Sarah Lincoln Grigsby—Who Was She
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
National Grigsby Family Society Grigsby Gazette Vol. 21, No. 2 April 2003 ALONG THESE LINES by Bruce Jogerst Sarah Lincoln Grigsby—who was she? How many times have you Editorial Comment: made, or heard another Gene- alogist make, the following I received the following email message back in January from Nyla and statements? Bruce 1-We wished we had asked more questions of our parents, “we found the following on Ancestry.com in a newspaper grandparents and other article from the St.Louis Republic February 1904, on Abraham ancestors when they were liv- Lincoln. It reads in part as follows: ing! 2-We wished we would of lis- Of the enemies that Lincoln made, none were greater than some tened more intently when our members of the Grigsby family, many of whose descendants still ancestors were talking about live in the neighborhood. Sarah Lincoln, sister of Abraham, mar- their memories and ’experi- ried Aaron Grigsby and two years later died. ences! Abraham, it is said, always declared that his sister was not prop- Perhaps you were listening but erly treated by the Grigsby's. This brought about a social ” many of these conversations, based on our experience, were Turn to page 3 to read what I was able to discover... spoken in a native language and you were too shy to ask them to speak in English. Upcoming Meeting: One of my aunts passed away last Southwest Chapter Annual Reunion: June 12-14, 2003 September at the age of 99 years, Thursday, June 12—Early Arrival Registration & dinner on your own at 10 months and 5 days. Again, the ’Steak House Grigsby longevity came into play, Friday, June 13—Registration, Board Meeting, the Country Store, & she was the great great grand- dinner on your own at ’Little Italy Continued on page 2 Saturday, June 14—Chapter Business Meeting, group picture, and evening banquet Speakers: Reuben & Rose Grigsby What's Inside “Grigsby Family Findings In The ” Speaker: Frank Roberts 2 Reminder from Judy Doughty “Grigsby-Brown Station ” 2 NGFS Web Site: Grigsby.org Location: Sheraton Suites, Tampa, FL 3 Sarah Lincoln Grigsby Hotel Reservations: 1-813-357-6162 or 1-800-325-3535 Refer to the National Grigsby Family Society—Southwest Chapter 4 NGFS Books For Sale Hotel Cost: $89 per night plus 12% tax 6 106 Years Old: Alma Grigsby Reservations must be made by May 28, 2003. 7 The Life Of Nancy Grigsby Banquet—$20 per person / $12.65 kid friendly food 7 Tombstone Found Reunion registration—free Contact Frank or Jean Roberts 9 News From The Research Genealogist [email protected] 352-637-6011 9 Death Of Members Grigsby Gazette 1 Continued from page 1, Along These Lines daughter of Aaron Grigsby and Polly Strange but was not Reminder from Judy Doughty a member of the National Grigsby Family Society. Margaret Mottley, one of our Grigsby cousins, sent us a Membership Dues: very nice note at the time of my ’death. Margaret made the point that when someone of this age passes on If the date on the your mailing label does not it is like closing a library forever with all the information state 2003, HON, or LIFE, then your member- locked inside. None of her ’experiences or memories ship needs to be renewed. will ever be retrieved again. How true this is and how sad that we ’think of this when her memory was still sharp. After her memory was gone due to several National: Sustaining — $15 strokes, we would ask questions but she was unable to Contributing — $25+ answer, the information was probably there but could not Life — please contact the administrator be retrieved. Honorary (age 80+) - free If you have living ancestors I urge you to ask them all *Please use the enclosed renewal form. the questions you may have about them, their ancestors, etc. and do it while their memory is still sharp and before Send to: it is “”Also, be sure to ask them for all of their Judy C. Doughty, NGFS Administrator ’memories/experiences, their stories will enhance 4418 Kiowa St., your information. Recording the conversation with a Pasadena, TX 77504-3544 video camera is another suggestion. This wonderful re- source is something we waited too long to utilize, we be- came interested in Genealogy after most of our ances- tors were gone. S/W Chapter: Optional membership — $12 Brian Grigsby will be contacting some of you in the near future asking you to make a commitment to the Society Send to: by agreeing to have your name submitted to serve on the Janis L. Franklin, Sect'y Board. Being a member of the Board of the NGFS does 116 Hilton Head Drive, not appeal to everyone and we understand that because Benton, LA 71006-8424 of the personal and financial commitment