Noah Webster

My sister is driving around New England with her patient boyfriend in tow and she sent me this picture. We're not big sticklers for spelling, nor are we dictionary fiends. So why the visit to the Noah Webster house?

You probably know that Noah Webster crafted the first American dictionary which is called, logically, Webster's. Maybe you even know that his house is a museum in West Hartford, Connecticut.

What you might not know is that my great grandmother brought up my grandmother and her brothers in that house. Then after the kids were grown the family built another house on the property and gave the Noah Webster house to the state. I think that other house, the newish one, is where we visited my great grandmother when she was in her 90s; I was completely oblivious to the literary history across the lawn.