The Bard of Ballard Vale
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://tinyurl.com/5984p3
The 'Bard of Ballard Vale' and his unofficial biographer
By Bill Dalton
August 21, 2008 05:02 am
Walter Bagnall of Chillicothe, Ohio, is an expert on the subject of
Steven T. Byington of Ballard Vale. He told me that, in 1957, some
Andover residents proposed naming the new South School the "Steven T.
Byington Elementary School." The idea was rejected because too few
people knew Byington.
Bagnall also says that, in 2003, future presidential candidate Ron Paul
read into the Congressional Record a quote from Byington. Bagnall
describes himself as Byington's "unofficial biographer," and he
considers Byington a great man. He was delighted to see my earlier
column online and is happy that Byington is not forgotten in Andover.
Steven T. Byington (1868-1957) was one of the most interesting people
ever to have lived in Andover. To most Townies from the 1930s to 1957 he
was a colorful man who often was seen walking between Ballardvale and
Memorial Hall Library. He had a long beard, wore sneakers but never a
hat, and always he had a bookbag over his shoulder. Those who knew him
well, especially in the old Union Congregational Church of Ballardvale,
understood he was an intellectual with an intricate knowledge of the
Bible. Others knew of him due to a 1956 feature article in the Townsman
that highlighted Byington and the 40 years he'd spent translating the
Bible into modern English. Perhaps some people in town knew he was a
translator of great renown and one of the intellectual pillars of
American anarchism, but I doubt there were many. Byington was a genius
who read and wrote in at least 12 languages. Fifteen years after
passing, his "The Bible in Living English" was published and several
hundred thousand copies were sold.
Mr. Bagnall has never visited Andover, nor did he ever meet Mr.
Byington. Bagnall is a mathematician by education and works in an
insurance company actuarial department. He is an amateur musician,
enjoys literature and chess, and is married with young adult children.
He became interested in Byington because his mother kept a copy of
Byington's Bible translation on her bookshelf, and when Bagnall went to
college he came across Byington's name in a 1945 Reader's Guide to
Periodical Literature. Bagnall says, "Byington had a penchant for
writing letters to the editor all across the country. He wrote on
virtually every subject: grammatical usage, President Harrison's foreign
policy, the equality of races, and why the ostrich hides his head in the
sand." From there, Mr. Bagnall's lifelong interest in Byington began.
When I asked why he thought Byington was a great man, Bagnall responded
that Byington overcame a handicap (severe stuttering) without a trace of
bitterness, and found a way to make a substantial contribution to
society in spite of it. Bagnall says, "Byington wasn't afraid to stick
out like a sore thumb to make a point. Being an anarchist in the
1890-1920 period was unpopular. To take a stand for what he believed in,
despite the prevailing opposition to anarchism, was admirable and I
think, one of the marks of greatness." Mr. Bagnall compares Byington to
Thoreau, and says, "In many ways the two were cut from the same cloth;
but Byington was brainier. Maybe this is why Thoreau is famous and
Byington is not. After all, an article titled, 'The Attributive Noun
Becomes Cancerous,' which Byington wrote for American Speech in October,
1926, wouldn't have been the most engaging reading by any means."
Byington graduated from the University of Vermont in 1891, where he
later described himself as an "unclubable crank." According to Bagnall
this was because of Byington's devotion to prohibition and his unusual
political beliefs. Byington believed that all unused land should revert
to public use, which likely accounted for one of Byington's life-long
eccentricities: when out for a walk, he often trespassed across people's
back yards. After graduating from theological school, Byington's speech
impediment proved too much of a barrier to being a minister. The stutter
was so severe that it could take a minute or more for him to begin a
sentence.
Byington became a follower of the ideology of Benjamin R. Tucker, a
philosophical anarchist and publisher of the periodical Liberty. By
today's definitions, Tucker and Byington would be more like
libertarians. The Byington quote Ron Paul read into the Congressional
Record was from an essay that appeared in an 1895 issue of Liberty. The
quote is: "No legal tender law is ever needed to make men take good
money; its only use is to make them take bad money. Kick it out!"
In 1906, Byington moved to Ballardvale with his mother and soon wrote
the history of the Union Congregational Church of Ballard Vale, as the
area was then called. Byington's 1907 translation of Max Stirner's, The
Ego and His Own, cemented his reputation as an authority on both
anarchism and translation, according to Bagnall. Byington wrote 50 pages
of introduction and editorial notes to the 1928 translation of Baron
Munchausen's Narrative of His Marvelous Travels and Campaigns in Russia.
Bagnall says, "Byington is sometimes erroneously listed as the author
[who was really Rudolf Erich Raspe] because his name appears on the
spine." Although Byington's anarchist views may have faded around the
time of World War I, he expanded his letter writing and began to
contribute articles to journals such as American Speech, the Christian
Century, and the Journal of Biblical Literature. Many textbook
translations contained introductions by Byington.
Bagnall's research led him to The Sage of Ballard Vale, Remembrance of a
Yankee Genius, a lengthy essay by one of Byington's Sunday School
Students. The student recalled a day, many years ago, when a young,
visiting minister from Harvard Divinity School spoke at the Union
Congregational Church. Byington's traditional seat was in the "old choir
section," which was to the side of the minister and in front of the
congregation. At one point, when the minister made a questionable
interpretation of an Old Testament passage, Byington interrupted the
service -- something he regularly did. His manner of interruption was
that he'd lean forward and tap his forehead with his finger, trying to
get the first word out of his mouth. This was a clue to the congregation
that he was about to speak. The congregation leaned forward in
expectation, which the minister mistook as rapt attention to his sermon.
Soon Byington spoke in a stutter, "I beg to differ! Young man, your
interpretation of the passage is incorrect. Going back to the Hebrew,
the essence of the passage reads as follows..." According to Mr. Bagnall
and the essay, "The younger man was speechless as Byington read the
passage in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and German to compare the
meaning. Little did the student know that his audience in this small,
country church would include a scholar whose achievements were greater
than any of the instructors at the Divinity School. The young student
later returned to Ballard Vale as the regular minister, and the two men
became fast friends."
Steven Byington was beloved by those who knew him well, respected as a
colorful, gentle man by those who knew him less well, and considered a
renowned scholar by many who knew him not at all.
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://tinyurl.com/2gcoqt
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"