Ira Whitaker Grant, 1842 - 1864

For Memorial Day, this post is honoring one of my ancestors who died in battle during the Civil War.Although I have many ancestors who fought in all of this country's wars, I only know of two who died while in service. I wrote about Clifford E. Stalls, who died during World War II here. Clifford was known as "Buddy" and he was my mother's cousin or my first cousin, once removed. In this post, I honor the memory of another first cousin, three times (3 generations) removed, Ira Whitaker Grant, who died during the Civil War.

Ira was the son of Sylvester Grant, Jr and his wife Susan L Boomer. He was born 28 January 1844 possibly in Fall River, Massachusetts. His family moved soon after to Valley Falls, Rhode Island, where his father was a shoe-maker. Ira had nine known brothers and sisters - he was the fifth child as well as fifth son, and had six brothers and three sisters who lived to adulthood. In the 1860 census for Valley Falls, Ira's occupation is that of jeweler, and he is living with his parents, his next older brother George, and five younger siblings.

Ira enlisted for service in Company E, 7th Infantry Regiment of the Rhode Island Volunteers on 11 August 1862 when he was 18 years old. He mustered into service on 6 September, on the same day his older brothers, Samuel and George mustered into service in the same company. Ira died during the battle at Cold Harbor, Virginia on 3 June 1864 - his two brothers had been previously discharged on surgeon's certificates - George in December 1862 and Samuel in March 1863. George died a month after he was discharged, of consumption, and is buried in the Grant family plot at Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Samuel died in 1915 at age 82 of pneumonia and also is buried in Moshassuck Cemetery in a different plot with no headstone.


From "The Seventh Regiment of RI Volunteers in the Civil War, 1862-1865" by William P. Hopkins, Snow & Farmham Printers, Providence, RI, 1903: p 386-387, copy found in Google Books:

IRA W. GRANT 

 Ira Whitaker Grant, fifth child of Sylvester and Susan Boomer Grant, was born at Valley Falls, Cumberland, April 12, 1842. [ I think this might be the birth-date of brother George, not Ira, and birth location of his younger siblings]. There were three daughters and ten sons in the family of whom only three sons are now living (November, 1902). Ira received a common school education and was employed as a clerk at the time of his enlistment. Two brothers, George S. and Samuel, accompanied him to the field. He was mortally wounded at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. Joseph Taylor was ordered to assist him to the rear and see him well started toward a field hospital. Now Grant was a small man so his comrade could readily handle him. They had reached the border of the swamp to the rear of the line of battle when he became exhausted from loss of blood. Taylor laid him down and he fainted. Just then a rebel shell knocked a large limb from an overhanging tree which fell and covered them both. Taylor finally succeeded in throwing off the limb, but Grant still remained in his faint. The former had never seen a person in that condition and had not the slightest idea what should be done. None were near to call. Shells and bullets filled the atmosphere above them. He feared his comrade was dead and that he would be obliged to leave him. Just then he noticed Grant's head was settling in the swampy water to his face and lips, and began to move. He then seized him by the shoulders and dragged him through the swamp where in places both sank knee deep in the soft mud. Beyond they found some men with stretchers, on one of which the wounded soldier was placed and hastily borne to the field hospital. A surgeon examined him and found that while one bullet had gone through his left thigh, another had entered his breast just below his heart. The former was supposed to be his only injury until the search revealed the other. He lived but half an hour longer.

According to family papers, Ira had a headstone on the family plot at Moshassuck Cemetery but it is no longer there. In the same family papers, he is listed as "left on battlefield". I called Richmond National Battlefield Park headquarters around 10 years ago and was told by the Park historian that many bodies were lost in temporary graves before they were repatriated back to home cemeteries. There is no record for Ira's body - presumably his is one of those that was never found, or if found was never identified.

The battle at Cold Harbor was a major defeat and disaster for the Union Army. Under the direction of General Grant (no relationship) the Union Army tried a frontal assault on the Confederate Army in the hopes of breaking thru the rebel lines and taking the Confederate capitol at Richmond. Instead, the Union Army lost around 7000 men in less than an hour to the well-entrenched rebel soldiers. It is not clear exactly how the Union Command miscalculated the battle so badly, except that it appears there was conflict between Generals Grant and Meade. And it was the common soldiers, including Ira Grant, who paid the price.

