Monthly Archives: June 2018

Polly Sargent, Pembroke Academy…

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Cousin May writes about her grandmother, Polly Sargeant.

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The gravestone and marker of May Coult and her parents.

The image below is a page from the BUSWELL FAMILY manuscript written by May Coult (cousin of my grandma Lillie Buswell Davie). Cousin May researched and recorded family history for 50 years or more, until her death, 43 years ago this week. Cousin May was from New Hampshire, worked in Washington, D.C., and was very familiar with the locations in the Buswell family history.

Somewhere along the line, many in the Sargeant family dropped the second -a- in the name and began to spell it Sargent.

PollySargent_by_May

Recently, I learned that both Cousin May and her father (Frank B. Coult) attended Pembroke Academy as well. Pembroke is celebrating its bicentennial at present, as it was officially formed as an organization on June 25, 1818.

1818 in N.H., paid the Judge $1.00

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Screen Shot 2018-06-26 at 7.55.33 PMPolly Sargeant Buswell was my great-great grandmother.

She lived in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, in the 1800s. Polly was what she preferred to be called, tho’ she was named Mary.

Polly was in school at Pembroke Academy in the early 1820s, and probably graduated c. 1825. She married Jacob Buswell on 11 December, 1827.

I don’t think she ever came to Dakota Territory, but her son did. He was James Murdock Buswell, my mom’s grandfather, who came “out West” after serving in the Civil War.

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1827 Jan. 11th, for my time & trouble for keeping accounts & settling debts… $2.50

Recently, I have found archival family items about her, the most recent being a list of expenditures from 1818 to 1827. (At that time, young women were not allowed to manage their own money; for some, their property went as dowery from their father to their husband, and was never theirs.) In this document, the man who kept her funds is itemizing and settling the account.

Here’s a PDF of the scan I made. It’s fairly high resolution, so you should be able to zoom in quite a bit to make it easier to read. (If you download, file size is about 25 megs).

pollySdebts1818

 

Mar. 17, 1953: the Army’s atomic blast test

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1024px-Camp_Desert_Rock

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Camp Desert Rock, outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. (public domain photo from wikipedia)

 

I heard the newscast at 7:30 that morning that said, first thing, that all the troops were safe.

On March 17, 1953, Mom did not attend that atomic blast in Nevada, where our dad (Thorgel) was stationed at Camp Desert Rock. Here’s content from the letter she write to her sister about that day:

Thursday, March 19, 1953

Dear Marion and all:

We received your nice and most welcome letter today, and it was quite a coincidence, your telling about Marilyn Gulberg saying that she saw Thorgel in the trench at the atom bomb explosion, because it is very likely that she did. He was one of the company that occupied the forward trenches—in fact, only one trench was closer to the explosion than his. It must have been a terrific thing—he was sort of crouched down, trying to support himself against the side of the trench, and after the explosion he said the earth just rocked underneath him, so that he had the sensation of being in a boat with high waves rocking it from one side to the other. They felt a tremendous blast of heat, and scorching hot sand sifted in on them. A lot of fellows were right down in the bottom of the trench, but Thorgel said he thought if the trench caved in on them from the force of the explosion, he didn’t want to be right where it would cover him completely, so he merely assumed a crouching stance. The back of his neck was sore, and looked as if he’d been exposed to a bad sunburn, which was actually about what happened. I was surely apprehensive, until after I heard the newscast at 7:30 that morning that said, first thing, that all the troops were safe.

[Mom doesn’t write this here, but I remember Thorgel telling _me_ many years later that the flash was so bright he could see the skeleton of the guy standing in front of him, almost like a muted x-ray.]

My own part as a watcher didn’t amount to much, for the following reason: I’d been up almost all night, off and on, with Kathy, who had been coughing and very restless. I was up at a quarter of five and turned off my alarm, so that it wouldn’t wake her, because she was finally asleep, and I guess that I was so exhausted I fell asleep myself—when I woke up it was past time for the blast, and I was _so_ disgusted, especially as I knew  Thorgel would be anxiously waiting to hear what we saw and heard from here. However, Mrs. Pruter was just going outside as the explosion went off and she said it was not so terribly loud; she didn’t think it was as loud as last year’s. However, I understand that there will be other blasts soon, perhaps bigger than the one that the news and TV cameras photographed, and I am certainly going to be awake then, if I have to stay up all night. When they shoot the atomic cannon, as they say in the paper may be May 2nd, I want to hear what I can of it.

Thorgel was surely tired and hungry when he got home. He had had his breakfast at 11:00 p.m. the night before the blast, and no sleep at all that night, as they had to assemble in the trucks, etc., and drive about 50 miles from Desert Rock to the area where the explosion took place. They had to have formation there, or whatever they call it, about 3:30, and have everything in readiness for any last minute instructions. He got home about 2 in the afternoon of the 17th, and had something to eat and went to bed, just about exhausted. All of the men were tested for the radiation they were exposed to, and Thorgel and most of them tested 1.5—it seems as if they had tested as much as 3, they would have been hospitalized, or otherwise treated for it.

