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| Grenfell Family |
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| Who is the other woman? |
William Grenfell, my 2nd Great-Grandfather, was born on September 6,
1816. He was born in Madron to Richard and Patience Grenfell. As of
yet, I have no information about Richard and Patience. William married
Eliza Thomas on June 25th, 1837 in Madron. Eliza was born in St. Hilary
in 1813.
By
1841, William and Eliza were living in Saint Ives at 33 Trowan Street.
William was a tin miner. They now had three children: Richard, age 4,
William, age 2 and John, age 1. This John, however was not my
great-grandfather. He died sometime in the 1840's. My great-grandfather
was born in 1851 . Frederick, who later moved to Vincennes, Indiana,
was born in 1855.
It
was not uncommon for children to die before the age of three in the
early 19th century. Lister's Germ Theory was still many years off, and
the only available vaccine was for smallpox. Over half of the families
in this time lost two or more children in childbirth or within the
following two years. It was also quite common to name a second child
the same as the first.
Somewhere
in the 1860's, William died in a mining accident. The mining page on
this site chronicles the dangers of flooding in the latter days of the
Cornwall deep sink mining era. His sons John and Frederick both were
mining by the 1871 census. He married Katherine Lisley Cowlin
(http://home.earthlink.net/~ggrenfell4/id16.html) in March of 1870.
They lived with Eliza, now a widow, along with Grace Cowlin, who, for
some reason, moved in as well. John and Katherine later moved to Street
an Garrow. They had thirteen children, ten of whom survived early
childhood. They included: Dick, Catherine, Elizabeth, Jack, Thomas
Cowlin, Richard, Mary, William, John and Grace Wall. They moved a short
distance to a larger home on Bedford Rd. My grandfather,Thomas Cowlin
Grenfell married Ethel Pascoe Rowe in September 1900. At this time, my
grandfather was an ironmonger, working towards his divinity degree.
They initially lived at 30 Bedford Rd. next to the widower Henry
Grenfell, an uncle by marriage. Richard Rowe was born on Nov. 21st,
1901. My father, Thomas Cowling, was born on May 20th, 1905 and Jack
was born on May 15th 1908. The family emigrated to the United States in
1912.
From my father's words in a set of notes he left:
"Dad's first parish Roxbury, in North Stamford (The Methodist-Episcopal
church and cemetery where Dad and Mother are buried). My older brother,
Richard Rowe and younger brother, Jack and I attended a one room
schoolhouse (now a Quaker Meetinghouse) where a teacher taught all
eight grades. I think there were about twenty pupils, a wood stove and
outhouses which were really cold in the winter and awfully smelly in
the summer. A happy time, though, since we could go sleigh riding .
There were a lot of church socials, and though many chores, we still
had time to play.
One time we noticed a big forest fire on a nearby hill. Very shortly,
the fire wrden was ordering all mature males to fight it. We were only
forty miels from the center of Manhattan, and yet it was really country
then- a lot of big estates.Occasionally we had a ride in an auto-
driven by Dad's friend's chauffeur, who was named "Axle". He showed off
by taking us up a steep hill. the car had a tonneau at the back and
you'd enter from the rear (like a pony cart."
"We had three very cold snowy winters ( one photo we had showed
the top of a buggy going through a plowed snowdrift. After the
Cornish climate where twenties were very cold, below zero was
something else."
"In 1915, we moved (by train) to Cattlesburg, KY- a town of 3,500
where there was one street with 23 saloons on it. This was a
'Gretna Green" and the only wet area for miles (Ohio and West
Virginia were dry). Dad was called to a house one time to marry a deaf
and dumb couple. Dad wrote all the questions on a board- and they wrote
all the answers. Perfectly legal. Although a tough area, we kids loved
it. The climate was good (started gardening in February) and we had
lush vegetables and fruit.
There were two Methodist Episcopal Churches, one North and one South (a hangover from the
Civil War)." editor's note- there is now one Methodist Church in Cattlesburg- see picture on this page
" Dad had two weeks of revival services in February (every night
in the week and two on Sunday) There was still a lot river traffic with
the paddle wheel steam boats having a steam calliope that one
could hear for miles. The Big Sandy River runs between KY and WV into
the Ohio at Cattlesburg. The mountaineers always brought rafts of
logs down in the spring freshet. They could drink there "Mountain Dew"
till the cows came home but got drunk on regular whiskey. Were they
ever tough! Once they stole a Ford and went past our house shooting
at everything.
We then moved to Latonia, KY in 1917 where Dad had a beautiful church. WWI was starting
(American involvement) and yet it meant little to us kids, although distressing to our mother."
During WWI, we moved to Crestline, Ohio- a true middle American
town (the crossing of the Penn and NY Central) and we had to stay in
the RR YMCA for two weeks due to quarantine because of the epidemics.
None of us were ill." He continued, "The railroad boxcar with our
furniture got lost and was found a few weeks later. All was a mess of
broken wood. Crestline was a nice town, brought out of the 19th century
by WWI. We had a swimming hole where we skinny-dipped. I worked in a
general store. They had one of everything there. Went to High School-
180 pupils." "We moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1919- where I graduated
from high school in 1923. I attended many big league baseball games
(Dad had a free season pass. I saw Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and many others
play there." "I attended Ohio Wesleyan for one year and then
transferred to Wesleyan in Middletown, CT." End of this set of notes
By
1920, Reverend Grenfell was assigned a church in Jackson, Ohio. At this
time Dick was working at the local YMCA as a clerk, while Jack and Tom
are listed on the 1920 census as students.
| Cattlesburg, KY Methodist Church |
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| North and South united a few years ago. |
During the 1920's, Pastor Thomas was called to serve in Brooklyn, NY at
the Fifteenth St. Methodist Church. In addition to his church duties,
he began preaching on WBBC radio from three to four every Sunday
afternoon. Dick began singing hymns during interludes on the show and
eventually, they started broadcasts on WEEF on Thursday afternoons.
Ethel Rowe was often ill and confined to bed during this time,
according to letters to her son. She had problems with her hips and her
knees. She and her husband did make some trips up to New Hampshire and
Maine during the summers. One of her great interests in life was
geology. She had many beautiful rock collections, some of which my
father inherited.
By 1930, Pastor Thomas was in Hartford, at St. Paul's ME
Church with Jack and Thomas still at home. Richard was married to
Ula Carter by this time and working as an engineer at an aircraft
factory. He was recently divorced from a woman by the name of Natalie,
nicknamed "Nath". They had lost a child, Jack in 1926.
Thomas was at this time dating a woman by the name of
Janet. They apparently met in Middletown, where she lived. They
dated for at least two years, according to letters I read. He
later married Bernice Cook on February 6, 1932. My
father had graduated Wesleyan University and was working for the
State of CT. Bernice was working for Underwood at their Atlantic
District Office..They lived on Grandview Terrace.
By 1935, Pastor Thomas Grenfell was back in Brooklyn at the Ocean Parkway Methodist Episcopal Church.
| Tom and Bernice at Christian Camp |
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Jack
was ordained by 1935 and was assigned his first church, Trinity ME in
Bridgeport CT. In June of 1936, he married Clarine Coffin. During this
time, my father, Thomas, was still working as a chemist for the State
of Ct.
My
brother, Thomas Cowling Jr. was born on November 14, 1932 in Hartford.
My sister Jessie was born in Rockville Centre, NY. on March 7, 1936. My
father, Thomas, had accepted a position with Charles Pfizer and the
family moved to Long Island at this time.
During the late thirties
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