"Grant at City Point  [i.e. Cold Harbor], Va., June 1864

Library of Congress image 

Howard M Grant, Moshassuck Cemetery, and the Saylesville Labor Riot

I wrote about my great-uncle Howard Mellor Grant and his service during World War I in this post a few months ago. Since then, I have come across a few more photos of Howard, and an interesting account written by my great-uncle George H. Wood. George was married to Howard's twin sister, Marion Mellor Grant. In Uncle George's account of Howard's service and burial in Moshassuck Cemetery, he writes:

"Lot is in front row - turn right as you enter the cemetery and it has a large stone with a marble statue of Christ, with arms extended and mounted on the same base as the stone. His grave was marked with the usual granite marker on a base, as used then for veterans. The stone was broken off from the base during a strikers riot at Sayles Bleachery. Several fingers and the head of the statue was broken off at the same time. The statue was repaired by the Taylor Monument Works just across the street from the cemetery and the stone was laid against its base and partly buried. In the years since, the stone has almost completely sunken into the ground."

In his notes (written in 1980), Uncle George talked about his plans to order a new stone marker for his brother-in-law and to see if he could get a new bronze VFW flag holder to denote a veteran's gravestone. I do not know why this work was never completed - Howard's stone is still partially buried. Another veteran gravestone in the same family plot, that of George S Grant who served in the Union Army in the Civil War and died 16 January 1963 from consumption after being discharged, does not appear to have been damaged in the riot, but is almost totally unreadable today. In the photo below, Howard's stone is on the right, and George's Civil War Veteran's stone is just behind and to the right of the statue.

Grant Family Plot
Moshassuck Cemetery, Central Falls, RI
Clematis Avenue, Section A, Lots No. 123 & 124

When I last visited the cemetery, I enquired about getting Howard's gravestone reset. I also placed flags on both graves, indicating their service in two of our country's wars.

Howard M. Grant Gravestone
Moshassuck Cemetery

When I drove through Moshassuck Cemetery last summer, I noticed a monument commemorating the riots of 1934. It is located not too far from the Grant plot, on the same side of the road. I had not previously known of the 1934 Labor Riots or the history of damage both to Howard's gravestone and the family monument statue. From an account of the riots by the Rhode Island Labor History Society :

"On Labor Day, 1934, a national textile strike began in Rhode Island and spread to southern cloth mills in an attempt to raise wages and improve working conditions during the Great Depression.

The event turned ugly when local management ask for protection at the non-union Sayles Finishing Company. National Guardsmen, with fixed bayonets, confronted hundreds of unarmed strikers and chased them into the Moshassuck Cemetery. Ironically, union picketers too cover behind headstones in the graveyard. The bullet holes remain dozens of stones to this day. Strife there lasted almost three weeks resulting in the injury and wounding of hundreds of protesters and the deaths of several others. The strike would erupt in violence in Woonsocket as well."

Saylesville Massacre Monument
Moshassuck Cemetery

 

Moshassuck Cemetery Civil War Memorial

When I was in Rhode Island last summer, I went to Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls. Many of my ancestors on my Dad's side are buried here, including both my Skinner and Grant grandparents and great-grandparents. I noticed there is a monument to the Civil War in Moshassuck Cemetery and thought it made an appropriate post for Memorial Day.



Civil War Memorial - Moshassuck Cemetery
Central Falls, RI

 
 The inscription on the monument reads:

ERECTED BY THE

TOWN OF LINCOLN

AS A TRIBUTE TO

THE BRAVERY OF HER SONS

IN THE

WAR OF THE REBELLION

1861 - 1865

DEDICATED BY

BALLOU POST NO. 3. G.A.R

MAY 30, 1888

Many graves of Civil War veterans surround the monument but my family's Civil War veterans are buried in their family plots - Zophar Skinner is buried with his wife, 3 sons, adopted daughter, daughter-in-law and 2 grandchildren (including my grandmother, F. Hazel Skinner Grant). Their gravestone is pictured in a previous post here. 

I don't have any direct Grant Civil War ancestors but 3 grandsons of my g-g-g-grandfather, Sylvester Grant served in the Civil War. These three soldiers were the sons of Sylvester Grant, Jr and his wife, Susan L. Boomer. They are first cousins to me, three times removed. Samuel Grant survived the war and died in 1915. George S. Grant, was discharged for medical reasons and died of consumption a month later in 1863. Ira Whitaker Grant died in battle at Bethesda Church, VA on the 3 June 1864. His body was not recovered but according to family records, both he and his brother George originally had gravestones on the Grant plot at Moshassuck Cemetery. Ira's stone is missing and George's in almost undecipherable. I will write more on brothers Samuel, George, and Ira in a future post.