Things here in Vegas have certainly been jumping the day or so before the blast, as you can imagine. I think everybody kind of heaved a sigh of relief when it was over.

Today we are having another awful dust and wind storm. I’ll be glad when it is over. Kathy and I haven’t been out for two days, and I won’t let her out until it is all over.

[She goes on with more, but this is all that related to the atomic blast, in this letter.]

Back from Korea, now Camp Desert Rock!

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In 1953, parents and my older sister went to live in Las Vegas, when my dad was stationed at the nuclear testing facilities. At the beginning of the year, they hadn’t yet found out what his next orders were to be. Not long before, Thorgel had returned to the USA, after serving two years in Korea.

These are PDF files viewable in Acrobat and probably in most browsers, as well.

Here are the first two letters mom sent home to her sister, who saved them for 50 years.

JANUARY 2, 1953: 1953_ltr_01_02_5pp

JANUARY 8, 1953: 1953_ltr_01_08_2pp

1871: my dear James, come live with us

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mydearjamesMy mom’s grandpa, James M. Buswell, receives a letter from his mother, Mary Sargent Buswell, who is back home in Auburn, New Hampshire.

She is about 65 years old; she want him to bring his family back from Iowa, and to live with them in Auburn again. He is 29, has been married about three years, and he and his wife Mary have two small children. His mother thinks he can work with his brother on their land.

Although this isn’t totally clear to me, it seems likely that the land J.M.B. had then in Iowa came from proving his claim to 40 acres, received as a veteran’s benefit for his three years of service in the Union Army during the war, in the 1st New Hampshire Light Battery. This is how my mother thought he acquired property, when he was otherwise very young. Before the war, his mother tried to convince him not to enlist; now that the conflict is over, it seems unthinkable that he should want to stay out west.

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Auburn, New Hampshire
August 20th, 1871

My Dear James,

I was very glad to hear from you, we went to the office a number of times but no letter from you. I dreamed at last you came, then I thought we should get one certain. I hope you won’t neglect to write so long again. I wanted to hear from you before I wrote again. I am very sorry your hands have troubled you so much. I know it is awful discouraging. I think if you were here when I could see you, I think you might get well.

James, if your family are well enough to stand such a journey I would like very much to have you move in here this fall and live with us. (Sarah is having her house fixed so she won’t want to come down here and more to live, very soon. The house is large enough with little fixing for us all and firewood aplenty by cutting. Franklin has more to do now than he ought to, to live comfortably.

Mary has had to help him some about his outdoor work, which I think, is too hard for her. His crops are good, his oats are large and stout, and a good many of them. His barn is about as full as he can stuff it. He has a large hog and a pig. I think it needs two, a good part of the time, to carry it on well and do the work.

So I don’t see why you can’t be provided for comfortably here till you have a chance to do better somewhere else. We miss Charles very much when he is gone. James, if you can work, I think there are ten chances here to get money, to one out west, either to hire or by work. Even if you make some sacrifices to come you will gain it in the end.

Franklin’s health is very good this summer. I think if you come back to live, _you_ might get well. I think it is on account of your health makes your hands sore, good health is a great blessing.

Franklin is having abundance of garden stuff this year. He planted the whole piece that we used to have for a garden front of the house, from one end to the other next to the swamp and most out to the well and road, most all kinds peas, beans, sweet corn fodder, corn, beets, two kinds turnips, cabbage, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, citrons, gooseberries, currants.

I wish you could be here to have some. I thought by the look he was laying out enough for two or three families. We are having a fine lot of cucumbers—it was pretty dry the first part of the season, but the rains came on sooner this year and things are growing first rate. We shall not have many apples this year. Suspects we shall have cranberries and grapes.

James, I hope when you receive this letter it will find you praising God and rejoice that you have been afflicted. It is good if sanctified to us in such a way as to wean us more and more from the world and all earthly things and lead us to more exclusively put our trust in the living God and rejoice in Him forevermore.

I have thought about you out there a great deal deprived of many things to make you comfortable. If you were here James, we are all passing very rapidly away, we shall all soon be gone, _you_ with the rest. I would like to see you often,

from Mother

James M, perhaps Mr Daniels will let you have some money.

James, don’t be discouraged nor cast down. Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you, if you think you have done wrong, repent and seek the Lord with all your heart and trust in him to guide you in the right way, and prepare you for Heaven. It is through much tribulation if any enter Heaven. Be patient, endure as a good Soldier for Christ and his Cause. Hold out to the end for such shall be saved.

Please accept my love and best respects for you all.
Kiss the children for me,
from your Mother
Mary Buswell

Please write again soon. I think I will put a little money in this letter for you. Jacob P. has had two sick spells this summer. The last time he was sick I thought he looked poorer that Sarah did, but he kept round most of the time. I am afraid Sarah won’t live though this winter. Some times she gets up half an hour, some times she don’t get up for two or three days.

— — —

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