At around 2:30 A.M. on Janurary 15, 2014, alas I found another of Royal Rosamond’s lost books on the internet. Thanks to my Muse, I own the family secret that devastated the lives of innocent children, and caused my grandfather to die utterly alone, and then buried in a unmarked grave in Oklahoma City.
Royal Reuben Rosamond, was not just any Redneck, Cowboy, Farmer. At the suggestion of Fanny Y. Cory and her brother – two of Montana’s most famous artists – Royal took up writing and would have his stories published in Out West magazine alongside, Jack London, George Serling, Joaquin Miller, and Robert Lewis Stevenson. Royal self-published several books on the folk people of the Ozarks known as Hillbillies. Royal worked hard alongside “his People” until he ran away from home at eighteen years of age. Royal worked his way West in hope his father would accept him, alas, call him son, and give him what he longed for, a real family.
My poor grandfather had to have been ‘The loneliest Man In America’. For the want of a marriage certificate, that would have formed a better union between his mother and father, Royal found himself at the very bottom of the barrel of what is now titled ‘Family Values’.
Above is a photo of Royal in his rocking chair reading the magazine he self-published under Gem Publishing. Bright Stories was about ‘The Hill People’ of Apalacia. Royal was good friends of the Ozark Historian, Otto Rayburn, and these men were pioneers in the ‘Back-to-the-land Movement’. When Roy Rosamond was in New York talking to Homer Croy about a book deal, his wife told him not to come home because he was an extra mouth to feed. No one wanted to know about real Hillbilies, how they lived, hunted, and made Moosnhine – not like today!
When the Beverley Hillbillies first aired, I watched my mother study this hit, intently, and realize she grew up without a father because there already was a Will Rogers, a famous humorist starring in Croy’s ‘They Had to See Paris’ a Midwest tale about a Oakie family who strikes it rich in the oilfields, and for some reason the father took his backyard family to Paris – even though he hates the French! For a living my grandfather had a newspaper stand on the corner, and in his attic room, tutored young students in the fine art of poetry writing. Nowhere have a found an account of Royal complaining about he being a cripple due to an automobile accident. The picture I own of Mr. Rosamond, is he closing down his stand, and stiffly climbing three flights of stairs, where in his studio he waited to hear the knock of a bright dreamer who is smitten by the Muse.
In ‘The Rhyming Miner’ I found an autobiography that shed more light on my grandfather’s published claim that his father was W.S. Spaulding, and, William Rosamond, was his uncle. As to who Royal’s mother is, remains a mystery to several genealogical researchers. Yesterday I spent six hours looking for the solution. I believe I found it. William Rosamond’s sister was not married to Spaulding, thus Royal never got to own his surname. Was Rosamond Spaulding’s mistress? How did Royal’s mother support herself and her son? There is a grave for a Ida Rosamond born two years before Royal. For a writer and poet to not author sonnets or reveal to the world how loving his mother was, is revealing!
In the Rhyming Miner Royal says that his mother died when he was six, and his was sent to live with his uncle, who I believe lived in Eminence Missouri. In ‘Ravola of Thunder Mountain’ Royal talks about coming home to his folks. These are his adopted parents, that Royal says very little about.
Above are two women, Martha and Eliza Spalding, who I believe are my kin. In the genealogies I have looked at, Spalding and Spaulding, are the same family. The woman on the right has Royal’s features. The name Eliza comes down from the Hart family whom I have posted on several times because family legend says Royal is kin to Commodore Sir Isaac Hull, the Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and Constitution.
I found a man named Royal Spaulding, and his is kin to Stephen Hart. America’s most famous Commodore was married to Ann Hart. I would never have found ‘The Truth’ if it were not my never-ending love I own for a young women who left her grandmother’s home in Grand Island Nebraska, and came West. It was from Grand Island that my kindred, John Fremont, launched his Western expedition that earned him the title ‘Trail Blazer’. Mapping the Oregon Trail, John surrounded himself with real Mountain Men and had famous Indian guides. Kitt Carson was John’s good friend.
