Sunday, September 16, 2012

Grosvenor Reunion


Sunday, September 23, 2012 at Bower Park in Ava


This will be the 64th Annual Reunion!!


Bring your memories, stories to tell, any old pictures you have, and your families!!

Oh, and also bring food to eat and share!
We will be eating at noon.



(Please let all of your family members know, as I know I don't have everyone's address.... Thanks!)
GROSVENORS' GLENN
September 15, 2012

Ah! the Reunion is upon us! Within a week Ava will be agog with Grosvenors. Already there may be Grosvenors in such far-away places as Arizona and Florida who are packing their car-trunks. It promises to be a great event. I wish I could attend. To those who have been reading this blog (but perhaps not closely enough) I will again explain: I am an old duffer, working on my 88th year and I live in Longview, Texas. My mother was Edna Grosvenor, the 17th and last child of Parker(21) Grosvenor. I am the sixth of seven children of Edna and Fred Saul. I grew up on the original Grosvenor farm "under the bluff" but left for the Army in 1942. I have been back for only short visits
since. I have never been to a Grosvenor Reunion but have always had verbal reports from siblings who did. Those siblings who remained in the area, Anna Clendenin, Thelma Slaybaugh and Kenneth Saul, are no longer with us. Only my younger sister, Edna Mae Todd, and I survive.  Edna Mae visited Glenn Cemetery only a month ago but suffered a fall on the way home to Virginia and now lies in a hospital with hip and spinal fractures.
 
I am a shut-in, tied to a large tank of squeezed air  with a thirty-foot length of poly-propylene tubing. I travel a lot... but unfortunately not outside my 30 foot circle! For the last couple of years I have been deeply involved with an on-line graves registration for-profit organization called findagrave.
findagrave makes it's profit from advertising on the side-bars of memorials to the dead which are posted by volunteers, such as I, and there is no charge or expense for the users. I highly reccommend it to all my readers. Try it! You'll like it! Using findagrave, I, (and a group of helpers), are writing a sort of digital history, one page at a time. On various memorials you will find obituaries, biographical sketches, pictures of the dearly departed, pictures of their tombstones, maybe pictures of their dogs, their horses, the houses they lived in, the cars they drove. There are linkages to their parents, their children and often lists of their siblings. Visitors can leave notes and virtual flowers.  There is "no charge and no salesman will call".  It is my hope that a number of Grosvenors will down-load and store or make print-outs of findagrave material to take to the reunion and to the GAG (Gathering At Glenn). It is an excellent method of comparing notes and taking notes. I hope there will be laptops, ipods, printers, etc. Make sure you have at least one fully charged battery. I am not sure Ava has an internet cafe nor that Bower Park has a battery charger. Connectivity may be a problem. But surely someone there can set up at least one internet link in cooperation with the locals. When that is established the reunion will move into the digital age. No longer will it be just a party in the park...it will go world wide!   Hence-forth digital shall reign. I may be the last decendent of the Grosvenors to remember tying a team of mules to the hitching rack in front of the Ava bank, and I hope to be the first to have an internet connection with the reunion. I will spend reunion weekend seated at
my computer with telephone at my elbow and my dining room table piled high with old papers and stuff hoping to field questions and recieve reports.
"Laissez les bons temps rouler !" (Let the good times roll!)

There follows a list of graves which I know exist at Glenn but which I have no photographic evidence. I hope some of you will make a print-out of this and take it to the GAG. I sure would like to have pics of these headstones. BTW you don't need anyone's permission to post stuff on findagrave. You do need to register as a contributor, tho, but that is only done to prevent the posting of inapropriate material.
 
Asbury, Elizabeth J. "Liza" Hickman 65032950
b. 1851 d. Dec. 16, 1910 Glenn Cemetery

