MRS. SARAH GRANT

Celebrated her eighty-eighth (88) birthday, October 1, 1913, at Auburn, Nebraska. She has thirty grandchildren and thirty-two great grandchildren.

AUBURN, Nebraska, October 9 – The eighty-eighth birthday of Mrs. Sarah Grant was celebrated at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Ellen Miner, in Auburn, Wednesday, October 1, with a family dinner party.

Mrs. Grant is in good health and is enjoying to the fullest the sunset years of her life. She has thirty grandchildren and thirty-two great grandchildren. The oldest great grandchild is aged twenty-seven.

Six of the seven children are living. Mrs. George (Vivian) Dye, Liberty F. Grant, and Mrs. Miner of Auburn and Mrs. Dewitt G (Martha) Palmer of Stella were with their mother on her birthday celebration. Willard J. Grant of Spokane, Washington and Samuel LaMonte Grant, of Oklahoma were unable to be present.

A picture was taken which shows her spinning yarn as she did years ago, at a time when all the yarn for clothes that the Grant family wore was made at home.

Her spinning wheel was brought from New York to Wisconsin in 1844 by Mrs. Grant’s father, who gave it to her when she was married in 1847. The children claim that the old wheel has hummed them to sleep many a night.

DIED AT NINETY FOUR

Sarah Dye was born October 1, 1825 in Jefferson County, New York, and lived in that state until she passed eighteen, when she went to Hebron, Wisconsin, where her father was living and her youngest sister, Mrs. Electa Shafer. She was at Hebron two weeks when her sister died, and then she kept house for her father who had lost his second wife after he moved to Wisconsin.

Her own mother died when she was only seven. After the death of her sister, she went to teaching and taught until married to Willard Grant at Hebron in 1847.

They settled on a farm a half mile from the village of Hebron. The quarter section farm, bought of the government at $1.25 an acre, was a dense forest of hard maple, walnut and hickory to be cut down and burned before there was even a garden spot. Mr. and Mrs. Grant were married in March, and all summer lived in the barn, which was new, until the house was finished. Mrs. Grant with pride used to relate in old age, that their chairs were three legged stools, and that her tale was what is known as a "cross leg table" and was made by Mr. Grant of rough boards. Some of Mrs. Grant's happiest days were that first summer of her married life. Hebron was then an in land place of only a half dozen houses, and they went to Fort Atkinson eight miles miles for provisions. The road was through heavy timber, and was only a path marked by cutting chips from the trees - a blazed trail as it were. Bears, panther, deer and wild hogs were plentiful, and numerous other wild animals. Mr. Grant helped to build the log school house in Hebron in 1844, and taught the first school in it, and in at all his children got their first schooling.

Seven children were born: Mrs. Mary E. Dye and Mrs. Ellen G. Miner of Auburn; Samuel L. Grant, Cogar, Oklahoma; Martha, wife of D. G. Palmer; Liberty F. Grant, Auburn; Willard J. Grant, Spokane; Sarah C., who died at the age of two. Mrs. Grant was grandmother to 27, and great-grandmother to 49.

Mrs. Grant died at the home of the daughter, Mrs. Dye in Auburn, Wednesday noon, January 14, 1920, aged 94 years, 3 months and 14 days. Pneumonia was the cause, starting with a chill the Saturday before her death.

Her last hours were peaceful, and her mind was clear and bright until the end; she just went to sleep.

Reverend Carr of the Avenue Methodist church in Auburn held a service at the Dye home,. Friday at ten, and preached the funeral sermon at Baptist church in Stella, of which she had been a charter member, at one o'clock. Burial was beside Mr. Grant in Stella cemetery.

Mr. and Mrs. Grant came to Nebraska in 1882, and located in Stella, building the house now the home of Colonel Kennell, and in their home was the first wedding in the new town when their daughter Martha was married to Mr. Palmer. Mr. Grant died thirty years ago this summer. He and his wife served well their generation. He held various public offices in Wisconsin, and was elected to the legislature. Mrs. Grant loved to recall a trip she made with him to Madison when he was there in the assembly. She began teaching way back in New York state. Her ancestors were Baptists, and at the age of fourteen she was baptized in the Susquehanna river - when she was a small girl her father moved to Tioga county, New York, near Owego. In her home the grandson, B. G. Hall, grew to manhood. The oldest great-grandchild is James Davison, son of Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Davison of Palmer, youngest is Lenora Jean, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.F. Taddiken of Morganville, Kansas.

After the burial last Friday, Mr. and Mrs. Palmer served dinner at their home to Rev. Carr, Mrs. Mary E. Dye, Charles Dye, Misses Blanche and Jessie Dye, Auburn, Emory Dye, Omaha; Mrs. Ellen G. Miner, Mrs. Fred Rohrs, Ralph Hawkins and family, Auburn; B. G. Hall, Blue Mound, Kansas; George Macomber and family, Falls City.

The Stella Press

Front Page - Friday

January 23, 1920

Oldest Woman of the County Passes Away

Sarah Dye, Who had Passed Her Ninety-Fourth Year,

Dies at the Home of Her Daughter, Mrs. Mary E. Dye

and Was Laid to Rest Today at the Stella Cemetery

Mrs. Sarah Grant, one of the most remarkable women in the county, passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. George E. Dye, in this city, Wednesday, January 14, aged 94 years, 3 months and 14 days.

The illness that resulted in her death was of brief duration and the aged woman's end came peacefully and almost painlessly.

Until a short time before her death, Mrs. Grant was in fine physical condition for one of her years, and her mind was almost as bright as in youth.

On her 94th birthday, August 1, 1919, she was able to pen from memory the verses of a ballad that was popular in her youth and her penmanship was perfect and of great beauty.

Mrs. Sarah Grant was born near Owego, New York, October 1, 1825. She was married to Willard Grant, who was born at Henderson, New York, in 1813. The wedding ceremony occurred at Hebron, Wisconsin in 1847. Her husband had come to the state in 1844 and had purchased land from the government at $1.25 per acre.

In 1852 he was elected to the legislature of that state and latter became county treasurer and registrar of Jefferson county. He taught school there a number of years.

In 1882 the couple came to Nebraska locating near Stella, where they lived until the death of her husband in 1890.

Mrs. Grant was the mother of seven children, six of whom survive her. They are Mrs. Mary E. Dye, Mrs. Ellen G. Miner and Liberty F. Grant, of Auburn. Samuel L. Grant, of Cogar, Oklahoma, Martha V. Palmer, Stella, and Willard J. Grant, Spokane, Washington. Sarah C. Grant, a little daughter died at the age of two.

The funeral took place at the home of Mrs. Dye at 10 o'clock, this Friday morning. The remains were taken to Stella where services were held at the Baptist church after which burial took place in the Stella cemetery.

Nemaha County Herald

Friday

January 16, 1920