required. How- ever, if Brian calls, please give very serious considera- Renewal of memberships are now due except tion to his request. We need dedicated Board Members if for new memberships. the Society is to continue to grow and prosper. NGFS Website: www.grigsby.org Updates to the web site since the last newsletter: Added a listing of 323 Grigsby men that served in the Civil War Proved link of the John Lambert Grigsby line to Immigrant ’ Proved link of the Edward Leroy Grigsby line to Samuel ’(b. ca 1765) Miscellaneous corrections and additions The database is currently being updated with more information. This will be posted on the web site soon. In the past, a lot of the data has been provided by the membership. A majority of the more recent years (post 1850) has not been proven and may conflict between members. Source material for all events are trying to be gathered and catalogued. For this reason, submission guidelines have been established and suggested. They can be found on page 5 and on the web site. Grigsby Gazette 2 Sarah Lincoln Grigsby—who was she? By Matthew Beard Vital Data found1: Born: 10 FEB 1807 in Elizabethtown, Kentucky Father: Thomas Lincoln Mother: Nancy Hanks Married: 2 AUG 1826 in Spencer County, Indiana Husband: Aaron Grigsby Died: 20 JAN 1828 in Spencer County, Indiana due to childbirth complications (infant died also) Buried: Pigeon Church Cemetery, Spencer County, Indiana Gravesite: now located in Lincoln State Park, Lincoln City, Indiana3 Best known as: Sister to Abraham Lincoln (b. 1809) NGFS Database information (can be found at www.grigsby.org)2: Aaron Grigsby — Rin 2290 Sarah Lincoln — Rin 5223 ’lineage: Son of Reuben Davis Grigsby and Nancy Barker Grandson of Charles Grigsby and Elizabeth Lyttle Great-Grandson of Charles Grigsby and Sarah Wilkerson Great-Great-Grandson of John Grigsby and Jane Rosser (conjecture) The short life of Sarah Lincoln: Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married in Washington County, Kentucky on 12 JUN 1806 4. Sarah and Abraham were both born in Kentucky. The Lincolns moved to Spencer County, Indiana in 1810. After the death of her mother in 1818, Sarah became the woman of the house and performed most of the household work. An aunt and uncle, Thomas and Elizabeth Sparrow, had also died of the same illness beforehand. Tho- mas returned to Kentucky in 1819 and married Sarah Bush Johnston who he had courted before marrying Nancy. Thomas brought Sarah and her children back to Indiana with him. From accounts found, the two ’got along good and liked each other. Sarah Lincoln married neighbor Aaron Grigsby in 1826 at age 19 and moved several miles away. Also about the same time, Matilda, Sarah Bush ’youngest daughter who adored Abe, married Squire Hall and moved away 5. A year and a half later, Sarah and baby dies in childbirth. The ongoing quarrel between Abraham Lincoln and the ’ The problems seem to be have started with the death of Sarah Lincoln Grigsby. Abe Lincoln seems to believe that Sarah died because the ’did not send for a doctor when she started having problems in child- birth 5,6 . In the spring of 1829, Reuben Grigsby, Jr. and Charles Grigsby, two of ’brothers, decided to marry in a double wedding. Because of the quarrel and ongoing problems, Abraham was not invited to the wedding. This lead to a series of “”and fights among ’“”and the ’ The first prank was the night of the wedding. Upset with not being invited to the festivities, Lincoln arranged for a friend to have the bridegrooms led up to the wrong rooms after the party was over. In other words, they were shown to the room of their ’bride. The mix-up was quickly worked out, but it caused a lot of gos- sip and laughter in the small community. Later, Lincoln even wrote an account of the affair called “Chroni- cles of ”in language that was supposed to be “of the ”5. To further promote the quarrel, Lincoln later added an additional verse about another of ’brothers, Wil- liam who had been courting a girl, but was rejected by her 5. The verse can be found on the site of the source (Continued on page 4) Grigsby Gazette 3 (Continued from page 3) material, but for decency sake, will not be reprinted here. It basically implies that due to his being bald and ugly, William was more attractive to other men. This seems not to go over too well with William. William then picked a fight with Abe ’half-brother, John D. Johnston, at a social event. The father of Green B. Taylor, one of ’friends, acted as the second for Johnston, and a William Whitten acted as the second for William Grigsby. According to Taylor, “had a terrible fight and it soon became apparent that Grigsby was too much for ’man, Johnston.