Lucy Pulsifer Granger - 3gg including a letter to her

 This week I'm focusing on Ada Swasey Rogers Family tree.

 Edited repost from 2014 and 2015.

Lucy Pulsifer Granger - Feb 1, 1807 born in Newburyport, Essex County, MA.

I posted some information about that town HERE.

Newbury (and Newburyport) when it was first settled.

I've briefly honored this interesting woman before, HERE. And her more famous brother, Joseph P. Pulsifer HERE, one of the founding fathers of Beaumont, Texas.

1820s woman, by Francesco Heyez, NOT Ms. Pulsifer!

She married George Tyler Granger, also from Newburyport, MA, Feb. 13, 1828.

GRANGER, George T. and Lucy E. Pulsifer, Feb. 13, 1828 * (*intentions also recorded)

 I mentioned Lucy's husband in another post HERE, following his life and probably hers along the trails that settlers to the new country in Texas followed.   The above link goes to the post which best describes the lives they led, since he was fortunately mentioned in various records that still exist.

Dwelling #338 has George (Lumber Dealer) and Lucy age 42, living with 4 children and 2 other women.

In 1850 they were on the census shown  above.

In 1854 they lived still in Newburyport, MA as shown by the City Directory:

Name:	George T Granger
Residence Year:	1854
Street address:	16 Boardman
Residence Place:	Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA
Publication Title:	Newburyport, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1854

Their five children were:

Mary Hull Granger Phillips (1839-21861) my great great grandmother

George W. Granger (1830-1901)

Elizabeth Pulsifer Granger Sweet (Lizzie) (1833-1911)

Joseph Granger (1835-1850)

Lucy Ellen Granger Wakeley (1837-1888)
By the 1860 census on June 15 , the George Grangers lived in Galveston, TX

Dwelling number 412, George Granger with Lucy wife and 3 adult children.  He is a lumber mer(chant).

The 1860 census doesn't include Mary Granger Phillips, who had been part of the family back in Newburyport in 1850 at 21 years of age.  She met and married William Phillips of Georgia sometime while in Galveston, in that gap, and then went to her mother-in-law's home in Georgia all the way from Beaumont Texas to have her first child in 1858.  It is possible the reason she went to Georgia for her first child's birth was economics, since William's step-father Samuel Gainer was a judge.  And certainly frontier Texas didn't offer quite the ammenities of genteel Georgia. Why didn't she go to her own mother in Galveston? I believe later I saw in some correspondence that her mother had bad asthma. 

I've shared some of the letters that Mary wrote, both to her mother in law and her own mother, and since Lucy is our focus today, I'll search through them to find one written to Mary's own mother, Lucy Pulsifer Granger.

Here are photos of copies of the letter (transcriptions follow)

So the text is this:

Town Bluff, June 24^th, 1860

My Dear Mother

        It is a week today since I wrote Lizzie’s (her sister Elizabeth) letter and I have had no chance during the week to send it to the office.  I will have two now to send, as I note in my letter to Lizzie I would write you if I did not get down too soon.

        The weather is very warm up here I miss those beautiful sea breezes I used to enjoy last year at this time.  I feel as if it would be quite a long time before I enjoy them again.  I do so long to be over my confinement   I am dreading it more than before and I fear Zulie (her 2 year old daughter) will be so much trouble I can in a measure control her and she fears me a little and so jealous of me I must not caress 

(page 2 of letter)

anybody or anything but her – William to my surprise has the utmost patience with her has not even yet spoken sharp to her. She is smart I can tell you and it is impossible to cheat her, no indeed, she will catch you in a minute.

        I was glad to hear your health was so good this summer  I trust it will continue your cares must be diminished enough now since you are by yourselves to give you quite a quiet time.  I know you must all be happy to hear no slams and insults I think I could never borne it as well as you did.

        I suppose Father & George get along well in the business line as no one spoke to the contrary in letters.  I often think how much it took only for W. & myself while living in Galveston that everlasting rent due it seemed to me always was our greatest chain.  I like Galveston 

(page 3 of letter)

above all places to live in but it does cost a heap to live any way at all respectable there.

        Do you ever hear from Uncle Joseph (Joseph Pulsifer*) I have written him and so has William two or three times but no replies.  I wish I could hear what he is about.  I think he must almost a Hermit by this time that is if he is by himself.  I hear from the Pass** once in a while.  I suppose you heard of the dreadful murder of Bill Shaw by Pike (?) Smith.  I never was so horrified at anything how much trouble they must be in and dear Mrs. Gill has at least got Ella Edwards married to Charley (?) Colmell(?) too I suppose Laura is her next victim for business.

        We think what does Mr. Bradbury do with his house. I never heard whether he rents it or not or if he considers he has left Galveston.

(page 4 of letter)

I hardly can find anything to write which is worthy of interest so if I write a fussy letter you must excuse it.  I wish you would urge up the girls to write me oftener they surely are not very busy now. I know they have had to be in the kitchen lately but if they have been adopting Mrs. Bingit (?) hul (?) two meals a day they have some little time.  I often look for a letter from you two but often am disappointed about you think so.  I excuse you though of course.  

        Love to all I think of each one when I am writing home Father George, Lizzie & Lucy.  Zulie pulls me to the Piano and says Mama play.  I must close of course. William sends (?) love also Mother Gainer (?).  I hope next letter will be written by William with news of another member born in the family.