Asbury, George Samuel 64774954
b. Oct. 12, 1904 d. Dec. 3, 1929 Glenn Cemetery
Clark, Armin Leverne 12649333
b. unknown d. unknown Glenn Cemetery
Donalds, Mary Jane Holoman 13549253
b. Nov. 21, 1838 d. Oct. 2, 1889 Glenn Cemetery
Dunhouse, John 85263155
b. unknown d. Dec. 10, 1914 Glenn Cemetery
Dunhouse, Mary J 95167008
b. unknown d. Oct. 2, 1889 Glenn Cemetery
Grosvenor, Clyde 86935736
b. Oct. 10, 1901 d. Apr. 20, 1903 Glenn Cemetery
Grosvenor, Frank 64136582
b. Feb. 11, 1878 d. Dec. 1, 1923 Glenn Cemetery
Grosvenor, Louticia F Keeton Tabors 63708037
b. Aug. 8, 1844 d. Nov. 4, 1919 (Individual stone)
Korando, Albina Shambera 82494390
b. Dec., 1837 d. Feb. 4, 1918 Glenn Cemetery
Korando, Harry 89580713
b. 1874 d. 1913 Glenn Cemetery
Korando, Juliet Marie 91874076
b. Oct. 19, 1914 d. Feb. 25, 1917 Glenn Cemetery

McBride, Ruth Grosvenor 89230393
b. unknown d. 1933
Mondeau, Mrs Thomas Livery 64755623
b. 1870 d. 1900 Glenn Cemetery
Morefield, Thomas Hill 5067563
b. Apr. 5, 1850 d. Oct. 25, 1923 Glenn Cemetery

Saul, Annie 64352401
b. Jul. 20, 1907 d. Aug. 21, 1907 Glenn Cemetery
Saul, Infant Son 86187489
b. Oct., 1930 d. Oct., 1930 Glenn Cemetery
Saul, Infant Twin of Annie 64774619
b. Jun., 1907 d. Jun., 1907 Glenn Cemetery
Woodruff, H B 85262691
b. unknown d. Oct. 19, 1887 Glenn Cemetery
Woodruff, Henry 85262667
b. unknown d. Apr. 4, 1873 Glenn Cemetery

Woodward, Mary D 94597971
b. unknown d. unknown Glenn Cemetery
Woodward, Murry 94599046
b. Oct. 3, 1875 d. Feb., 1876 Glenn Cemetery
 
Laissez les bons temps rouler !
 
Cecil 
 
COMMENT:  Cecil, I want to thank you for all of your hard work and very interesting blogs each week. My name is Gail (Littlefield) Bearden. I am Kay Jarrett's daughter (Robin Rohlfing's first cousin). I have enjoyed your entertainng thoughts and information that you have passed onto all of us younger descendants of the Grosvenor's. I will be attending the reunion again this year as I have so many years before. However, I anticipate a little more of a "buzz" of excitement thanks to you. I hope the group can connect with you sometime during the day. Please continue the posts... and thanks again so very much!!!!!
 
COMMENT: Cecil,my name is Karen (Bower) Thies. My mother is Pat Bower, Stella (Grovesnor) Claussens daughter. Just thought that you would find it intresting that the name of your Grandfather Parker is being carried on by my son Parker Thies 12 years old.
 
GROSVENORS' GLENN
September 8, 2012
== === ===
When the Grosvenors gather at Glenn and look out over the Mississippi Valley this year, they will gaze on a scene typical of Illinois, the Prairie State. A flat plain of productive farmland stretches to the river and to the hills beyond. This is a very recent change. When the last ice age scoured the area some ten thousand years ago, it  absolutely leveled millions of square miles of middle-west America.
When it retreated, it left a vast plain devoid of vegetation. The melting ice left huge puddles like the Great Lakes and small puddles which fused into ponds, lakes and, because of very small elevation diferences, very sluggish rivers. The "mighty Mississippi" formed. It was wide, shallow and slow-moving. It silted up, formed lakes, overflowed, and changed course, over and over. Vegetation from the south followed the retreating glacier north. Seed configuration dictated the spread of
vegetation. Small, light grass seeds, borne on the wind came first.  Small birds followed to feed on the grass seeds bringing with them larger seeds in their droppings which produced larger plants with larger seeds which attracted larger birds. Eventually large tree seeds were carried and trees grew to tremendous size in the rich soil produced by rotting grasses. Contrary to popular belief, the Mississippi Valley forests were not ancient. Tree ring studies indicate that they grew in the last thousand years. But they caused a biological explosion. The Mississippi flyway formed with billions of birds migrating north to the seed fields every spring: ducks, geese and the passenger pigeon which
broke down large trees with the weight of their numbers. The mound-builder Indians undoubtedly were tribes that migrated out of Mexico and followed the flyway north bringing Indian corn, tobacco
and cotton. Woodland animals filtered in from every direction and predators followed. the Mississippi valley eco-system flourished for several centuries. The whole valley became a vast swamp with huge forests teeming with game. Then came the white man. His diseases; measles, small pox and such, probably eliminated the mound-builders who had a different set of immunities. However, the mound-builders possibly struck back with the black plague and syphilis which ravaged
Europe. They are believed to have originated in America.   The French came in the early 1700s and established a row of forts with Jesuit Missions down the Mississippi mostly on the west bank. The
British countered with forts on the East bank. Various "Red Indian" tribes infiltrated into the area from the east during the late 1700s. The main population center for the area was at Kaskaskia which was an Indian village and a British fort just a few miles north of present day Chester . It was captured by the Americans during the Revolution.
 
