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| GOODWIN, SETH F. -- Click Here |
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GRAVES, WILLIAM J.: Son of ARCHIBOLD GRAVES and MARY MALON. He married March 28, 1874 in Bethel, Michigan (Branch County),MARIAM BURGHDUFF who was born March 11, 1856 in Empire, New York (Wayne County), and died August 27, 1938 in Batavia, Michigan. Known as "Little Grandma", Mariam was a very petite lady who had a great disposition. Everyone liked her. She and William celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary. In 1906, they moved to Batavia and both are buried in Batavia Cemetery WILLIAM J. GRAVES: He was a stone mason by trade and worked with his father in Brick Manufacturing. He hauled the first load of bricks for what is now the Coldwater Community Hospital. By 1870, he was an accomplished stone mason - laid foundation and bricks for many Coldwater homes and businesses. He and his wife, Mariam, spent four years in South Dakota, homesteading a ranch which he later sold to his son, Clare. Clare was a risk taker, swashbuckling type who is reputed to have made a fortune in the Black Hills of the Dakotas mining gold. I remember him showing up in Coldwater wearing gold rings, driving a Cadillac, smoking big stogies and drinking his rye while putting a cud of chewing tobacco in his mouth. I don't think anyone really knew whether it was a show or he really did have money. Children of MARIAM BURGHDUFF and WILLIAM GRAVES are: 12. i. MAUDE MAE5 GRAVES, b. July 22, 1877, Batavia, Michigan; d. December 28, 1948, Coldwater, Michigan. ii. GRACE GRAVES, b. May 25, 1882, Batavia, Michigan; d. May 12, 1940, Batavia, Michigan; m. SHERMAN GRAY, April 11, 1900, Batavia, Michigan.13. iii. CLARE GRAVES, b. Unknown, Batavia, Michigan; d. Unknown, Provo, South Dakota. (Source: http://hill-lafler1928.tripod.com/descendants_of_george_w.htm Richard Hill, rleehill@aol.com, February 2005) |
| GREENWOOD, RICHARD -- Click Here |
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GRUNER Family: Wenzel Gruner
(1831-1885) Wenzel was the seventh child
of Franz von Gruner and Katharina Bergmann. He was born on 28 September
1831 in Reichenberg, Bohemia (now Liberec, Czech Republic) and died on
15 April 1885 in Branch County, Michigan. In 1858 he married Emily
Randall. He came to this country at the age of seventeen with his
parents in 1847. Soon afterward he went to work on a far in Rochester,
New York for Benjamin Crippen, where he mastered the skills needed for
his later venture into farm ownership. In 1853, in the company of his
older brother Anton, he bought a ticket for Chicago, but stopped off in
Coldwater, Michigan, where he had a letter of introduction to Lorenzo
Crippen, member of a group that was settling a new town along the
Coldwater River. Anton and Wenzel were persuaded to settle there on the
west banks of the river. They remained in partnership for several years,
adding to their properties, then divided their lands after Anton
married. Wenzel married Emily Randall in 1858, daughter of Orson
Randall of an old-line colonial family. Orson had gone to Hillsdale
County, Michigan in 1837 and opened a Public House, or inn, and it was
there Emily was born. The family later recounted tales of their first
home in what was then a wilderness crossroads. It was a crude cabin,
with a quilt hung in place of a door. They were fearful at times that
wolves would surely take possession; they came so close to the door.
They quickly built a more substantial dwelling. Orson did a thriving
business, but eventually he traded his property for a tract along the
Coldwater River in Branch County, land that abutted Gruner land. He
built an substantial home there and named it Willow Bank. It was there
that Wenzel and Emily met and married. In 1884, Wenzel made a trip back
to his homeland in Bohemia. Some of his well-written and descriptive
letters to his wife were published in the Coldwater newspaper. He had
intended to return again the following summer, with his wife, but was
stricken with a fatal heart attack in April 1995. He was only
fifty-four. Wenzel was described as having a cheerful and happy
disposition, a love of family, and interested in public affairs,
particularly in the area of education. He was also said to be thrifty
and industrious, wise in many ways and a successful farmer, well liked
in his community. His untimely death was mourned in newspaper
headlines. Wenzel and Emily had seven children, three girls and four
boys, Mina, Mary, Edna, Ward, Benjamin, Bartlett and Starr. Mina Laura Gruner (1860-1896) (Third Generation) Mina was the oldest child of Wenzel Gruner and Emily Randall. She was born in Branch County, Michigan in May 1860 and died in Coldwater in 1896, as the age of thirty-six. She married Edwin E. Lewis, a local merchant, in 1888. They had one daughter, Anna, who married a Lewis. Anna had no children. Mary Katherine Gruner (1861-1911) (Third Generation) Mary, the second child of Wenzel Gruner and Emily Randall, was born in 1861 in Branch County, Michigan and died there in 1911. She married William F. Mitchell, a Coldwater merchant in 1885. Mary and her two daughters, Hester and Emily, made a train trip in1908 to Winfield, Alabama to visit her brother Benjamin. While she was there, Emily contracted malaria. Mary had no confidence in Alabama doctors and insisted on returning home to her doctor in Michigan. By the time they reached Chicago, thirteen-year-old Emily seemed much improved and it was decided to stay over for some sightseeing. Her condition worsened quickly and she died soon after returning home. Her mother was devastated and never recovered from the shock. She died three years later. Hester was never compared favorably with her sweet younger sister. She became something of a loose cannon, and eventually ran off to join a theater group. She married a Cuban, Count Duany and would return to Coldwater, dressed in expensive but flashy clothes and telling about her exciting life. Her father had her body returned to Coldwater for burial. She had no children. Edna Gruner (1864-1910) (Third Generation) Edna was the third child of Wenzel Gruner and Emily Randall. She was born in Branch County, Michigan in1864 and died in Chicago, Illinois in1910. She is buried in Lagrange, Indiana, her home after her marriage in 1885 to Sylvester Treat Vesey (called Treat by the family). Edna had planned a formal wedding May1885. When her father died a few weeks before, it was decided to have a quiet ceremony at home. Edna, whose German name was Adna, was described as a stately and very beautiful woman, talented in many areas and devoted to her family. She and her husband had been attending the theater in Chicago and had dashed for a streetcar when she was suddenly stricken with a massive heart attack. They had five children, Wenzel, Horace II, Sylvester Treat II, Lottie Emily and Horace III. Wenzel Gruner Vesey (1887-1924) Fourth Generation. |
| GRUNER, Edwin: (1861-1951) Edwin was the youngest son of Anton Gruner and Caroline Pilz. He was born on 29 July 1861 and died in 1951 on the farm that adjoined his father’s. Like most lads of his era, he did not go beyond the eighth grade in school, but continued his studies through extension classes in the land grant college, now the Michigan State University. The college professors were delighted with his interest and liked to have him carry out experiments. He had an interest in grafting and once had a tree that produced seven varieties of peaches. He was an accomplished musician, and often played his violin at community functions. Following his marriage in 1893 to Anna Cherdavoine, he became the owner of the old “Brooks” farm, 112 acres that fronted the Coldwater River. In 1914, he moved their house back further on the lot and erected a Montgomery Ward “packaged house.” Lumber was pre-cut and delivered as needed, and his became one of the showplaces along the River Road. It was a two-story, of colonial design and the exterior finished off with fieldstone. In the attic was installed a huge water tank that provided running water for the household. The home is still in the family, occupied by a granddaughter. They had four children, Glen Anton, Elsie Irene, Carolyn and Mable. Source: http://grunerheritage.com/images/G-24/edwin.html |