Hazel Skinner Grant obituaries

My father's mother was Florence Hazel Skinner.  She was born to John Francis (Frank) Skinner and Annie Florence Betts on 6 September 1894 in Valley Falls, Rhode Island. She died unexpectedly on 12th January 1945 at age 50, of a cerebral embolism about 2 weeks after a routine hysterectomy, just as she was about to be released from the hospital.

In a box of  family papers, I found several different clippings of her obituary. None of the clippings are dated or note the newspaper they were found in. I expect some of them were from her local newspaper in Clifton, New Jersey, and some were from her hometown of Valley Falls, Rhode Island. This obituary is the longest of the group.



Hazel Grant obituary

Died 12 January 1945 
unknown New Jersey newspaper

Mrs. Hazel Grant Dies In Hospital

                   ------------------
   Mrs. Hazel Grant, of 267 Rillins [Rollins] avenue, Clifton, whose husband, Ralph Grant, was a former plant manager of the National Rubber Machinery Company in Clifton, passed away early yesterday morning in St. Mary's Hospital, Passaic, following an operation of two weeks ago.
   Mrs. Grant was born in Cumberland, R.I., and came to Clifton more than 25 years ago. Since her husband's death, she had been associated with the aforenamed company, and was a member of the Clifton Women's Club and the Y.M.C.A. Women's Auxiliary.
   The Rev. F. W. Thurston, pastor of Clifton's Trinity Methodist Church, will conduct the funeral services tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 o'clock in the Andrew D. Mason Funeral Home, 440 Clifton avenue, Clifton. Friends may call at the funeral home from 12 noon until 7 p.m. tomorrow.
   On Sunday, the body will be forwarded to a mortuary in Central Falls, R.I., where a brief service will be held on Tuesday, followed by internment in Moshassuck Cemetery there.
   Mrs. Grant is survived by a daughter, Miss Shirley Grant of Clifton; a son, Warren, an air cadet in an Army Air Force unit in Texas; her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John F. Skinner of Valley Falls, R. I.; one sister, Mrs. George Blackmar of South Attleboro, Mass., and a brother, Harold Skinner of Rutherford [NJ].


An obituary from an unknown Rhode Island newspaper lists the bearers at her funeral in Rhode Island. William E. Betts was Hazel's maternal uncle;  Earl Betts was his son and Hazel's cousin. I believe David Betts might be Hazel's great uncle and John Nelson was his son-in-law, married to Hazel's cousin, Mattie Betts. James Yetter was married to Hazel's cousin, Eva Betts. I think Edward J. Eastwood was a Valley Falls neighbor and family friend.




Hazel Grant obituary
unknown Rhode Island newspaper

MRS. HAZEL GRANT

   The funeral of Mrs. Hazel (Skinner) Grant, 50, wife of the late Ralph W. Grant and former resident of Valley Falls who died Friday in Clifton, N.J., was held yesterday from the D.W. Bellows and Son Funeral Home, 85 Park Place, Pawtuket. The Rev. John H. Tremberth, former pastor of the Valley Falls Baptist Church, officiated. Burial was in Moshassuck Cemetery, Central Falls.
   Bearers were William E. Betts, Earl Betts, David Betts, John Nelson, James Yetter and Edward J. Eastwood.

Joseph Goff Grant

Joseph Goff Grant was my great-great grandfather on my paternal side. He was born 1 August 1819 in North Providence, Rhode Island and was one of at least elven children born to Sylvester Grant and Elizabeth (Betsey) Goff. He married Emeline Matilda Parlow (or Parlor) on the 4 August 1839 in Fall River, Massachusetts and had one daughter Eveline Matilda Grant who was born on 12 July 1845 in Blackstone, Massachusetts. Joseph's wife Emeline died of consumption on 17 January 1846 in Blackstone, Massachusetts when their child Eveline was just 6 months old.

After his wife Emeline died, Joseph moved to Cumberland, Rhode Island and on 1 September 1847 he married my great-great grandmother, Lydia Boomer Leach in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I have been unable to definitely prove her parentage but her father was probably Isaac Leach and her mother may have been Sarah Stone.

Joseph and Lydia had four children, all born in Valley Falls, Rhode Island:

Edmund Goff Grant - born 6 August 1848
Sarah J. Grant - born 13 March 1852
Mary Elizabeth Grant - born 24 November 1857
William Sprague Grant - born 22 July 1861

Joseph Goff Grant Memorial Card

Joseph died at age 70 on 30 October 1889 in Lincoln, Rhode Island, in the Central Falls part of town. The cause of death on his death certificate was dropsy. During his life he worked at various jobs such as teamster and mule spinner, laborer, mechanic, and night watchman. He is buried in the Grant family plot at Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls. He and his son-in-law, Emeline's husband Lewis T. Spencer, purchased the cemetery plot when Emeline died on 22 July 1891of consumption.