In 1801 the Kaskaskia Indians fought a war to the death with the Shawnees of Kentucky over hunting rights in Southern Ilinois. The Kaskaskias lost and were almost wiped out. The Shawnees also
suffered heavy losses and retreated to their native Kentucky. Southern Illinois over which the war was fought was abandoned by both sides and was without a population for about 5 years.
 
When Parker(19) Grosvenor came to the area in 1806 it was a woodland "Horn of Plenty" with the forested swamp stretching from Rockwood to Cairo and 10 miles wide from bluff to river. Flocks of waterfowl, pigeons, and other edible birds darkened the sky. Here and there were fields of wild Indian corn. There were deer, elk, bear, turkeys, and all sorts of smaller fur-bearing animals. There were wild berries, fruits and nuts.  There were sugar maple trees, salt licks and timber. There were creeks, ponds and lakes full of fish. There were open pits of coal. There was a ready market for meat, furs, sugar, salt, corn, etc. to the Whites in Kaskaskia, who had lost their Indian suppliers, and to the growing river boat traffic. The huge flocks of birds kept the insect population low and there were no hostile Indians. Traffic on the bluff road furnished a convenient supply chain to Kaskaskia. Parker took up his axe and started clearing timber for his farm. Others followed his lead.

What you see now is the result of two hundred years of "conquering the wilderness", "clearing the land", "draining the swamps" and "taming the river". ---all laudable goals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
 
Cecil
GROSVENORS' GLENN
September 1, 2012

Again I must begin the blog with the announcement of the passing of another of our clan. This week it is Brenda Underwood, wife of Tom Underwood, son of Melba Grosvenor who died suddenly in Phoenix. A findagrave memorial has been created for her. It is # 96351108 . To view the memorial simply find findagrave with GOOGLE (or other search engine) and enter the memorial number. and please leave a flower.
 
An exciting new contact this week: Steve Grosvenor, son of Jack and Florene Grosvenor. He had not heard of the Grosvenor reunion until he ran into the track left by findagrave. He and his son, John, will attend the reunion in Ava this year. Interesting, isn't it, that he named his son John without knowing the Grosvenor tradition ? That is the second time I have found this coincidence: Sandra Choate named a son Parker also without knowing.

The "Gathering at Glenn" continues to be noised about on the internet.  There are a number of different groups with differing opinions.  Certainly the Grosvenors who travel long distances to the reunion will visit the cemetery. There are a number of genealogists and family historians who have noted our activity and the recent restorations who would like to meet informally and discuss them. There are a lot of friends of the Grosvenors who would like to meet the decendents of people they once knew but wouldn't dare to crash their reunion party.  On the other hand, Glenn is a country hill-side burial ground with absolutely no 'facilities'. There is no water. It is miles from the nearest
public flush toilet. My photog saw a rattle-snake there this summer. So what to do? There is bound to be a 'happening' of sorts there on 22-23 September. Once things go on the internet no one can predict their outcome. I have no idea of what attendance might be. In the spirit of a 'happening', I mostly just advocate that it happen. It might be a beautiful thing. It might be a mess. It might rain. On the other hand, it might make the trip worth-while for someone who has driven 2000 miles. and would like more than a green-bean casserole.
GROSVENORS' GLENN
August 18, 2012
 
