Elizabeth Pulsifer Granger Sweet

I mentioned Great Great Great Aunt Lizzie (also known as Grand Aunt by my own grandmother Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers) as a survivor of the Storm of 1900 in Galveston TX.

However, I did not pay enough attention to her own life, when just considering her (and her family's) survival of the hurricane.

In 1850 she lived in Newburyport MA (where she had been born March 27, 1833).  She attended Putnam Free School in 1852, age 19 in the Middle Class (not yet a senior.)  Her next younger sibling had been Joseph (1835-?) who died before the 1850 census. She had a younger sister, Lucy.

In 1855 her older sister Mary Granger, married William Phillips in Galveston.  So I imagine the family had moved there at least a year before that.  The Phillips family (with his parents) moved to Town Bluff, Tyler County, Texas, where they had 2 daughters.  But Mary Granger Phillips died (Nov 1861) not long  after the birth of her second child (Sept 1860), and the children went to live with the Phillips (Gainer) grandparents, and at some point with the Granger grandparents and sisters, Lizzie and Lucy, in Galveston.

By 1860 Census of Galveston, Elizabeth was 25 and lived with her parents. Father George Sr. (54 years old) was a Lumber Merchant. Her older brother George Jr. was 30 years old, but doesn't list an occupation. Her mother Lucy was 51, keeping house. And her younger sister Lucy was 24. The orphaned nieces weren't listed with the Grangers.

And suddenly a New England family was thrown into the south, though in a metropolitan city.  But it must have been quite strange in many ways for these northerners as the roots of the Confederacy bloomed.  In Texas, right up until a vote was taken in the state capital in 1861, there were almost as many people against secession as for it.  The cotton planters who owned slaves must have been in the majority, or the politicians, because the state in early 1861 seceded from the Union.

Many young men joined the Confederacy, including Sidney John Sweet, in 1861.  He had a wife, Helen, and a young daughter and another child who would be born in 1862. He had come to Texas (the Beaumont area) from Massachusetts, and his wife had come from Tennessee. But 1862 was not only the year his second daughter was born, but his wife died.

By August of 1863, Elizabeth Granger married Sidney Sweet in Harris County (where Houston is), and suddenly had 2 step-daughters.  She was 30 years old, but then had a son and daughter herself, one in 1865, and one in 1868.  They were living in Sabine Pass, Jefferson County, Texas by then.

Her father, George Granger, died sometime after 1870, there appears to be no record of his death.

Her husband, Sidney John Sweet died in 1875, and apparently was buried with his father, Capt. Riley Porter Sweet. There's a slab memorial to several other family members in Sabine Pass, TX.  The family was descended from a veteran of the Revolutionary War.

Elizabeth's mother died in 1876 in Galveston.  But she remained in Sabine Pass, and was a widowed head of household in 1880. She and her (step) daughter F. A. Sweet (17 years old) were listed as school teachers.  Her son, Chauncey was a clerk in a store (age 15, and would go on to bigger things in banking in Galveston.) Daughter Lucy was just 12. And the other person living with them was Elizabeth's brother-in-law, G. W. Hawley, a tin smith. In my tree (not jiving with this census) F. A. (Fanny) Sweet married a McCall and named a son Hawley McCall. Otherwise I can't find a G. W. Hawley anywhere. I think her other step daughter Minni (Mary E.) Sweet must have married John A. King by this time as she wasn't part of the household.

By the 1900 census, she was living with her son Chauncey and his family in Galveston.  It was a houseful, with nieces and nephews as well as in-laws. The census was taken June 7, and the great storm came September 8-9. They all survived the storm, but I'm sure it affected their lives.  See the above post link for more information about it.

Chauncey Sweet is a Teller in the bank, (bold face type in lower left column on left page) and under his listing is his mother, Elizabeth P. Sweet, (wid. Sidney J) living at the same address.  This is a 1908 City Directory of Galveston, TX.

The 1910 census still has her living with her son and his wife, in Galveston. She was 77 years old.  But Elizabeth P. Granger Sweet died Nov. 9, 1911 at 78 years of age.  She is buried at the Trinity Episcopal Cemetery in Galveston.

My grandmother saved her obit, or someone did.

I've greatly enjoyed reading about this woman, who was barely on my family tree, but who lived a long life and had a lot of records in her name.

Then I had an ah-ha moment in the middle of the night.  So I'll tell you all about tha as soon as possible!