SASL Newsletter - Fall 2017 Issue Issue 7 - Fall 2017 | Page 5

Continued from page 1: Remembering a Legacy: Samuel Thomas Greene
in 1817. Sam eventually entered the “Gallaudet High Class,” a class of crème de-la-crème scholars
who often continued their education after graduation. From 1864 to 1866, while still a student, he was
given the opportunity to teach a younger class. Exhibiting a keen interest in the school’s extrac urricular
activities, Sam served as librarian (1863), treasurer (1864), president (1864), and secretary (1865) of
the Athenaeum of the American Asylum, an elite, student-run literary and debating society. He was also
a foreman of a student fire brigade. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Sam was made
captain of the school’s noncombat military company of students, known as the “Gallaudet Guard.”
In 1866, Sam, then twenty-three years old, ended his student days at the American Asylum and
decided to further his education at the National Deaf-Mute College (now Gallaudet University) in
Washington, DC, where he was admitted in September that year. On June 30, 1870, Sam, who turned
twenty-seven that month, graduated from the college with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Prior to that day,
he had been offered teaching positions at three US institutions for Deaf students. He opted for his alma
mater in Hartford.
However, in early September, Sam received a surprise invitation to teach in Canada. He was
highly recommended by Dr. Edward M. Gallaudet, then president of the National Deaf-Mute College, for
a position at the Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb in Belleville,
which was scheduled to open the following month as a new, permanent, government-funded school in
the province. After much consideration, he accepted the position and arranged for his journey to
Ontario.
Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (1870 – 1913)
Source: www.osdsjwalumni.ca/deaf-education.html
To the delight of a large crowd of dignitaries, functionaries, school staff, and visitors, the Ontario
Institution officially opened on October 20, 1870. Sam, who was the only Deaf teacher, was introduced
along with the inaugural teaching staff, which consisted of Wesley “Willie” J. Palmer (principal), Daniel
R. Coleman, and John Barrett McGann (school founder), and McGann’s oldest daughter, Mrs. J. J. G.
Terrill (née Euphemia McGann). Sam gave the audience a demonstration of the sign language (which
became widely known as American Sign Language in the 1960s) by depicting the various passions of
love, hatred, bravery, cowardice, hope, and scorn.
(Continue on the next page)
The Power of ASL
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Fall 2017 – Issue 7