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Show Didn't Like History, Now Stores It In Her Memory The preservation of our ancestors, and the building of a community lies In written histories and a person that has Lived during this time. One that has a memory and desire to tell it how It was. Mrs. Mary Sargent, M Panguitch has spent hours finding, reading and recording the histories of many people. She has been historian for the Garfield County Daughters of Utah Pioneers thereby being responsible for many hundreds of histories being located and recorded In the DUP history records. She was asked to be the geneologist for the Houston family. When they asked her to do this she said, "Why me? I am bored stiff with histories." But the more she learned, the more she dug Into different records and the more excited she became about history. With her memory, she has as storehouse of history in her mind. She was about 70 when she taught herself to type. She and her sister, Pearl LeFevre, now 91 spend one entire winter putting information found from the Denmark Archives onto about 4,000 genealogy sheets so they would be available to the family. She loves to research geneaology and help if possible. She lives alone, takes care of her house .cleaning, brings her wood in to keep a nice warm fire In her fireplace, cans, keeps history books and best of all, for all that know here and love her, tells stories of days gone by and even stories of events happening just recently. She is so picturesque in her words that the person listening to her stories almost lives the events with her. She recalls when she was about 16 and her future husband almost 17, were walking home from mutual late at night and all of a sudden they heard such a terrible racket and saw two JJ eyes coming towards them. "ey quickly Jumped behind the nearest bush to hide from the terrible thing. When It passed they could see that It was a car. Girls was not allowed up town night In those days so when the car passed, "Norm didn't even care about me after that he ran up town to see the car, I was left to walk alone." I was born Just In time to be the boy of our family," Mrs. Sargent said. She cut the hay, raked the hay, cut the grain, helped get the grain from the Jtocks, all either by hand or real horsepower. "One time I was aitting upon the hay rake, which was drawn by hories. When I got in at noon," she recalls, 'The back of my dress had aU been cut to shreds. So my father went In the other room and got me a pair of boy's brownies (as the levis were then called) to wear. I was about the first girl around this area to wear boy's brownies. I remember the boys coming over to borrow something Just to get a chance to see me in a pair of them. They had never seen anything like that before," Mrs. Sargent said smiling. "I remember one time I was teaching an adult class in Sunday School, the manual had not yet arrived so I had to make up the lessons. I thought because I knew so much about the history of this area, I would tell a bit about it. "The class really became a large class when people found out what was being talked about" she said. She has lived a life, a hard life. She has helped and loved many children besides her own. One of her granddaughters; Mrs. Torla Boucher, who loves her as she loves her own mother said this about Mrs. Mary Sargent "The greatness of her lies In what she has given to others and the heartaches she has so humbly borne." |