Because Rena asked me not to be “too hard on cattle producers and rednecks” I rose yesterday morning with tears in my eyes to do what she asked of me. At my computer, I began searching for a video of Americans singing ‘America the Beautiful’. I then went in search of Royal’s story about the bullfight that was held in Helena Montana where my grandfather was born. My intention was to dedicate this story to Rena and her hard-working husband, for my family history is their State History, and in the tale of a very lonely man, there is a coming together of more worthy values. Jesus said;
“I will not leave you as orphans in the world. I will gift unto you the councilor.”
This councilor is also titles ‘A Spirit’. Every American has heard of ‘The Spirit of America’. When we hear these four words, we are shown an American Flag, and an American Eagle whom I have identified with Irene Victoria Christensen. Does Rena own Native American blood? Is she in touch with ‘The Great Spirit’ – the Great Muse who guides wayfarers and orphans to our shore, and then drive them West?
When I beheld the two wolves in my grandfathers tale, I wondered what God has wrought in His crossing of our paths, one day long ago, out west, by the sea.
It is with great honor that I present, that I dedicate ‘The Rhyming Miner’ to my beloved Muse and her beloved husband, who has worked very hard to mainting a lifestyle that is disappearing from the American landscape, the farmer and herdsman in the wildnerss, and his beautiful wife.
Let all Americans work together to end the loneliness of all fellow Americans. Let this be our common endeavor that is given in the promise of ‘The Savior’ who has been, and is ‘The Sprit-Guide’ to million of our fellow Countrymen. And let us be a true nation of givers, and not takers, when we give something of real value to a total stranger. I do not know Rena’s husband’s name, but if I had not tried to give him something I believed he would value, I would have never found our lost male lineage and a Freedom Tree, where shine the bright stars of America’s Pioneer Families.
Amen!
Last but not least, my Muse with the wings of an eagle, has shown me my family line to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge via ‘England’s Rose’. Rena Victoria Easton was married to Commodore Ian Easton, a British subject who pledged loyalty to the Queen. I do not know whether Ian and Rena’s children, James and Kathleen, were, and are, subjects of The Crown, or, American Citizens, but may they forever be at home in this Freedom Land.
Jon Gregory Presco
Copyright 2014
Old Ironsides
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon’s roar; —
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.
Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
Or know the conquered knee; —
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!
Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!
THE HARTS COME TO AMERICA
[1] Stephen HART
Stephen HART. Born ABT 1568, ENG. He married a woman whose name is unknown but records indicate she was, born ABT 1572 in Ipswich, Suffolk, ENG
A descendant of Stephen HART is
Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales.
Here is the way:
1.Stephen Hart 1602/3-1682/3
2.Mary Hart abt 1630-1710 +John Lee 1620-1690
3.Tabitha Lee 1677-1750 +Preserved Strong 1679/80-1765
4.Elizabeth Strong 1704-1792 +Joseph Strong Jr 1701-1773
5.Benajah Strong 1740-1809 +Lucy Bishop 1747-1783
6.Joseph Strong 1770-1812 +Rebecca Young 1779-1862
8.Ellen Wood 1831-1877 +Frank Work 1819-1911
9.Frances Ellen Work 1857-1947 +James Boothby Burke-Roche 1851-1920
10.Edmund Maurice Burke-Roche 1885-1955 +Ruth Sylvia Gill 1980-
11.Frances Ruth Burke-Roche 1936- +Edward John Spencer 1924-
12.Diana Spencer HRH The Princess of Wales 1961- + Charles HRH
The Prince of Wales 1948-
Source:Gen History of Deacon
Stephen Hart and his descendants – Andrews and a book by
Gary Boyd Roberts, through Nancy Bainter
on the net bainter@esdsdf.dnet.ge.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_H._Spalding
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=48899369
