Adelia Gregg Thomas' Family

Our cousin from the Thomas line, Susan Ertsgaard, kindly shared this treasure from her mother's house. It was written by Adelia (she calls herself Leila here) for her children. Adelia was the wife of Louis Albert Thomas and the mother of James Emmert(1894), Marion Rawlings (1895), and Katharine Louisa Margaret Thomas (1903).


In the early 1830s five Gregg brothers came from near Wheeling West Virginia to the territory of Iowa. After taking up land and building log cabins, Benjamin and John sent for their wives, the two Boan girls, Melissa and Emily, 17 and 19 years of age.

The rivers were the common highways in those early days, and it must have been a long, tiresome journey for the two young sisters, down the Ohio to Cairo, and up the Miss. to Burlington where they were met by their eager husbands, who proudly took them to the one room log cabins near Burlington. The prairies were wild and barren, and Indians still roved up and down. Summer winds were hot and winter blizzards fierce, but the fields when broken were easy to cultivate after their experience with those of the rocky east, and the corn and wheat a rich reward for their labor. The log cabins soon had added rooms, and were finally replaced by brick houses, with a fireplace in each room. The barren yards had tree lined driveways, and gardens of vegetables and small fruit. Thirteen children came to the cabin of John and Emily, and eleven to Benjamin and Melissa. Of the latter was your great grandfather, James Bonar Gregg. All of the children had their part in the work of the home, and between chores they attended school at Burlington, about three miles away, walking and carrying the meager lunch. At Christmas time, a Mississippi river packet brought a supply of oranges, and each child had a quarter of one as a special treat. Mother squeezed oil from a walnut to oil the clock. James was a dreamy boy and wasted much time (according to his father, Benjamin) building aircastles, and reading books. There was a college in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa Wesleyan, about 25 miles away, and James Bonar and his two older sisters, conceived the idea of doing light housekeeping there, and attending the college. They rented a few rooms and brought food and wood from home, so that it cost very little. Then the Civil War broke out, and James enlisted with the Mt. Pleasant Co., most of them college students. They drilled on the campus, and then Co. K, 4th Iowa Cavalry rode away, most of them never to return. Although wounded and once in the St. Louis hospital with typhoid fever, James returned after 4 years service. During the “Reconstruction” period, he went back to college, this time alone, for his sisters had finished their work and gone home, and married returning soldiers.

Back in college, he bet and after graduation married another student, Josephine Mills. They lived for a time in Burlington, where James studied law in the office of a leading lawyer there. During this time Leila was born. After completing his law course, Josephine with baby Leila remained with her parents, in Mt. Pleasant, while James built a new home in western Iowa, a new country, but promising. What later was called the C B & Q RR was being built through southern Iowa, and a number of Burlington and Mt. Pleasant young people were planning to settle in Red Oak. James went out with team and wagon to investigate. He found the prospects for a lawyer, who would combine Real Estate with law problems incident to the settling of a new country very promising. So he purchased a half block between 7th and 8th St. on Reed, in R.O., and hauled material from Council Bluffs for a house. It was a long haul, for there were few bridges, and many ‘detours’. The roads wound over the lovely prairies, flower strewn, scarcely a tree in sight, and nothing to hide the view for miles and miles. Plenty of time to dream of the little home for the lovely “Josie” and baby girl, over on the Red Oak hill.

In November, 1868 Josie and Leila came out from Mt. Pleasant. The railroad had been completed half way across the state, and the latter part of the journey was by stage coach. All the Red Oak people were young folks like themselves. James’ law and real estate business prospered. Six children, 5 girls and a boy, came to the little house on the hill at 7th and Reed streets. They all attended Lincoln School, graduated from high school and then went to college. After graduating from Iowa State Teachers College, Leila taught in the Atlantic HS. There she met and in 1892 married a young physician, Louis A. Thomas. They moved to Anthon, Iowa, where on Feb. 23, 1894 James Emmert was born. In 1897 they came to Red Oak, where they have since resided.

Your father can best give you the rest of your autobiography.

Now for a little of your great grandmother Gregg’s background. Josephine Mills was born in Chillicothe Ohio in 1845 to Levi Mills and Mary Booth, whose parents came from Mass. Levi Mills and family came from Ohio in a “moving wagon” to the northern part of Iowa. Finding the country there very undeveloped, they moved (again by wagon) to Mt. Pleasant, that the daughters might have the advantage of the schools there and Iowa Wesleyan College. Levi was a carpenter and cabinet maker. In later years he bought a grocery store which he ran until his retirement. Josephine, after her graduation from Iowa Wesleyan, married James Bonar Gregg, with whom she went to Red Oak in 1868, where they both resided until their deaths.

George Fournier, Friend or Relative?

George Fournier of Tavistock Square, formerly of Staines in the county of Middlesex, drafted a will in 1834 and added many codicils before it was proved 9 June 1841. PROB 11/1947
From the will, here's a list of relatives known to me, how Fournier identified them, and the amounts of his legacies to them:
William Green of Halifax, Nova Scotia, son of Mrs. Esdaile 500 pounds sterling
Each of William Green's children (he doesn't name them but we know there are a lot) living at (Fournier's) death: 100 pounds when they turn twenty-one
Mrs. Esdaile, William Green's mother: 300 pounds
Louisa Aitchison, Mrs. Esdaile's daughter: 300 pounds
Helen Bayley, the wife of John Bayley and sister of the late William Goodall: 300 pounds
Henry Farr, son of Mrs Bayley and now at the blue collar school: 100 pounds
William Green Jr., son of William Green of Halifax, Nova Scotia: 300 pounds to assist him in his profession which he is going to practice in St John, Newfound Land
Katherine Grant and the two other children now living of Mrs. Aitchison 100 pounds each.

