(Left, picture of Bertha and Harold, circa 1926) Obituary: Bertha M. McConnell, who had been a resident of the Cascade Inn Retirement Home, died Sunday in Vancouver. She was 80. She had been a manager of the bakery for Fred Meyer. Mrs. McConnell had lived in the area since 1942, last at 11613 S.E. Seventh St. Survivors include a son, Harold of Ridgefield; two daughters, Ruth Beedle and Mrs. Donald (Delores) Helton, both of Vancouver; two brothers, Charles Barton of Sterling, Colo., and Rutherford "Bill" Barton of Redwood City, Calif.; 12 grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren. She was born Dec. 3, 1904, in Crystal Spring, Pennsylvania. Mrs. McConnell requested there be no funeral service. Burial will be in Evergreen Memorial Gardens Cemetery.
Birth: Dec. 3, 1904
Crystal Spring
Fulton County
Pennsylvania, USA
Death: Oct. 6, 1985
Vancouver
Clark County
Washington, USA
Father: Phillip BARTON b: 27 NOV 1879 in Crystal Spring, Fulton County, Pennsylvania
Mother: Lydia Ann KOENIG b: 29 DEC 1884 in Canada
In Colorado, on January 18, 1925, John Harold Busig married Bertha Mae "Mom" Barton who was born on December 3, 1904 in Crystal Spring, Fulton County, Pennsylvania. They had the following children:
1. Harold Wayne "Harry" BUSIG b: 17 OCT 1925 in Sterling, Logan County, Colorado
2. Kenneth Eugene "Kenny" BUSIG b: 25 AUG 1926 in Sterling, Logan County, Colorado
3. Ruth Evelyn "Ruthie" BUSIG b: 19 JUL 1928 in Sterling, Logan County, Colorado
4. Delores Mae "Lorry" BUSIG b: 21 AUG 1929 in Sterling, Logan County, Colorado
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My Life (complete) (Written by Bertha in 1966 when she was 62, edited):
Lydia Koenig and Phillip Barton met in Greeley, Colorado and September 1, 1903 they were married. After their marriage they went to Crystal Spring, Pennsylvania, my fathers home. Then on December 3, 1904, I, Bertha, was born. Fifteen months later on February 28, 1906 my brother Charles was born.
In 1907 my parents left Crystal Spring for Sterling, Colorado, my mothers home town. I don't remember the trip, which was by train, but although I was only three I can yet recall my first Christmas in Colorado. We were living on my grandfather's (Peter Koenig) farm just east of town, between the railroad tracks and the Platte River (I believe the house is still there.)
A year of so later my parents acquired some homestead land about 20 miles southeast of Sterling. There was nothing on the land except a dugout, with a dirt floor, but we lived in it for several months, until, with the help of friends and neighbors (which were few and far between), Dad managed to put in a cement floor. Later he added a room above ground, which served as our kitchen and living room. My dad plowed the land with a one horse plow, bought some adjoining land and became a very successful farmer.
June 16, 1910 my brother, Rutherford, was born. I was six by then, had never enjoyed playing will dolls, but liked anything that was real and alive, especially babies, so helped a great deal in caring for the new arrival, but i still had to carry on with my share of the farm and household chores.
By the time i was eight my parents had acquired some cattle, so i learned to milk cows. Charles and I would drive the herd out to free pasture. Tired of walking two or three miles a day we broke a yearling steer to ride, and rode it one entire summer. The next season Dad bought us a pony, i guess the steer went to market.
After I finished grade school my folks moved to town. I lived at my uncle and aunts, Ed and Simon Koenig, most of the time I attended Sterling High School, as my parents went back on the farm. After graduation, I went back to school another year and took a post graduate course. In the meantime I had met a young man who lived west of Sterling. His name was John Busig.
It was January 18, 1925 that John and I were married and on October 17 that same year I became a mother. Our son, Harold Wayne was born at Mrs. Busse's maternity home. Ten months, a week and a day later on August 25, 1926 another boy arrived. We had hoped for a girl this time, so we didn't have a name for him, but finally decided on Kenneth Eugene. We were living on a dry land farm about eight miles west of Sterling and crops were not always good, but that didn't scare the stork away. On July 19, 1928 I went back to Mrs. Busse's for the third time. This time it was a little auburn haired girl, Ruth Evelyn, who we called Ruthie. She is now Mrs. Jack Lander. Again we hung out our white flag, but I guess the stork just didn't see it, because thirteen months later, August 21, 1929 I was back at Mrs. Busse's. This time another girl. We named her Delores Mae. She is now Mrs. Donald Helton. She is known as Lorry and she is still our baby. Mrs. Busse had told me if I were the first one to come back to her for the fifth time she would take care of me free of charge. Dr. Latta was the pediatrician for all four of our babies. (Here all four are on two horses, the four playing with a sled, Ruthie and Lorry.)