http://www.geni.com/people/Royal-Spaulding/6000000007850241356
Can anyone send me proof that Isaac Hull married Ann Hart abt 1798 in Sussex Co, NJ? Had daughter
Dorothy who married Laton Rutan about 1830. thanks
Elisha HART, fifth son of Rev. William HART, born in 1758, married Jeannet te MCCURDY, of Lyme, and had seven daughters but no sons. They were distinguished for their beauty and accomplishments, and moved in the highest circles of wealth and honor. The eldest daughter, Sarah MCCURDY, married Rev. Dr. Samuel F. JARVIS, of Middletown, from whom she was divorced. Her remains lie in the burial ground on Saybrook Point. The second daughter, Ann MCCURDY, married Commodore Isaac HULL, U. S. N., who distinguished himself in the war of 1812 while in command of the frigate Constitution by capturing the British frigate Guerriere. After the war Commodore HULL was a frequent visitor at Saybrook, and with his wife spent a few weeks at the old mansion nearly every summer for several years till his death in Philadelphia, in 1843. Elizabeth, the fifth daughter, married Hon. Heman ALLEN, formerly member of Congress from Vermont, and minister plenipotentiary to Columbia, South America. He died in 1844, at Burlington, Vermont, where his wife also died. Amelia, sixth daughter, married Captain, afterward
Commodore Joseph HULL, U. S. N., a nephew of Commodore Isaac HULL.
Three of the daughters died unmarried. One of them, Jeannette M. McCurdy HART, in 1860, gave a handsome iron fence for the front of the ancient cemetery on Saybrook Point.* (*It is said that in the latter part of her life she embraced the Catholic faith. It was by her direction, and at her expense, that one of the inscriptions on the tomb of Lady Fenwick was cut. A simple inscription was well enough, but when she added a huge cross, an offense again st good taste was committed, which the descendants of the Saybrook Purita ns are not likely to forget or forgive.) Capt. Elisha HART died in May 28 th 1842, aged 84.
The Homecoming of Royal Rosamond Spaulding
Last night, before I went to bed, I launched a search for my grandfather’s short story about one of the first bull fights in America, held in Helena Montana, where they got a lot of bulls and cattle. Owning incredible Luck, these day, now that my Muse in back in town, I found Royal Reuben Rosamond’s story, ‘The Ryming Miner’.
Eureka, I had struck gold, for this story too takes place in Montana. This story appeared in Out West magazine, Volume 2, Issue 6. There are three illustration to go with this tale published in 1911. In one you see two wolves stalking the Rhyming Miner who is carrying a deer he shot on his back. I am reminded of the wolf tracks Rena saw while walking her dogs in the snow-covered foothills of Montana. This story takes place in the snow-covered ground in the “Dear Lodge Mountians”.
Here is the opening lines of Rena’s poem ‘All Winter Long’ that is a mate for Royal’s observation made where he was twenty-two years of age. Rena was eighteen when she wrote this. She is living in Lincoln where she is attending the University of Nebraska.
“All winter long the reindeer in the courtyard
nuzzle fallen stars
I watched them
where they grazed and gambaled
and turned occasional glances my way.”
Becuse my Muse bids me to not be “too” hard on cattle producers and rednecks, and for the reason I love my Muse, let it be known I have not come to bury Redneck, but praise him. Indeed, I hereby dedicate this Lost Rosy Story to Rena and her husband, whose name I do not know, because Rena did not give it to me. She did inform me she and her husband live in a small abode on a hill overlooking the cattle they raise, and the small form they till. I want this couple to own a story written by a cisitsne of the state they dwell in. It is my and Royal Rosaonds homage to those who tough it out, who work hard to own some diginity in the Land of the Free.
Once again I must arrive at the conclusion, that I am the second luckiest man in America, because Rena chose to be with Luckiest Man in the World. So, I must hand it over, the Beautiful Trophy? Do I have a choice?
