One of the fun parts of genealogy is piecing together the clues we discover during our research and learning more of the story of our ancestors’ lives.
Here’s an interesting look, relying on old newspapers and U.S. government records, at the lives of Sargent Huse and his widow Huldah.
He first caught my eye when I ran across this interesting name in an 1818 obituary: “Captain Sargent.”
OK. So he was a captain, and his first name was Sargent. Given his age (dying at 78 in 1818), he was most probably a captain in the Revolutionary War. Let’s see what GenealogyBank can tell us about his military service.
Great genealogical find. This report tells us that Huse was born in 1740, died 26 January 1818, and was buried in the Town Cemetery in Greenland, New Hampshire. This old government record further tells us that he:
- Signed [the] Association Test in Epping, New Hampshire
- Was a lieutenant in Capt. Nathan Brown’s company in the Revolutionary War
- Was in Col. Jacob Gale’s Regiment in Rhode Island, August 1778
This old death notice confirms that the Revolutionary War soldier Huse died in Greenland, New Hampshire, and tells us that he was an “eminent” innkeeper.
By April 1818 proceedings were underway to probate his estate. His widow, Huldah Huse, placed a legal notice in the newspaper alerting all creditors and those owing money to the late Sargent Huse that notice and payments were now due.
Twenty-three years later, on 4 December 1841, we find that the widow Huldah Huse died at age 85 in this historical obituary.
By March of 1842 her home, “as pleasant if not the pleasantest there is in Greenland” was for sale—including the house, stable, a “never failing well of the best of water, and also an orchard of the best of grafted fruit, with about five acres of land.”
These brief lines in this old estate record give us a sense of the home Captain Sargent and Huldah Huse made for themselves—where they had lived, their industry, and their success.
The historical newspapers and U.S. government documents in GenealogyBank give us more of the story of our Revolutionary War ancestors’ lives—as well as an occasional chuckle, such as when we see this ad copy written to spin the best talking points of a property for sale!