Using a retail price index, the Economic History Association website values a hundred 1834 pounds as £8,650.00 in 2011 or about $13,000 US.
http://eh.net/hmit/

So who is George Fournier to us? He was one of the bankruptcy assignees for William Goodall of Garlick Hill in 1817. That's from a cached google page of the Cornwall Council Record Office. That's all I know for now!

Sketch Including the Pyramus

William Grant, Eliza Esdaile's son-in-law was the Purser on the Pyramus 36, which is the ship on the far right of the sketch.

Ships in Portsmouth Harbour off the Dockyard, 1825
PAI0925
John Christian Schetky (1778-1874)
National Maritime Museum

Eliza Esdaile's Sudley Cottage

You can get a picture of Eliza Esdaile's Sudley Cottage from the following website:

http://www.westsussexpast.org.uk/pictures/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive2&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28%28%28text%29=%27sudley%27%29AND%28%28text%29=%27cottage%27%29%29

 

Eliza Esdaile's Burial Record

My great grandfather, Louis Albert Thomas, wrote that Eliza Esdaile was buried in Chichester Cathedral. We descendants have been bothering them for generations about her grave, in person and by mail. Now the personnel at the Cathedral can put their feet up. Familysearch.com has posted  her burial record: New Fishbourne, Sussex, 9 January 1835. Look out New Fishbourne!

Bishop's transcripts for New Fishbourne, 1591-1911, Church of England. Parish of New Fishbourne (Sussex). Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1981. FHL BRITISH Film 1041593 Item 1

New Fishbourne not far from Chichester

Still Waiting for Carlos Finlay

Adult Yellow Fever Mosquito

Cousins, our ancestor William Grant's death was evidence in the heated debate over whether yellow fever was spread by contagion or by miasma. The argument was fueled by economic interest as well as by medicos defending their dogma. Where the contagion faction prevailed, quarantines and consequent trade disruption followed. One expert arguing for miasma was Dr. Musgrave of Angtigua in the West Indies.

To bolster his argument (and unwittingly to flesh out our family story) Dr. Musgrave includes an appendix with the report of Dr. Hartle, the Navy medical officer on shore in Antigua when the Pyramus landed with its crew of yellow fever victims early on the first of November 1821.

“I immediately went on board, and was surprised to find that an officer (lieutenant) had died the day before with only a few hours illness—that the purser [Eliza Esdaile's son-in-law William Grant, though he is never named in this article] and six men lay dangerously ill. . .”

The ship’s surgeon was ill himself, so a loblolly boy had attended them. “He had bled them, and given them some cathartic medicine, but it did not appear to me that the bleeding had been either to a sufficient extent or from a proper orifice, and unfortunately , the time for its repetition was passed as the disease was in its second stage. To this, therefore I attribute the misfortune of losing the three first attacked, (purser and two of the men) for organic derangement had already taken place.”

“The purser had nausea but no vomiting; he bled profusely from the nose, and, a little before he died, he passed, involuntarily, a large quantity of black fetid blood, per anum.”

People by the dozens kept getting yellow fever on the Pyramus.  On inspection, the Pyramus looked like a nice clean ship, but Dr. Hartel, suspecting miasma, had the limber boards pulled up. Underneath was rotting wood debris from a refitting job done at Portsmouth just before the ship left port. The wood scraps mixed with coal tar had clogged the limber holes, leaving nine inches of stagnant water and muck that couldn’t reach the pump wells. The stench was horrific, not possible to describe. Everyone involved in the inspection and subsequent clean up, including  Dr. Hartel and, remarkably, even some black men, became ill. Yet nobody on shore caught yellow fever. This proved that miasma caused yellow fever. At least it proved it to Dr. Musgrave of Antigua. 

You can follow the yellow fever controversy as it unfolded using Google Books.  This blog post is from:

Musgrave, Anthony.  Facts and Observations in Refutation of Sir Gilbert Blane’s  Doctrines as to the contagious Nature of Yellow Fever. The Medico-Chirurgical Review, and Journal of Medical Science Quarterly , Volume IV, No 16  (March 1824) p. 979. (Available on Google Books)

Yellow Fever on the Pyramus

Eliza Esdaile's daughter Louisa Green first married William Grant, a purser in the Royal Navy (December 1816). My great-grandfather wrote that William Grant died of yellow fever in Antigua. William Grant's will was proved 16 December 1822, but it doesn't say where he died. The Navy List shows William Grant to be the purser on the Pyramus in December 1821 and J Jones to be the purser by March 1822. Between December 1821 and March 1822 the Pyramus was indeed in the West Indies. While not proving anything, this google book deals specifically with the terrible outbreak of yellow fever on the Pyramus in 1822: The Medico-chirurgical review, Volume 6 by James Johnson.