Welcome (Home)
UK Family Origins
Introduction
In The Beginning
Penn Parish Records
Manorial Records
Stonehouse
Watercroft
Grove Graves in the UK
Sir George Grove
Letter Extracts
Family Tree
Groves in America
Introduction to America
The American Adventure
Groves in Australia
Introduction to Australia
The Australian Family
Acknowledgements
Author and Researchers
Technical
After trying their hand at work in London and despite making good starts, brothers John Edmund and George Dodd Grove decided to "go west" to seek their fortune. John Edmund, accompanied by boyhood friend William Brookman, was the first to go sometime in l863 or 1864, sailing from Liverpool. They were soon joined by George Dodd. The young men first went to work in a lumber camp in Canada. Christopher Charles followed his brothers to Canada in 1867 at the age of 19, returning to England only once in 1871. After that he remained in America, although the others made many Atlantic crossings to deal with family matters in England.
Emma Mary Grove (Cousin Nan) daughter of Christopher Grove and Mary (Coakley)
Life in Canada is described in Cousin Nan's writings: In winter the work was in the lumber camps. Later on in the year they took the logs fastened into rafts down river; while in summer the work was often on farms. While in the camps they lived in big huts with bunks around the walls. As well as French Canadians, many of the men were Gaelic speaking Scots. The food, which was very plain, included salt pork kept in barrels and taken out and boiled as needed. The tea was black, and served without milk or sugar. One man was appointed cook. William had this job for a while, and the men seemed to appreciate his efforts. The young Grove brothers and William Brookman enjoyed the rough life in the camps. George Dodd had enough energy after the day's work for socialising and dancing. He was also fond of swimming in the icy cold water of the lakes. William tried a lake once ... but once was enough.'
Although the exact details and timing of the move to the States is not known, sometime after the ending of the American Civil War (in 1865) all four were settled in Audubon, Iowa, each having taken up adjoining sections of land under a scheme set up by the American Government to open up and develop the western states.
One of the many journeys across the Atlantic was made by John Edmund in l870. He came back with the purpose of selling the house at Prussia Road, Farnham Royal on behalf of his widowed mother Emma Elizabeth. On census day, 2nd August l871, both John Edmund and Christopher Charles are recorded at the Farnham Royal house. This is the only time Christopher returned to England. It was agreed that their eldest sister Anne Emma should go to America to keep house for the brothers and she travelled to Iowa with Christopher. In a letter written to her mother from Audubon dated l7th May l872 she says she does not know much about the voyage, as she had to spend most of the time in bed! She talks about going through Kalamazoo, describing it as a pretty town, and of Chicago, which she did not like. Of Iowa she says: "I never could have imagined anything so wild and desolate as this country appears. It is as if it were deserted by God and man and yet it is grand. John's house is like a barn with three bedrooms and one general room. He is to build a new house soon on another part of the farm." Before returning to Audubon John found the 'Old Mill' (a farm) at Crowborough Warren, Sussex for Emma Elizabeth and his three sisters, Isabel (christened Isabella), Helen and Grace. A letter, from John Grove to his sister Isabel, expresses doubts that the farm can be made to pay with only hired help, and by 1877 Emma Elizabeth was renting a house called St Johns in Warwick Road, Redhill in Surrey.
In 1872 George Dodd Grove began to contemplate marriage. He wrote a series of increasingly persuasive letters (which survive) to his childhood sweetheart, Mary Anne Agnes Jinks, who became known by the pet name of Minnie. She was the daughter of Henry Jinks, Blindmaker. He would have met her through family connections, his mother Emma Elizabeth was nee Jinks. He appears to have been a man ahead of his time and his marriage proposal offered her an equal partnership in their enterprise. The proposal was disapproved of by her father and her replies to George Dodd's entreaties, (which have not survived), clearly expressed her doubts and fears at the prospect of going to America. George Dodd's letters give a good description of Iowa at that time.
Mary Anne Agnes was a refined young gentlewoman of 26, educated at a convent in England, brought up in very comfortable surroundings and with some literary aspirations (see notes in family tree). It was a great deal to ask her to leave it all behind, marry and live in an unknown place, far from friends and family and where living conditions were extremely basic but eventually she was persuaded and travelled to Audubon accompanied by her father and brother.
The wedding took place at Mount Carmel, Iowa on 6th September, 1873.
Marriage lines of George Dodd Grove and Mary Emma Agnes Jinks
After a relatively short period in America the couple returned to England in l874 or early 1875, staying at the Old Mill with George's mother and sisters, at first with the idea of managing the farm.
Mary Agnes Grove (May)
Their first child Mary Agnes Grove (May) was born there in l875. Then George Dodd tried various different business ventures. He and the family moved for a while to a farm at Faygate, near Horsham, Sussex with a member of the Butt family of Bayliss House near Farnham Royal. This did not last long, George Dodd developed an intense dislike of "Sussex clay" and was soon in St John's Wood, London. He ran a coffee house, and at the same time took a job in a book-keeping capacity with the Kitchens Committee of the House of Commons. A second child, Catherine, was born around 1876, but she lived only 10 months.
