1824 :: Death of Isabel Davis nee Grant

 

On this date in our family history . . . the 20th day of November . . . in the year 1824 . . . Isabel Davis nee Grant dies in Morgan County, Georgia . . . it is recorded that she is laid to rest in the "Old Davis Cemetery" . . . this Isabel is a 5th great-grandma to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . according to Stevens-Davis and allied families; a memorial volume of history, biography, and genealogy by Marie Walker Wood nee Stevens, it is said that . . .

Isabel Grant was born 13 January, 1759, Halifax County, Virginia, the daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (Tate) Grant. On 9 January, 1777, she was married in Granville County, North Carolina, to Richard Davis. He served as a private in the War of the Revolution, First North Carolina Regiment. After the war was over, Isabel and Richard settled in Lincoln County, Georgia, moving after two years to Wilkes County. Washington then was little more than a cluster of log houses. Later they moved to Elbert, then to Morgan County, where they lived the remainder of their lives. She died, 20 November, 1824, in Morgan County, Georgia. The grandparents of Isabel were Thomas and Isabel (Richardson) Grant. Her great grandfather was Thomas Grant who immigrated from Scotland.

1899 :: A Well Known Lady Dragged to Death Near Rockdale

TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.

A Well Known Lady

Dragged to Death Near Rockdale.

 

 

 

Austin American-Statesman
Austin, Texas
31 Oct 1899, Tue  •  Page 4

 

Special to The Statesman.

ROCKDALE, Tex., Oct. 30. -- A horrible accident occurred near here Saturday, which resulted in the death of Mrs. W. P. Henry, a well known and most estimable lady, wife of a farmer. She was alone in her buggy, and from some cause her horse ran away. She was thrown from the buggy and her hair coming down, caught in a wheel and winding around the axel of the buggy, Mrs. Henry's neck was broken and she was horribly injured in other ways, having been dragged about two miles. She leaves a husband and several children.

 

 

1822 :: Death of Joseph Kimball

 

On this date in our extended family history . . . the 28th day of October . . . in the year 1822 . . . ninety-one year old Joseph Kimball dies in New Hampshire, and is laid to rest in the Gilkey Cemetery . . . more than a month later, his death is reported in a Vermont newspaper . . . this Joseph is a third cousin eight times removed to the Keeper of this family history blog . . .

This is a 19th century sketch* of cousin Joseph . . . Joseph's future grandson-in-law, Dr. Elias Frost, had moved to the neighborhood ca. 1808 . . . and it is recorded that it was Elias who convinced Joseph to have his portrait done . . . it is written of cousin Joseph that . . . "He was a soldier in the Revolution, and took part in the battles of Fort Ticonderoga and Bennington. . . . He settled first in the town then known as Plainfield Plain, and later removed to a farm near the village of Meriden, New Hampshire, where he lived until his death."

 

 

*Unfortunately, various versions of this portrait [with the name cropped off] have been widely distributed in the genealogy community as representing the image of the RICHARD KIMBALL who died in 1675 in Ipswich, Massachusetts . . . e.g., more than 250 versions of this portrait are now attached to hundreds and hundreds of trees on Ancestry dot com and incorrectly identified as RICHARD KIMBALL . . . this RICHARD KIMBALL is my 10th great-grandpa . . . and the extent of this case of misidentification came to my attention just recently when somebody posted a version of Joseph's portrait to RICHARD KIMBALL's findagrave page, which I currently manage . . . findagrave admins have since removed that portrait of Joseph from Richard's page . . . source of the portrait . . . Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire . . .

 

1898 :: Death of Alvin C. Gove

On this date in our family history . . . the 4th day of September in the year 1898 . . . a widowed Alvin C. Gove dies in Biddeford, York County, Maine . . . also known as Alvan or A. C., DNA is indicating that this man is a 3rd great-grandpa to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . in The Gove Book, it is written of Alvan C. Gove that . . .

Alvan Chadbourne Gove, born at Limington, Me., April 10, 1813. He was a builder and contractor ; removed to Biddeford, Me., in 1847, and resided in 1849 on Hill street, being a butcher. In 1853, he went to California as a miner, and returned [to Maine] in 1863. In 1880, he lived at 53 Water street, Biddeford. Mr. Gove married Mary Susan, daughter of Dea. Samuel Edgerly of Limington Feb. 13, 1836. She was born July 13, 1817 ; and died May 26, 1880. He died at Biddeford, of diarrhoea, Sept. 4, 1898, at the age of eighty-five, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

If the data contained in the previous paragraph is accurate, that means that when Alvin C. Gove developed "gold fever" and left Maine for California ca. 1853, he left his wife home alone with six young daughters [the firstborn daughter had recently married] and a six-year-old son [my 2nd great-grandpa] . . . and it would seem that this Alvin did not return to Maine until about ten years later, which would have been right in the middle of the war between the states.


At various times in the last quarter-century of his life, Alvin is listed as living in Biddeford at 53 Water Street [1875], and then after the death of his wife in 1880, at 83 Clifford Street [1882], 35 Clifford Street [1890], Pool Street [1891], and 35 Clifford Street again [1892]. According to current maps, Water Street turns into Clifford Street which blends into Pool Street, which once led to a beach community known as Beachwood.