As a concelation prize Rena says I may enshrine her in the “Muse Hall of Fame”. Do I have a choice? When it come to owning a Muse, you must understand she has read the script, hear the song, play the notes, render the landscape, before she passes it on to you to digest. Like a great raptor she has fed you what she already digested. You are at her mercy. You are her slave born to do her bidding.
After soaring high in the sky, and studying my little scratching in the snow for nearly a year, Rena has figured it out, and down she swoop to be at my back, to be my wings, so my imagination can take flight. At sixty-one years of age she sends me her seal of approval.
“I concur. I am you Muse!”
And, away we go!
Royal Rosamond begins his Montana ballad with a brief autobiography that I found in another book that captured the beautiful mind of a man I never met. Everytime I find his lost words on the internet, I get a glimpse of my DNA, and I must say, the first Muse in my life, for he is the source of my early poems that startled the four Beautiful Rosamond Daughters, who had become estranged from their father after their mother, Mary Magdalene Rosamond, banished him from their home in Ventura.
Royal is taking a shot at his father, who after the death of his mother when he was six years old, is sent off to Eminence Missouri to his uncle’s farm where he is worked like a slave until he runs away from home when he turns eighteen. Royal’s ancestor, John the Highwayman’ Rosamond, was sold into slavery in America after he held up a stage in England. John was a British Outlaw. Seventy one percent of the population of America in the 1700s were indentured slaves. We’re talking about white folks who more than likely ;loved their country and their king and felt punished to be put in chains and throw away into the vast wilderness to be worked like a dog, or die!
Then, Royal’s father dies, and he is an orphan in the world. He has a sister living in Helena, that he is reunited with when he returns to Montana. I assume William Thomas Rosamond kept his daughter by hs side to be his new ‘Help Meet’ as the Bible titles Eve, and the wives of the Patriarch. There exist no kind words for Royal’s parents who he feels betrayed and abandoned him. My grandfather surely could relate to Joseph who was sold into slavery by his family.
In the fifty days I and Rena spent with one another, (one day for each star in the flag) she never mentioned her mother and father. She talks about her three sisters, briefly, she telling me they were models. One was the mistress of Robert Vesco. When I asked Rena if she owned any desire to become a model, her beautiful face turned sour as she made a judgment, she not approving of their lifestyle. At a young age she was sent away to live with her grandmother. I only learned why when I received her letter. Her father was very abusive to her and her brother who was surely her allied, her confident, who felt like a beaten slave, whipped just so they could own a reminder as to who owned them, and thus could do what he damn well pleased.
After Rena spent the night on the floor next to my at my sister’s house in Venice California, we went to get her things, her little canvas bags of clothes, her hair brush, and make-up she didnt;t need. We had to go to the apartment Rena and her boyfriend had stayed in for two nights. Entering, I found two dudes high on LSD. They were in three through of peeking on the cartoonish hallucinations. When they saw Rena, they turned mean, and began to mock her because they had failed to get in her pants. One creep held out his finger, and made bird sounds as he bid her to submit.
“Here pretty-bird! Come sit on my finger!”
I looked at Rena to see ow she handled this insult. She was calm, as if she had seen this kind of crap before. She was studying tis abuse. She needed to see the source of it. She could not see the wings of the Muse on her back.
“Go get your things!” I told this American Beauty, and I felt Rena had fallen in love with me, because I spoke with authority, and was watching her back as she went into a bedroom and retrieved her belongings.
Was it a year ago that I identified what Rena looked like in the photograph she gave me? She looks like a raptor. Indeed, she looks like an American Eagle. For this reason I name this blog ‘America the Beautiful for there is cultural warfare going on over who owns America, and who does not. This is one-sided claim coming from righ-leaning folks who do not reject the title Redneck, even though it is a froeing title.
