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Poet's Famous One-hoss Shay in Museum

Subject of Oliver Wendell Holmes Poem Still Intact

Jul 30, 2008 Rosemary E. Bachelor

That wonderful one-hoss shay immortalized in the famous Oliver Wendell Holmes poem was a real one that can be seen in a Pittsfield, MA museum.

Generations have referred to the Holmes poem as that memorable “one-hoss Shay poem” but, of course, its real title is “The Deacon’s Masterpiece.” The humorous portrait of that old buggy has lived for decades in the minds of thousands of readers.

Do we dare, or do we not? Is it best to keep that wonderful image held for so long where we mentally filed it away, or is it tempting to take a look at the real thing?

Shay's Home was Pittsfield, MA

The shay’s original owner was Samuel A. McKay (1793-1834), a leading citizen of PIttsfield, MA. The next owner was Amansa Rice, who operated a stagecoach route between Springfield, MA and Albany, NY. He probably used it more than anyone else since he owned it the longest period of time.

Amansa, also referred to as Amasa, was born in 1809 to Col. Alvan and Mary (Clapp) Rice. He married Sarah Hubbard and lived at Pittsfield, MA, where he died in 1896.

Railroad Put Shay’s Owner Out of Business

After Rice was put out of business by construction of the Boston and Albany Railroad, Francis W. Rockwell of Pittsfield purchased the carriage. He was a Massachusetts legislator who served five terms in the U. S. House of Representatives. Rockwell probably knew the poet’s son, Oliver W. Holmes Jr., who became an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Rice’s son, Robert A. Rice, once told Mr. Rockwell of Oliver Wendell Holmes’ frequent visits to examine the old shay while the physician better known as poet was living in Pittsfield between 1848 and 1856. Rice's father and Holmes were born the same year (1809) and Holmes died (1894) two years before Rice.

This original one-hoss shay was donated to the Berkshire Museum at Pittsfield by Rockwell in 1914. Rockwell died at age 85 in 1929.

Historic Shay Often Publicized

This shay made famous by Holmes’ poem has been written up in Strange As It Seems, a picture of it once appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, and a card about it was once displayed on New York subway cars.

A perfect reproduction of the historic shay was made by Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts and it is driven around this reproduction of an early American community daily during warmer parts of the year.

SOURCES: Genealogical History of the Rice Family, Andrew H. Ward, pp. 247, 324, 1858, Boston; Celebrating Our Diversity, pp. 198, 199, Enfield, CT, 2002; correspondence with Pittsfield Museum curator Bartlett Hendricks during the 1970s,

The copyright of the article Poet's Famous One-hoss Shay in Museum in Poetry is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Poet's Famous One-hoss Shay in Museum in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Oliver Wendell Homes