagement in reading, and an avid reader himself. He also portrayed Sam as a great leader and lecturer in the deaf community, having co-founded and presided over the Ontario Deaf-Mute Association (later renamed Ontario Association of the Deaf), and was frequently invited to present at various conferences in North America.
Carbin revealed Sam's vibrant life in both the deaf and hearing communities of Belleville, Ontario. He and his hearing wife, the former Caroline Campbell Howard, had five hearing children. Through his love of recreation, and especially of boating, he found common ground with his hearing counterparts. A member of the Belleville Yachting and Rowing Club, he built his own summer yacht and several iceboats, which he enjoyed racing. Carbin concluded the book with a chapter portraying Sam's legacy. Notable are a monument erected at his grave, and the oil painting that so fascinated Carbin. The last chapter brings us full circle, continuing with genealogy of the family that Sam left behind.
Carbin's thorough research is evidenced by endnotes after each chapter, an extensive bibliography, quotes from found artifacts, interesting and informative pictures, and the full text of an oration given by Sam plus the text of an eulogy given by a friend. I found myself wishing for additional and sharper pictures, and for illustrations of Sam's works in his own handwriting.
Carbin's book is fine reading. While the book seems to be aimed at the adult reader, it would also be interesting reading for middle- and secondary-school students. Carbin writes with a bit of nineteenth century flavor -- which easy to read, vivid descriptions and select word choices frequently evoked in me a seeming sense of the period in which Sam lived, adding to the charm of the book. Sam is depicted as a robust, intelligent, charismatic, caring, and popular man of his time, and I left the book with a feeling of sadness for a great life cut short.