In In 1825, in the village of Fenagh in county Leitrim in Ireland, a
gang of Catholic youths attacked the Rosamond home. The Rosamonds were
staunch Protestants. James, aged 20 (born 1805) and his brother Edward, aged
15, attempted to protect their mother. A shot was fired by Edward and a
youth was dead. The boys fled to Canada. James went to Merrickville where he
worked for James Merrick as a weaver. Edward, still fearing arrest, worked
his way eventually to Memphis, Tennessee.
The Huguenot Diaspora is one of the most important and most spectacular dispersion of a religious minority in early modern Europe. Traditionally known as le Refuge, this migration led to the exodus of nearly 200,000 Protestants out of France in 1685 at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenot
Redneck is a derogatory slang term used in reference to poor, uneducated white farmers, especially from the Southern United States.[1][2] It is similar in meaning to cracker (especially regarding Georgia and Florida), hillbilly (especially regarding Appalachia and the Ozarks),[3] and white trash (but without the last term’s suggestions of immorality).[4][5][6]
By the 2000s, the term had expanded in meaning to refer to bigoted, loutish reactionaries who are opposed to modern ways,[7] and has often been used to attack white Southern conservatives. The term is used broadly to degrade working class and rural whites that are perceived by urban progressives to be insufficiently liberal.[8] At the same time, some Southern whites have reclaimed the word, using it with pride and defiance as a self-identifier.[9]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck
https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/royal-rosamond-fanny-y-cory/
INDEPENDENT RECORD NOVEMBER 26, 1950
Royal Rosamond, Helena native, is Planning Book About Home City, Chamber Is Told
Royal Rosamond, widely known author and Helena native, is planning a book about the city according
to a letter received by the Helena Chamber of Commerce from the resident of Oklahoma City.
Rosamond said the book will be based on recollections of his childhood in the city. He asked the chamber for assistance with additional material about the city and the surrounding area.
Rosamond said his parents followed my grandfather, John L. Reese, to Helena from Missouri
In the spring of 1884.” The family lived in the Sixth ward for three years before moving to the Sanford
and Evans building. His father, W. S. Spaulding, and Gary Cooper’s father were Business partners with a shop on the lot where the post office now stands. When he was six years old, Rosamond said, he was a playmate of Tommy Cruse’s little boy, about the time the elder Cruse was financed with a grub stake by
a local grocer and struck it rich at Marysville.
Rosamond asked the name of the grocer and wanted to know the Cruse boy’s name. The letter
said Rosamond attended Hawthorne school when he was six, seven and eight years old. “There
was not a bob sled in town that I had not ridden. . . . I was on speaking terms with every horse in
every barn in town. . . . I doted on pigtailed Chinamen but failed to win their friendship except for
one, a merchant up the gulch,” he said.
A frame residence built by Rosamond’s father at the head of Walnut still stands. .The author
visited the city In 1945.
His mother died when he was nine years old and he moved to Missouri until he was 18 when he
returned to Helena. Rosamond recalls that Jack Cory and his sister Fanny Y. Cory, cartoonist, started
him on his writing career.
Rosamond asked for information about the earthquake, early gold operations, a map of the city and
other information which he expects to include in his book.
One of his novels, “Bound in Clay” is available at the Helena public library. He has been called
“Oklahoma’s greatest living humorist, and is holder of the international Mark Twain award for
his contribution to literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-to-the-land_movement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zasu_Pitts
ZaSu Pitts
West of the Water Tower is a lost[citation needed] 1923 silent film comedy drama produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Rollin Sturgeon and is based on the novel of the same name by Homer Croy. Glenn Hunter and May McAvoy are the stars of this film.[1][2]
Homer Croy (March 11, 1883 – May 24, 1965), was an American author and occasional screenwriter who wrote fiction and non-fiction books about life in the Midwestern United States. He also wrote several popular biographies, including books on outlaw Jesse James, humorist Will Rogers and film director D.W. Griffith.
