Agness & Mabel

Week 26: #52 Ancestors – Identity, Part 2

By Eilene Lyon

William C. Anderson’s First Wife

Recently, I established that Eliza Frey was NOT a wife of William C. Anderson Jr., my 4^th great-grandfather. I knew about a marriage record for William Anderson and Agness Grier in 1806 in Belmont County, Ohio.¹ As William tended used his middle initial in legal documents, I initially discounted it.

Additional records—including deeds, lawsuits, and probate records—revealed William’s ties to the Grier family. There are two deeds in which William C. and “Agnes his wife” sold property, the last dated in 1816.²

The 1820 census has a female in the Anderson household, probably Agness, in the 26-44 age group, giving a birth year range of 1776–1794.³ For various reasons, I’ve narrowed that range to 1780–1790. William was born in 1781.⁴ While it is possible Agness died before 1820 and William remarried, there is no record to suggest this occurred. (There is a small gap in the Belmont County marriage records, however.)

There is no obvious gap in the birth years of William’s children born between 1815 and 1821, though. The son born in 1821, John K. Anderson, named his first-born child Sophia Agnes, perhaps because Agness Grier was his mother. This is not proof, but is suggestive.

By 1830, it appears that William was widowed and I believe Agness died between then and the 1824 birth of daughter, Cavy Ann.⁵ There is no known death or burial record.

William C. Anderson’s Second Wife

William C. Anderson Jr. was the son of William Sr. and Cavey Brashears, and had numerous siblings. The family lived in Frederick County, Maryland, in the late 1700s. William Jr.’s grandfather, Absolom Anderson, was a Revolutionary War patriot from Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

William moved back to Maryland after 1830. He married Mabel Waters in Prince George’s County on October 7, 1835.⁶ She was 25 years his junior. From 1836 to 1844, they had four children—a son and three daughters—all born in Maryland.⁷

Sometime between 1844 and 1850, William moved his second wife and their children to Blackford County, Indiana, where most of his adult children by Agness lived. William, Mabel, and their youngest daughter are buried together near several of Agness’s children in the Trenton South Cemetery.

Who was Agness Grier?

Because I am descended from Elizabeth (Anderson) Ransom, William’s second child by Agness, I am particularly interested in learning Agness’s ancestry. A group of Grier brothers—Henry, James, John, Thomas, and Robert—lived in Fayette County after the war. They possibly originated in York County, Pennsylvania, but may have been born in Ireland.

Two of them, Henry and John, moved to Warren Township, Belmont County, Ohio, just after 1800. Thomas remained in Fayette County. I don’t know much about James or Robert, but all these names repeat in the next generation in Henry, John, and Thomas’s families. And don’t you know how fun that can be to sort out!

Henry and John had sons named Thomas, and both young men served in the same unit in the War of 1812, along with John’s son, Robert, for example.⁸

Because William  and Agness married in Belmont County, likely Henry or John would have been her father. Henry is well-documented, a Revolutionary War veteran, and father of eight known children by his wife Anne Mansfield. Prior to his death in 1813, Henry wrote his will naming his heirs. He appointed William C. Anderson as one of his executors, but neither William nor Agness are otherwise named.⁹

John Grier, though noted in Belmont histories as one of the first three settlers in Warren Township, and having served as the county clerk, did not leave as much narrative history.¹⁰ (As clerk, John signed William and Agness’s marriage return.) He probably had two wives, and his War of 1812 veteran sons were by the first one. Both wives predeceased him, so they are not named in his will and no marriage records seem to exist, either.

Because John died in 1834 and Agness predeceased him, she was not named in his will.¹¹ If John had thought to name his grandchildren, like his brothers Henry and Thomas did in their wills, it would have been clear that Agness was his daughter. No such luck!

My cousin Marion suggested DNA, but I thought these people were too many generations back. For my DNA, that turns out to be true, but ta da! I have my mom’s DNA and waaaay down in her list of matches is a Grier descendant whose tree is not connected to my tree except by ONE person: John Grier.

This match is descended through one of John’s children by his second wife (Agness’s half-sibling). While this may not be ironclad evidence, it’s good enough for me. I declare John Grier to be my 5^th great-grandfather. Welcome to the family, John!

Feature image: A Grier family homestead in Warren Township, Belmont County, Ohio, established in 1840. (E. Lyon 2017)

Agness Grier on Ancestry.com.