About 1890, a group photo was taken at a Gove family gathering which was held at a place mentioned only as Beachwood. This photo would have been taken around the time when Alvin's youngest daughter, Lydia, and her family [the Dudleys] were selling their apothecary business in Biddeford and relocating to Massachusetts. They had been living on Pool street at the time. News clippings from that time period indicate that Alvin's granddaughter, Carrie Gordon, was a frequent visitor with two of her maternal aunts in Biddeford, i.e., in the Dudley and Freeman households.

In the following family photo, Alvin is the gentleman standing in the middle of the back row, wearing the bowler hat.

As mentioned earlier, Alvin and Mary had seven daughters and one son before he left to spend a decade in California. Four of those daughters are in this photo [listed by age] ::

• Josephine Lois Freeman nee Gove [1837–1922]. She had just married when her father left to spend a decade in California in 1853.
• Triphena S Piper nee Gove [1842–1926] She was about 11 when he left.
• Julia Howe Hottel nee Gove [1849–1924] She was about 4 when he left.
• Lydia Murch Dudley nee Gove [1852–1936]. She was only a year old when he left.

Also two of his sons-in-law ::

• William Prentiss Freeman [1833–1898]
• Martin Van Buren Hottel [1837–1915]

Also seven of his grandchildren [listed by age] ::

• James Randal Freeman [1854-1894]
• Prentiss A Freeman [1856-1930]
• Caroline L Gordon [1868-1962]
• Beatrice Hottel [1873-1953]
• Grace C Dudley [1875-1952]
• James Freeman Hottel [1876-1973]
• Byron H Dudley [1888-1972]

 Also his granddaughter-in-law ::

• Carrie E Twambley [1854-1919]

 Also his great-granddaughter ::

• Maud M Freeman [1878–1957]

1823 :: Birth of Lucy Laura Davis

On this date in our family history . . . the 3rd day of September, in the year 1823 . . . Lucy Laura Davis is born in Morgan County, Georgia . . . by the time this baby girl was born, both of her parents were just shy of their 40th birthdays . . . this Lucy Laura is a 3rd great-grand-aunt to the Keeper of this family history blog.

When Lucy Laura was eleven years of age, her 49-year-old father died . . . at age twenty-two, on the 15th of January, 1846, she married Jesse Mercer Perry in her hometown . . . they are known to have had at least six children during their marriage, with the youngest being born in 1855.

Lucy Laura was apparently a keeper of family history, family letters, etc., e.g. . . . a small collection of letters written to Lucy Laura by various kith 'n kin has survived for more than a century . . . and somehow those letters made it from Lucy Laura's home in Morgan County, Georgia, to Waco, Texas, where they are now a part of the Texas Collection at Baylor University . . . these various stories of our family history were written between 1851 and 1891 . . . and the storytellers [i.e., letter writers] include our JOSEPHINE as well as Josephine's sister, Margaret . . . the letters which were written specifically by these two sisters began in 1859, and were all written back home to Morgan County, Georgia from various locations in Texas.


Although existing records indicate that Lucy Laura probably never left Georgia, it is a known fact that Texas would be the future home [after 1850] for several of her family members, including her sister, Sarah, and her family, as well as their brother, MILTON*, and his family . . . the wisdom (or not) of moving to Texas was probably talked about frequently at family gatherings. [*Milton Grant Davis, who is a 3rd great-grandpa to the Keeper of this family history blog]


In May of 1899, a neighborhood friend, T. J. Walker, wrote of a pleasant visit with our Aunt Lucy Laura, describing her as "an aged lady, whose husband, Mr. Jesse Perry, died some years ago. This is one of the best pioneer families of our state, and is of the old school with the energy, thrift and foresight of the old settlers."

Dr. Walker describes in detail the "good dinner" he enjoyed and goes on to say that . . . "The progenitors of this very practical and thrifty family were of the pioneers of our state. This old lady is a daughter of GRANT DAVIS, who came to middle Georgia among the first settlers. He was decidedly a practical and thrifty man of superb energy, but not more so than his daughter, Mrs. Perry, who even now, in her old age, superintends and helps to provide so beautifully for her family."


Regarding her family history, there is a letter written by Lucy Laura, and published in a Georgia newspaper in 1902, regarding some of her family members, i.e. . . .

The Atlanta Constitution
Atlanta, Georgia
15 Jun 1902, Sun  •  Page 22

Being fully aware that her time on earth was drawing to end, in 1904 Lucy Laura Perry penned a letter which was published in Signs of the Times, and Doctrinal Advocate and Monitor, Volume 72 . . .

Lucy Laura would live a long life of 85 years, and at long last was laid to rest in the family cemetery in Morgan County, Georgia.

1873 :: Death of Sadie and Nannie

On this date in our family history . . . the 30th day of August, in the year 1873 . . . in Morgan County, Georgia . . . 27-year-old Sarah B. Carter and 21-year-old Nancy Tate Carter die on the same day at the home of their widowed mother . . . affectionately known as Sadie and Nannie, these sisters are first cousins four times removed to the Keeper of this family history blog . . .

At the home of their mother, Mrs. Mary A. Carter, near Madison, Georgia, on Saturday, August 30th, 1873, Miss Sadie Carter died at half-past twelve o'clock, and within less than one hour her youngest sister, Miss Nannie Carter, followed her. Both died of congestion after suffering from bilious fever for about one week. The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, Sunday, September 7th, 1873