Evening star., 1925-03-22
81 Z. Z

with apples. His appetite for apples
he has not outgrown. They wrap them
in separate papers to keep them
through to Spring.
Five miles out of Ludlow two shah
by, old farmsteads flank the deeply
rutted brown road. In these homes
of an earlier day began the close re-
lationship between the family of CAL
vim Coolidge and the family of John
Gariba1df Sargent. The great-grand-
father OF the President and the grand
father OF his new Attorney General
lived on opposite sides of the same
streak OF road in time before now
ing machines.
Not far from that road, on a farm
not unlike either OF those. Gary" Ssr-
gent was born on an October day in
1850 His people later moved farther
back into the hills. to an isolated farm
nearly 3 miles back of Col. Cool
idge's general store Il Plymouth. II
was 80 far back that the boy Gary
didn't have a chance to go to district
school until he was 10. BY that time
he was a great, gawky boy, almost as
competent as a hired man behind the
plow or in the woods. Before he fin
ished district school at Is he could
outdo his fathers man hoeing or
moving, or eating fried cakes. He
was a handy lad, and he inherited, to-
gether with a Yankee thrift, knack
with his hands. with an Irish buoy
ancy and keenness. and from the mix
ture a blend of character that is sug-
gested by, the almost cynical geniality
Of his comfortable countenance
His ancestry has been described by
a local historian as half Irish on one
side and all Irish on the other. His
mother, Ann Eliza Hanley, was born
on Vermont farm of Protestant Irish
immigrants. His fathers mother, too
a Henmon, was Of recent Irish strain.
But the name Sargent has been native
to Vermont almost since Ethan AL
lens day.
His father was never we'll off not
even as comfortably off as the Cool
fdSes TN the notch below Sargent Hill
Often he had to ask a needed hand to
wait for his money til some logs were
sold. When Gary" went away to
school at the Vermont Literary In
stitute in Plymouth Union, he used to
carry big box Of crackers on a Mon
day morning, and full pail of milk
and live largely on crackers and milk
through the week until he was home
! again.
Sargent taught a Winter in district
school when he was 49,. There are
! mothers of grown daughters in South
Reading and Five Corners who yet re-
member getting their lessons from the
rustic giant from Plymouth. Then
| older than most college graduates OF
his day, Sargent entered Black River
Academy in Ludlow, Is miles from his
fathers home, and for four years
| worked his way toward college en-
trance. He did everything that he
could turn his hand to with profit. He
cut students hair; a trick he had from
being the family barber on the farm
He came naturally by his zest fol
honing razors. And he used to work
| in the woods at what was counted q
| skilled form Of artisanship then, shaw.
| ing scythe snaths from ash poles. He
| boarded with an uncle, bringing the
bulk. of his frugal fare with him In
potato sacks from. the home farm.
This interval at the village acade.
my rough-hewed the farm lad for q
| mature entry into Tufts College ir
| Medford, Mass, where several schoo
chums had gone before him. At Tufts
] he did chores and taught French and
plugged at his books, ridding himself
Of burden Of condition that the hand