1826–?

William D. Grantham was born in Indiana in 1826. His parents, Garretson and Esther (Wilson) Grantham, had married in Washington County, Indiana in 1821. By 1850 Garretson was married to a woman named Margaret, suggesting that Esther had passed away during this time. The Grantham family numbered nine children in 1850, but it is likely that a few had already moved out of the household. Garretson farmed, as did all of his sons.

In 1849, Garretson and Margaret moved their family from Montgomery County, Indiana, where the family had lived for sixteen years, to Daviess County, Missouri. William left the following year for California. Soon after his return, William married Mary, a native of Kentucky. Their first child, George, was born in 1853 in Missouri. William and Mary had three more children: Robert, Mary, and James.

William enlisted in 1862 in Gallatin, Missouri to fight for the Union during the Civil War. He was later discharged for disability.

William and Mary’s last child was born in 1867 in Missouri. By 1880 the family had moved to Hill County, Texas, where William continued to farm. William’s 46-year-old son, George, appears in the 1900 Texas census. No one else from the Grantham family, however, still remained in the state at that time.

Bibliography

1850 Missouri Census (Garretson Grantham, Being 27, DaviessCounty, 357).

1860 Missouri Census (W.D. Grantham, Gallatin, DaviessCounty, 529).

1870 Missouri Census (Garretson Grantham, DaviessCounty, 342).

1880 Texas Census (William Grantham, Precinct 2, HillCounty, 312C).

1900 Texas Census (G.M. Grantham, Precinct 3, James County, E.D. 100, sheet 22).

The History of Daviess County, Missouri. Kansas City, MO: Birdsall and Dean, 1882.