We note with sorrow the passing of another Grosvenor. Florene Krone Grosvenor, wife of the late Jack Grosvenor passed away on 9 August 2012 and has been interred in the Greenacres cemetery in Scottsdale, AZ.
A findagrave memorial has been created for her. It's number is #95238697. Please visit her memorial and leave a flower as a token of respect.
The camera of Laura Whistle Duncan caught the tombstone of yet another unknown Grosvenor. Unknown to us, that is. This is a child. Donny P Grosvenor born May 6 1886 and died Sep 9, 1886. Apparently the son of John (22) and Sarah Ellidge Grosvenor Jarrett Easton. Because of the Grosvenor custom of naming first-born sons either John or Parker, I had postulated another son for John (22) because his only recorded son was named Otis. I had expected another John or Parker. But was I wrong? Laura's camera also caught another anomalie. Their graves are in a line: A double stone for John (22) & Sarah, A wide empty space, Donny's stone, and then Otis's stone. Why the wide empty space? The sequence of deaths were: Donny 1886, John 1901, Otis 1913, Sarah, 1942. Why was John not buried next to his son, Donny? Could there be another son (named Parker or John) born circa 1888 buried in that spot? I intend to ask the restoration crew to probe that area for a headstone.

GROSVENORS' GLENN
August 4, 2012
 
A number of things have been happening concerning findagrave and Jackson County cemeteries in general. I have teamed up with a couple of ladies on several relatively large projects. Carol Carruthers, formerly of Murphysboro, and now a retired music teacher living in Troy, Ohio does most of our research and comes up with gobs of obituaries, newspaper articles, census figures and such. Laura Whistle Cates Duncan, born in South-east Missouri, grew up on a catfish farm in the Big Lake area north-west of Gorham. She went to kindergarten at Logan and then to Gorham Elementary and High Schools. She now lives in Murphysboro, works in the legal ofice at SINU and spends every possible free moment photographing headstones in cemeteries. Laura sends photos to Carol and I, and we make findagrave memorials and post the photos to them. We are just finishing up Goodbread Cemetery near Gorham where we added about 500 new graves. Laura's parents are buried at Glenn, so she visits often and takes fine photographs.
Here is a list of the new entries in findagrave in the last 90 days. Many of the new entries are the result of the restoration team's finding lost stones. I still have a backlog of about 25 unidentified headstone pics from Glenn and over 40 from Goodbread.

Asbery, Lemonia A 93852685
b. unknown d. Apr. 1, 1873 Glenn Cemetery
Asbery, Mary F 92807458
b. Jul. 27, 1831 d. Mar. 28, 1862
Asbery, Nancy C 93853564
b. Sep. 2, 1858 d. Jan. 22, 1875 Glenn Cemetery
Asbury, Harvey A 93853736
b. unknown d. Mar. 13, 1881 Glenn Cemetery
Asbury, Herdie G 93853881
b. unknown d. Aug. 31, 1879 Glenn Cemetery
Asbury, W M 93917683
b. unknown d. Oct. 19, 1877 Glenn Cemetery
Asbury, William M 93853959
b. Jun. 22, 1850 d. Oct. 27, 1866 Glenn Cemetery
Bennett, Elvira Bilderback 93861255
b. 1817 d. Nov. 25, 1857 Glenn Cemetery
Bilderback, Benj F 93854105
b. 1843 d. Mar. 1, 1871 Glenn Cemetery
Bilderback, Mary E 93860131
b. unknown d. Jul. 14, 1874 Glenn Cemetery
Browder, Nettie Jane 93862612
b. Aug. 16, 1893 d. Aug. 8, 1910 Glenn Cemetery
Cochran, Pressly M 92809039
b. 1817 d. Jan. 3, 1848 Glenn Cemetery
Galloway, Willard 93854222
b. unknown d. unknown Glenn Cemetery
Goodwin, John J 92808166
b. Dec. 26, 1813 d. Sep. 30, 1857 Glenn Cemetery
Grosvenor, Johnny Parker 94584797
b. unknown d. May 6, 1886 Glenn Cemetery
Grosvenor, Levi 92950294
b. Nov. 17, 1838 d. Feb. 19, 1839 Glenn Cemetery
Holloman, M E 93959866
b. Nov. 24, 1850 d. Nov. 14 Glenn Cemetery
King, George B 93854533
b. Oct. 9, 1856 d. Jun. 26, 1859 Glenn Cemetery
Korando, Juliet Marie 91874076
b. Oct. 19, 1914 d. Feb. 25, 1917 Glenn Cemetery
Talbott, Mariah 93894653
b. unknown d. unknown Glenn Cemetery
Vanover, Richard 92805445
b. 1836 d. Sep. 9, 1901 Glenn Cemetery
Woodruff, Abner 93329705
b. unknown d. Jul. 9, 1872 Glenn Cemetery
Woodruff, Infant Son 93329864
b. unknown d. Jan. 1, 1873 Glenn Cemetery
Woodruff, Sydner 94579747
b. unknown d. Oct. 10, 1887 Glenn Cemetery
Woodruff, Turner Jones 93329311
b. unknown d. Oct. 7, 1872 Glenn Cemetery
Woodward, Mary D 94597971
b. unknown d. unknown Glenn Cemetery
Woodward, Murry 94599046
b. Oct. 3, 1875 d. Feb., 1876 Glenn Cemetery
Woolrick, Infant Son 92813722
b. unknown d. unknown Glenn Cemetery
Woolrick, Louisa 92811787
b. unknown d. unknown Glenn Cemetery
Woolrick, Martha 92813206
b. Sep. 2, 1855 d. Sep. 6, 1855 Glenn Cemetery
Woolrick, Mary S 93979007
b. unknown d. Feb. 25, 1845 Glenn Cemetery
Youngman, Polly M 93980098
b. Sep. 10, 1828 d. Nov. 14, 1856 Glenn Cemetery
GROSENORS' GLENN
July 28, 2012
 