In the fall of 1934, when Colorado became part of the Dust Bowl we packed up our few belongings and moved our family to a place near Parkdale, Oregon, Oregon. Then later to Parkdale, Oregon near Mt. Hood.
It was while we were living at Parkdale that I lost my Dad. Phillip Barton died November 13, 1938 at the age of 58. Sometimes the death of a loved one, we sorrow at the blows life has dealt him and we wish he might have had a second chance, and so it was with him. I like to think that where ever he may be, I am still his one and only girl. My mother Lydia is living 20 miles south of San Francisco near Rutherford and his family and is a very young great grandmother of 82. (Lydia at 91 taken in January 1976.)
Pearl Harbor changed the face of the earth, and so it changed our lives too. The next fall (1942) we moved to Vancouver, Washington where John, Pop as we now call him, went to work in the shipyards and it wasn't long until Harold and Kenneth joined the Navy. After the boys left for war I went to work in a shopping center as manager of the bakery section. The girls were in high school and they helped in the bakery after school and on Saturdays.
It wasn't long after the war ended before the kids were all married. The grandchildren were arriving, about two a year, until there were twelve, nine boys and three girls. They are all near us except Lorry's family of two boys and a girl. They live in Auburn, Washington where Don has a mortuary and Lorry works part time in the hospital as a nurse. We usually manage to get them all together at Christmas time, what a time with ten teenagers. I have ceased trying to prepare big Christmas dinners (December 1949 picture), instead we have cold meats, salads, snacks and desserts, with coffee and cranberry punch, usually on Christmas Eve or when the gifts are opened.
I have never had much time for hobbies and I don't like hobbies that cut us off from the world. I like sports and the competition they entail, so about ten years ago, when women all over the country began bowling, I too joined a bowling league. I'm still trying to maintain more than a 136 average. I also like to swim, but I'm no bathing beauty. I have always had a secret desire to try my hand at the easel, but as for my secret vices, I would rather keep them a secret.
Pop has retired, so now I have twice the man on half the income and as for him, instead of wine, women and song, it is fishing, social security, and television. When life gets monotonous we load up our little travel trailer and go to the beach or to the hills. Sometimes in the fall we go to Colorado and in the winter to Arizona or California. We like trailer traveling, especially when we can travel with friends and relatives, and hope to continue our journeys, but we intend to maintain our home in Vancouver, because we enjoy living near the children and grandchildren.
I have resolved to try to adjust myself to the fact that i am now 62 years old. There may be other resolutions I should make, and there are probably mistakes and personal faults I haven't mentioned, but this is a synopsis of the life I have lived thus far.
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Other Note: In a document entitled Railroad, it states, Fall 1934, Bertha & John Busig moved to Oregon, Charles (submitters note - referring to Charles E. Barton) & Florence (and Mardell and Maurice) also went to Oregon, but returned to Sterling the next spring.
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Bertha Barton Busig attended her 50 year class reunion in Sterling, Colorado in August 1973. Bertha graduated in 1923 from Sterling High School (the Logan County Industrial Arts High School).