                Yours with much love,

                        Mary
* Uncle, bachelor brother of Lucy Pulsifer Granger

** Probably Sabine Pass on the Sabine River
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nothing else is documented about Lucy Pulsifer Granger's life.

She continued to live in Galveston until her death when she was 69.  Two copies of a short obituary were kept by her descendents.  

GRANGER - DIED May 23, 1876

My best guess is:
 At her residence on Madison, between Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets, of this city, on the 23 last, Mrs. Lucy E. Granger, aged 69 years.
The friends of the family are invited to attend her funeral from the Episcopal church at 10 o'clock this morning.
New York and Newburyport (Mass.) papers please copy.


When I checked Google Maps, Madison between Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets in Galveston is just a block back from the beach on a sandy spit...so many hurricanes must have blown through this area and it looks very barren now, just a few modern homes on stilts.

This post is part of my father's mother, 

Ada Swasey Rogers Family Tree. 

The photo shows her mother, 

my great grandmother,

Zulieka Granger Swasey as a young woman.

 

Great (times 3) Grandfather George Tyler Granger

Happy birthday to George Tyler Granger (1804-after 1870)

(repost and edited from Tuesday, August 20, 2013)

Born on August 20, 1804 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with parents and siblings.  What kind of education did he receive?

Just looking at his correspondence later between himself and his children, and his level of business acumen, I would say some college is probable.  But he did spend most of his life dealing in lumber.

His mother's maiden name was Tyler, so it became his middle name...which was a tradition found in many families. George Tyler Granger's mother Sarah Tyler was the daughter of Silas and Phoebe Wood Tyler.

George married Lucy Pulsifer on February 13, 1828, when he was 23 years old in Newburyport, MA.  He posted his intentions for marrying her in January of that year, which is still a record available to read, though the transcriptionist kind of messed up the name Pulsifer.

He was a lumber dealer in Newburyport at age 45 (Census taken Oct 8, 1850).  In that year he lived with his wife, Lucy Pulsifer Granger, as well as children Mary H. (21), George (20), Elisabeth P. (17), Lucy E. (13) as well as 78 year old Elizabeth Raymond. A servant was from Ireland, 21 year old Nancy Sullivan.  His son George had an occupation as a clerk already.  I wonder if Ms Raymond was a relative or housekeeper? (I don't find any relatives of that name.)

Newburyport, MA: The town prospered and became a city in 1851. Situated near the mouth of the Merrimack River, it was once a fishing, shipbuilding and shipping center, with an industry in silverware manufacture

Barque Mary L. Cushing, last merchant ship built on the Merrimack, docked at the Cushing family pier in Newburyport

George T. Granger had documented sales through Newburyport's support program for paupers, all billing for lumber sales.  I really don't know if these sales were in support of him, or other people.  They continued from 1826 when he was 21, till after his marriage until he was around 38.

By the time he was 42 he petitioned the town council to purchase a clock for the market square, along with 39 others, so his name was on the historic record of Newburyport.

Brown Square in 1913, viewed from before the City Hall.. The houses and church still stand but the street has been paved and more modern buildings inserted.

In the Newburyport City Directories from 1846 through 1850 he had a residential address of 16 Boardman, and at times a business at 10 Water St.

City Hall c. 1910. The building looks about the same today. It was constructed 1850–1851. The corner of Brown Square is visible across the street. The view is from where the Post Office now stands.

Sometime between 1850 and 1860 Granger migrated with all his family to Texas.  His brother-in-law, Joseph Pulsifer had moved first to New Orleans, then was an early settler of Beaumont Texas.  George T. Granger's eldest daughter, Mary, had married William Phillips (from Georgia) before their first child was born in 1858.

By 1860 George T. Granger was a lumber merchant in Galveston, Texas, at age 56. He would spend  more time there, as well as having connections in Beaumont, TX and Sabine Pass, TX.

Some of George Tyler Granger's correspondence with his adult children has survived. I'm transcribing it and adding it to his overview on Ancestry.Com.  I started with his letter to his daughter, Elizabeth, after finding out his oldest daughter, Mary had just died in 1856 (written from Grigsby Bluff.)  There were settlers near Beaumont named Grigsby. George T. Granger's wife, Lucy Pulsifer Granger's brother, Joseph Pulsifer, was an unmarried pharmacist who made business partnerships including the purchase of land for Beaumont.

Of George Granger's children, his daughter Elizabeth, (Izzie on some letters), lived to be 78 years old.  She was widowed farily early after having 2 children, and in her later years lived with her son and his family.  She had been born in 1833, which I just chased down today, because trees of other families had her born the same year as her brother, Joseph Granger, but I have now found his written birth record. Unfortunately he died at 15 years old. I finally found a source document for Elizabeth's birth also.

Father George T. was a lumber merchant.  When he moved to Galveston he continued that occupation in the 1860 and 1870 census, but somehow changed into a surveyor before his death. His death date and place are unknown, but sometime after the 1870 census.  His wife, Lucy has a clipping giving her death as May of 1876, but is listed as 74 years old living with daughter Elizabeth Granger in the 1880 census. (I've found many census reports that still include people who have recently died, so perhaps families were keeping them on the records for some reason or another.)