Thomas Grover 1807

(The following information has been taken from copies of a book sent to us by my brother-in-law Gary Wood. I do not know the name of the book, nor where he found it.)

Pt. 12........................................Whitehall, N.Y.

D-55 (X)Thomas Grover (10), [son of] Thomas (9), b.-posthumously, 22 July 1807, Whitehall, Washington County, New York; died 19 Feb 1886, Farmington, Davis County, Utah;

Married (1) - 1828 Caroline Whiting, b 1809, Vermont; died Oct 1840, Nauvoo, Illinois;

Married (2) - Feb 1841 Mrs. Caroline Eliza (Nickerson) Hubbard, (they were divorced abt 1848;

Married (3) - Hannah Tupper;

Married (4) - Laduska Tupper;

Married (5) - Elizabeth Walker;

Married (6) - Emma Walker (not related to Elizabeth)

Thomas Grover Jr, (or III), above, (b. 22 July 1807), was born abt five months after the death of his father, Thomas, who had died in Feb 1807; thus the entire support and care of the five children of the father's first marriage, (to Ruth Bacon), and the five children of the second marriage, (Polly Spalding), - their support, care, training and education, - all fell to his widowed mother, Polly, who in 1810 married, (2) David Young, who died about 1828; she then married (3) 20 May 1830 Elihu Everts, at Granville N.Y. From the records it appears that the children of the father's first marriage (to Ruth Bacon) returned to Conway, Mass., soon after 1809-10, to live with their maternal grandparents there, (the Bacons), as they were married at Conway and nearby points, 1812 to 1823.

At about 12 or 13 years of age, young Thomas, (D-55, above [Jr. or III]), b. July 1807, secured a job as cabin-boy on one of the boats or barges on Lake Champlain, and as soon as the new Champlain Canal was completed, (on former Wood's Creek, immediately in front of their home in Whitehall), abt 1822, he worked on these vessels between Lake Champlain and Try and Albany, N.Y., and south to New York City and New Jersey. Shortly afterwards the new Erie Canal was completed and he then also traveled west to Lockport and Buffalo, on Lake Erie, and to Detroit, and Chicago, etc. he soon proved his ability and integrity, and in 1831 had advanced to the position of Captain of the "Shamrock", a combination freight and passenger vessel, then transporting all kinds of cargoes, together with passengers, over the entire waterway, - from the French-speaking providence of southern Quebec (just north of New York state and Vermont) south to Troy and Albany, thence south to New York City and New Jersey, - or west from Cohoes, near Troy, N.Y., by the new Erie canal, which ran close and almost parallel to the Mohawk River, to Rome, Lake Oneida, and thence west to Ton....wanda, Lockport and Buffalo, Lake Erie, Chicago, Detroit, etc. These barge vessels were, for the most part, hauled or towed by teams of oxen which traversed the tow-path alongside the canals, as this was just before the common use of the new steam engines. These "barge canals" and their boats and vessels played a very important part in opening up the vast interior of our new country, transporting the crops of fields, forests, and mines, to the big markets and industrial and manufacturing centers, and then hauling the finished factory goods back to the new western markets, as well as transporting the many settlers and their household goods to these new western settlements. (In those days 1800-1830) the "West" generally meant western New York state, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; the country West of Ohio or Illinois was then most generally considered as Indian territory).

In 1828 Thomas married Caroline Whiting, daughter of Nathaniel Whiting, of Whitehall, N.Y. Their first child, Jane, was born 30 (or 31) Mar 1830, while they were living in Whitehall. Shortly afterwards they moved west to Freedom, in Catteraugus Co., ..... (more info available but not typed at this time.)

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