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Bertha Mae Barton Busig McConnell Family Tree
Family Pictures:
Above, July 4, 1930, in Colorado:
Top Row, left to right:
Bertha Mae Busig, Delores Mae "Lorry" Busig and John Harold Busig
Bottom Row, left to right:
Harold Wayne Busig, Kenneth Eugene "Kenny" Busig, Ruth Evelyn "Ruthie" Busig
Above, six years later, taken in snow in July 1936 near the Cloud Cap Inn on Mt. Hood in Oregon:
Left to right, top row:
John Harold "Pop" Busig, Bertha Mae Barton "Mom" Busig, Harold Wayne Busig, Delores Mae "Lorry" Busig
Left to right, bottom row:
Kenneth Eugene "Kenny" Busig, Ruth Evelyn "Ruthie" Busig
Above, circa 1938:
Back row,from left to right:
Kenneth Eugene "Kenny" Busig, John Harold "Pop" Busig, Bertha Mae "Mom" Busig, Harold Wayne "Harry" Busig
Front row, from left to right:
Ruth Evelyn "Ruthie" Busig and Delores Mae "Lorry" Busig
Above, circa 1943, John and Bertha Busig Family:
From left to right, back row:
Delores Mae "Lorry" Busig, Harold Wayne "Harry" Busig, Kenneth Eugene "Kenny" Busig, Ruth Evelyn "Ruthie" Busig
Front row:
John Harold "Pop" Busig and Bertha Mae "Mom" Busig
Above, this picture was taken around 1943 at John and Bertha Busig's house at 5817 East 1st Street, McLoughlin Heights in Vancouver, Washington. This was part of the wartime housing built for people working in the Vancouver Shipyards.
From left to right - back row:
Kenneth Eugene Busig, Harold Wayne Busig, Ervin S. Busig, John Harold Busig
From left to right - front row:
Ruth Evelyn Busig, Delores Mae "Lorry" Busig, Bertha Mae Busig, Inez Busig
The children in front are probably children of Ervin and Inez Busig, the boy is probably Glen Alan Busig
Above, from left to right, Delores (Lorry), Harold, Ruthie and Kenny, circa 1936, written on the back of the picture by Bertha Busig:
"This I took of the kids Xmas morning. You can see by the look on Delores' face, how she feels about her doll and things."
Above, from left to right, Ruthie, Lorry, Harold, Kenny
Above, from left to right, Harold, Lorrie, Ruth, Kenneth
Above, horse time
The next three pictures are of John and Bertha Busig, the first one is a picture taken near their wedding:
Left, four generations together:
Top from left to right:
Lydia Ann Koenig Barton Anderson, Bertha Mae "Mom" Busig McConnell
Bottom from left to right:
Cheryl Lander, Ruth Evelyn Busig Lander Beedle
Clockwise from left front, Bertha Mae Barton Busig McConnell, Gary Beedle, Sheri Lander, Krista McGuire, Jerald Lander and Ruth Busig Lander Beedle, from the mid 1970's
Above, Phillip Barton family, circa 1915:
Left to right:
Back row:
Bertha Mae Barton, Lydia Koenig Barton, Phillip Barton
Front row:
Rutherford William Barton (born June 16, 1910) and Charles Erwin Barton
Left, Circa 1926, from left to right: Phillip Barton, Harold Wayne Busig, Bertha Mae Barton Busig, Lydia Koenig Barton
Above, Four generations, from the Charles W. Busigs' down to Ruth Busig Lander down to Cheryl and Jerry, at the bottom of the above picture.
Taken in the middle 1950's probably, taken in front of Charles and Victoria Busig's house at 330 W. Main Street in Sterling, Colorado.
Left to right:
Top row: Charles W. Busig, John Harold Busig, Jack B. Lander
Bottom row: Victoria Catherine Martin Busig, Bertha Mae Barton Busig, Ruthie Evelyn Busig Lander
The two Lander children are standing up in front.
Below, Bertha Mae Barton at a Shuffleboard Tournament, circa February 1976
Above, Christmas dinner at "Mom" and "Pop" Busig's house, Christmas dinner 1949:
Left to right, faces showing:
Ruthie Evelyn Busig Lander, Jack B. Lander, Bertha Mae Barton "Mom" Busig and with the side of his face showing, Donald G. Helton. Ramona Riley (Harold Busig's future wife) first met the Busig family at this dinner in Dec. 1949 in Vancouver, Washington.
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Saying written on the first page of Bertha's dictionary:
"The dictionary is the only place where you come to success before you get to work."
Poem written in the back of Bertha's dictionary:
"We have the nicest garbage man
He always empties out our can
He's as nice as he can be
He always stops and talks to me
My mother does not like his smell
But she doesn't know him well"
By an eight year old
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Below, circa 1907, clockwise, Lydia Koenig Barton, Phillip Barton, Bertha Mae Barton and Charles Barton:
Below, circa 1920's, clockwise from left, Rutherford Barton, Bertha Mae Barton, Charles E. Barton, Phillip Barton and Lydia Barton:
Bertha Barton was born in Fulton County, Penn.:
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