I hope y'all have had a fantastic week! Mine has been very interesting. I began working on branching for ROTC, as I am hoping to join the EOD branch. More importantly, I began work on my next essay o Sam Salisbury, the sheriff from the July Perry essay.
Samuel Trowbridge Salisbury was born on March 25, 1890, in New York. He had two sons and three daughters with Martha Lanorah Pounds between 1913 and 1923. He graduated from the West Point Military Academy and served in the 48th Armed Division, known as the Hell on Wheels, during the conflict with Pancho Villa and later in World War I. He reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1920, it was due to his actions as police chief that July Perry was lynched and Ocoee became a sundown town. Salisbury was also a disgraced booze runner during the Prohibition Era, when he was arrested touting five cases of liquor in his car alongside his wive and two children. He additionally served in World War II, earning a silver star (I hope to have found out next week for what). Salisbury was elected mayor of Ocoee twice (first in 1951 and again in 1953). He died on November 22, 1974, in Winter Garden, Florida, at the age of 84, and was buried in Orlando, Florida.
Salisbury sounds like an interesting man. During his life he performed great service in the military during both world wars but his actions in Ocoee in 1920 forever mark him as a horrendous person as well as a hypocrite. What other kind of person can go fight overseas to protect the U.S. but come back home and attack their fellow Americans for their skin color?
On a brighter note, I have been prepping research for another essay on PVT Elvin Thomas Bussell. Elvin Thomas Bussell was born on September 14, 1909, in Abba, Georgia, to Carrie Lou Bussell, age 25, and Thomas Calvin Bussell, age 20. He worked as a barber in his teenage and early adult years in his parent's barber shop. On March 1, 1934, Bussell married Ruth Elizabeth Bunn in Orange County, Florida. On May 20, 1943, Bussell enlisted in the U.S. Army at Camp Blanding, Florida. He would participate in the events of and following the D-Day beach landings on June 6, 1944 as a part of the 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. He was killed two days later on June 8 and Bussell, alongside PFC Manuel Cox, were buried with an audience of over four hundred on December 12, 1947.
As I have been keeping on track for the six essays I am writing this semester, Sarah and I agreed that I could pick out a member of Greenwood cemetery to write another essay on and I came across Elvin Bussell and became intrigued. I hope to accomplish for research for next week's blog post.
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