They Had to See Paris is a 1929 American comedy film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Will Rogers, Irene Rich and Marguerite Churchill. A wealthy American oil tycoon travels to Paris with his family at his wife’s request, despite the fact he hates the French.[1] [2]
Rogers starred in a similar film the following year, So This Is London with the location switched to London. Rogers and Rich reprised their roles in Down to Earth (1932) which depicts the return of the Peters family to Depression-hit America.
Eliza Hart was born August 11, 1807 to Levi Hart and Martha Hart (they were first cousins) in Kensington, Connecticut. In 1820 the family moved to Oneida County, New York. She was introduced to Henry Spalding by a mutual acquaintance who said that Henry “wanted to correspond with a young lady.” The couple were pen pals for about a year, and the relationship quickly deepened after they met in the fall of 1831. Eliza was as interested in participating in missionary work as was Spalding. They married on October 13, 1833 in Hudson, New York.
The memory of Eliza Hart Spalding’s kindly spirit and deep devotion has continued in the Nez Perce country for more than one hundred years. The author has frequently heard testimonies of praise of her, from Nez Perces who felt inclined to criticize her husband but who joined enthusiastically in commending her. On August 10, 1849, Robert Newell wrote a report regarding the different Indian tribes living south of the Columbia River. In the section dealing with the Nez Perces he wrote: “Mrs. Spalding also they speak much about and say that have lost a good woman that took so much pains to learn them. Of the six women who were in the Oregon Mission of the American Board, no one was more successful in her work for the natives and consequently more beloved than Mrs. Henry Harmon Spalding of Lapwai.
Eliza Hart was born at what is now Berlin, Connecticut, on August 11, 1807, the oldest child of Levi and Martha Hart. There were two other daughters and three sons in the family. The Hart family be- longed to pioneer stock. Stephen Hart, the progenitor of the American line, came to the colonies in 1652. Eliza’s father had the title of “Captain” which may have referred to some connection with the state militia. He was described by Gray in his History of Oregon as being “a plain substantial farmer.” In 1820, when Eliza was thirteen years old, the Hart family moved to a farm near Holland Patent, Oneida County, New York. There Eliza’s parents made their home until they died.
Here is Sarah’s obit, no mention of Clara. Do you have Lena’s obit? If not I can send it to you. It also does not mention Clara.
INDEPENDENT, HELENA MONTANA JUNE 5, 1921, PAGE 3
FUNERAL MRS. SPAULDING WILL BE HELD AT HOME OF MRS. M.S. GUNN
The funeral of Mrs. W. S. Spaulding
of Oakland, Cal., will be held
at tho home of her daugHcur, Mrs
M. S. Gunn, 433 Clark street,
Monday afternoon at 1:30 o’clock
the Rev. Frank E. Carlson, minister
of the Congregational church officiating.
Burial will be in Forestvale
The pallbearers, active and honorary,
will be the following:
Active – William A. Moore, Frank H. Reece,
Frank Turner, Cornelius Hedges, Jr., William Dolliver and
Fred Canfield.
Honorary – A. p. Curtin, Joseph
Davis, Joseph J. Hindson, John Sturrock,
James W. Christie and, D.P. Goodhue.
W. S. Spaulding, husband of the
deceased, will arrive this evening
from Oakland. Mrs. Spaulding had
been visiting in her daughter’s home
here several weeks prior to her fatal
illness which appeared unexpectedly.
The family requests that no flowers be sent.
I also found an article about a Royal Rosamund, who was said to be the son of W.S. Spaulding – I do not know if that was the same person as the Frank Rosamund who is the coach driver with the family in 1900, but the ages match.
On the Beach at Night Alone
by Walt Whitman
On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro, singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes, and of the future.
A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies, though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this globe, or any globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann’d,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.
– See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22458#sthash.Vqqpyq8K.dpuf
Rosamond Press 
Reblogged this on rosamondpress and commented:
When I went to visit my muse in Nebraska she took me to a museum. When the Bardo museum reopened, the Muses of Freedom came down a grand staircase and danced for all of us. Rena is a dancer. We return to the Museum.