This entry deals with our ancestors in Connecticut and Vermont and the circumstances of their immigration to Ilinois. There was John (17) born in 1711 in Pomfret Ct and his son John (18) born in 1733 also in Pomfret. John(18) married Abigail Davis and they had four children and then Abigail died. John then maried Mollie Lee. They had five more children. Number 7 in the family was John (19) and number 9, the youngest, was our ancestor Parker (19). Around this time a rift developed between father and son, about which I know nothing. John (18) took his children and wife Molly Lee and moved to Windsor, Massachusetts, and later to Wethersford Vermont. In 1804 John (17) died. He left a goodly estate but ruled his son, John(18), out of his will leaving land, instead, to his grandsons John (19) and our ancestor, Parker(19) (These were brothers). When the old man died his son John (18) returned to Pomfret, where he found out he had been left out of the will, but he sold the land by forging his sons' names. The sons, Parker and John, now grown, were notified they had inherited so they traveled to Pomfret to see their inheritance and found another man living on the property. They beat him up and ejected him. He called the law on them and they wound up in the slammer. The forgery came to light. The boys sued their dad, won the case, and with cash in their pockets headed for the frontier in Kaskaskia, Illinois. John took some other feller's wife with him when he left! John (19) remained in the Kaskaskia area, prospered, and became a judge. The brothers both signed the petition which resulted in the separation of Illinois from Indiana and established Kaskaskia as the capital. The first Ilinois State Capital "building" was the upstairs rooms over Fisher's Tavern.
John Grosvenor later bought that building. Parker(19) teamed up with William Boone (Daniel Boone's nephew) and they became the first settlers in what is now Jackson County , Illinois. Be sure to read Parker(19)'s bio on Findagrave...and leave him a flower.

 
 
GROSVENORS' GLENN
July 14, 2012
 
A new genealogist named Angela Little stopped by Glenn last week and evidently took one picture and from it made one memorial. For Levi Grosvenor b. 1838 d. 1839, son of John & agnes Grosvenor. I am astonished! Why??? I am trying to find out. My assumption is that she must have stopped at Glenn to find a relative, saw the newly unearthed stone and entered it into findagrave. Fine! Take a look at Levi's memorial. Another volunteer, user name ASB, has undertaken the
photo recording of South Cemetery in Pomfret, Connecticut, which holds the remains of 72 of our Grosvenor ancestors. (There's another 75 in various other cemeteries in the surounding county). She has posted headstone photos to several Grosvenor memorials which I had created and at my request, has graciously copied inscriptions. Climb the family tree and note the memorials of Hannah Dresser Grosvenor and Abigal Davis Grosvenor. ASB has also photoed the memorial of Mary Grosvenor who died in Pomfret in 1742 at age 19 and whose demise is described in many lawbooks and is often cited in court cases as the basis of abortion laws. Google "grosvenor sessions" for lots of info.
Keep climbing the family tree (merely click on the name of the parents to move up another generation) The earliest listed so far is William Gravenor, born Shropshire England 1593, but more will undoubtedly be listed as their graves are located.  The "Gathering at Glenn" which will coincide with the Reunion appears to be well received. Genealogy is becoming a popular hobby and Findagrave Glenn is attracting attention. The excavations and restorations are of interest to genealogists, historians and other cemetery custodians and they all welcome a chance to gather, inspect and learn how it's done. Glenn Leads!
 
Cecil