Mineral Spring Cemetery, Pawtucket, Rhode Island

I have many ancestors buried in this cemetery but somehow I had never visited it on my other trips back to Rhode Island. I think I have always  been side-tracked by Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls, and Oak Grove Cemetery in Pawtucket. Since my Dad's family has been in this part of Rhode Island forever, I have many family burials in all these cemeteries. And from reading the area censuses line by line looking for family members (back before the censuses were all indexed and on-line), I recognize so many of the names on the non-family graves!

Mineral Spring Cemetery is not in the best of shape, especially compared to nearby Oak Grove and Moshassuck Cemeteries. Many of the gravestones have been toppled, and over the years, a lot of them have become buried.

When I first visited this cemetery a few days ago, I ran into Ken Postle, a volunteer who has received a grant to hire neighborhood teens to unearth and reset some of these tombstones. I think he said he has the teens for a total of 1000 man-hours. It looked like the group was doing great work and have located many buried stones, and have started re-setting them. Great job, Ken! and kudos to you for organizing this effort!

Re-set Gravestones at Mineral Spring Cemetery

Both Moshassuck Cemetery and Mineral Spring Cemetery have a special section of the graveyard dedicated to the Rhode Island men who served in the Civil War. Both cemeteries have Civil War gravestones in other parts of the cemetery as well.

Civil War Memorial at Mineral Spring Cemetery

Unfortunately, most of the Civil War grave markers are buried too deeply in the ground to read the inscriptions.

I started taking pictures in the back left corner of the cemetery for www.BillionGraves.com (I will also post the pictures on www.findagrave.com ) but had to stop when a sudden rainstorm started. I only got about 20 photos taken, but one of them was of Zophar Skinner's gravestone. This Zophar was my g-g-g-grandfather. His son, Zophar, was the Zophar this blog was named for - I had previously photographed his grave at Moshassuck Cemetery.

A Tale of Three Zophars

Three Generations of Zophar Skinner

My father's mother was a Skinner. Her grandfather (and my gg-grandfather) was the 3rd Zophar Skinner in a row of Zophars.

The first Zophar Skinner was born in 1773 or early 1774, probably in Norton, Bristol County, Massachusetts. He was a son of Elijah Skinner and Abigal Hawes. Zophar married Bethiah Freeman in Norton on the 15 October 1798. His occupation was listed as a Miller when he died on 3 March 1843 in Franklin, Bristol County, Massachusetts of consumption. He is buried in the Norton Common Cemetery in Norton, Massachusetts.

Inscription: To the memory of
Mr Zophar Skinner
who died March 2, 1843.
Aged 69 years.
 Norton Common Cemetery, Norton, MA

Although the tombstone reads the  2^nd March for Zophar's death, his actual death record shows 3rd March for his death date.

The second Zophar Skinner was born 1 May 1803 in Norton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, third of eight children born to Zophar Skinner and Bethiah Freeman. He married Cynthia Comstock on the 27 September 1835 in Seekonk, Massachusetts. He died of typhoid pneumonia on the 1 July 1860 in Cumberland, Providence County, Rhode Island. He was a mill laborer at the time of his death. Zophar is buried in Mineral Spring Cemetery, Pawtucket, Rhode Island.


Inscription: Zophar Skinner
Died July 1, 1860
Aged 57 years & 2 mo's
Mineral Spring Cemetery, Pawtuket, RI

The third Zophar Skinner was born on the 12th of September 1843 in Valley Falls, Providence County, Rhode Island. He was the second child of Zophar Skinner and Cynthia Comstock. He married Eliza Jane Carpenter on the 24th of December, 1865 in Valley Falls. Zophar died of a heart attack on 11 November 1926 and is buried in Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls, Rhode Island. At the time of his death, he was the owner and manager of the R.I. Washer Company in Valley Falls, a manufacturer of leather washers.

Skinner Family Tombstone, Moshassuck Cemetery, Central Falls, RI

Inscription on reverse side of tombstone reads:

1843 - Zophar - 1926

1847 - Eliza J - 1922

1866 - Frederick W. - 1942

1867 - Charles E. - 1910

1900 - C. Edwin - 1911

1886 - Mabel Carlton - 1899

1870 - John F. - 1949

1871 - Annie F. - 1956

1894 - Hazel Skinner Grant - 1945