Meanwhile back in America on 25th November 1875, Anne Emma, who had gone out from England (travelling with Christopher) in 1871 and William Brookman were married at Carroll, Iowa. Shortly after the marriage, the couple left for England, and stayed at Crowborough Warren with Emma Elizabeth. They took a tobacconist's shop in Baker Street, London, but the business lost money.
Still in England George Dodd received the following letter in 1876 from his brother, John, who was still in America.
Irwin
Audubon County
Iowa
October 1876
My dear George
I am sorry to hear that you are not succeeding well in business; it must be quite a struggle to start a new affair in a place like yours. It always appears to me that all the suburbs of London are overdone with almost every business and that new beginners have a poor show unless they are particularly adapted to their business and have a pretty good capital to work upon. Taking all things into consideration I shall not make more than expenses on my farm this year. The people I rented the place to acted in such a way that I felt almost compelled to buy them out at a loss rather than put up with them any longer. If I do not misjudge them they were not the most honest, virtuous people I ever saw. It was most unpleasant to have to be with them and it is not much better to have to carry on a large business without anyone to take care of the house. Although things have been most unsatisfactory with me this summer, I am now going to try to bring my business within the compass of my circumstances for I am quite tired of the worry. I am going to have a sale next Saturday to sell off my corn, cattle and hogs, excepting enough corn for my teams etc for a year's feed, and a few young sows. This will leave me nearly free for the winter when I think of trying for a contract on a new railroad which is to run from East side towards the North somewhere. The Lucy farm will pay well this year. There is a good lot of corn on it and I have got about a hundred bushels of barley as rent for about ten acres of it. Farming generally has paid pretty well this year and if I had been situated for farming it would have been the most successful I have had instead of the worst and most disagreeable.
I often wish William and Emma were both here and, in fact, all of you. If it were not for the grasshoppers having left their eggs here this fall, I should try to persuade some of you to come but, as it is, I shall not attempt it, although I do not apprehend damage from them, excepting a few vegetables. I do not think they did scarcely any damage while here.
At the same time, should either of you take a notion to come, you could have a farm, seed, implements etc and on about your own terms until you get something which suited you better. I am pleased to hear so good an account of Cousin William's family. Please give my love to them. I am sorry to hear that Minnie's health is not yet strong. Give my love to her and May and accept the same yourself.
Your affectionate brother
John E Grove
Whether this letter was instrumental in their decision is not known but William and Emma Brookman sailed for America from Glasgow in May 1877, while George Dodd with his wife and family probably left earlier. Minnie incurred the wrath of her father by returning to America. He refused to write to her and prevented her brother from writing. Ted's letters to her are all dated after Henry Jinks's death.
John Edmund was the next to return from Audubon to England. He sailed alone from New York on 9th July 1877 on the SS State of Georgia.
SS State of Georgia Cabin Passenger List 12th July 1877 from New York - List of Cabin Passengers showing John E Grove sailing from New York City
John Edmund proposed and was finally accepted by Lucy Butt, sister of Bishop Butt of Southwark, the youngest of the large family of Mr and Mrs Butt who ran the Baylis House College and Preparatory School. Whether their marriage took place in England or America is unknown, but on John's return to Iowa with Lucy they were accompanied by Mary Coakley, an old friend and former Governess at the school. Brought up in an atmosphere of Victorian gentility and with a scholastic background, Lucy was ill prepared for the spartan life in America. Cousin Nan reports: "Lucy came to a beautifully built house, floors of many different woods set in patterns, and everything prepared for her reception. But she did not take to it - her one idea was to get back to England." She waited for her brother, Charles, who was returning from Mexico to come for her and travelled home with him in April 1878, after a stay of only a few months.
Just before her departure, another marriage was celebrated when Christopher Grove married Mary Coakley on 4th March 1878. In a letter dated 8th March 1878 to her mother-in-law, Emma Elizabeth, the new bride wrote: "We were married last Monday at John's house by Father Weyman, the same priest who married Emma and Mr Brookman. We had the nuptial Mass and afterwards sat down to a quite splendid breakfast provided by Mrs John (Lucy). Minnie gave us a large cake."
Little is known of John Edmund Grove in the five years after his wife's departure, but in l883 he was back in England as a letter to Emma Brookman from her mother, Emma Elizabeth dated 27th April records: "John and Lucy dined and spent yesterday with us" (at Redhill). The couple were living in Norwood at that time, but by 1884 John had leased Pishill Farm at Assenden, near Henley on Thames and evidently returned to farming.
Farming communities have always tended to help each other in times of need, and mutual support was crucial for survival in the tough early days in the Midwest of America. When a terrible epidemic of diptheria broke out in Iowa, in true pioneering fashion families helped each other. Some families lost all their children. Cousin Nan records that: "The men stayed overnight where the illness was worse. One night George Dodd was due to stay in a house where it seemed likely that one or more children would not survive. Uncle William (Brookman) said 'Leave this to me. - you may take it to your children." Mercifully all the Grove children were spared.
Many happy family events took place in Audubon. On 23rd May 1878 George Dodd and Minnie had a daughter Grace Mary (who was to establish the English line) followed by Isabel Mary (Tiny - who founded the Australian family) in April 1881. According to Isabel Mary she got her nickname because she was born on the kitchen floor and fitted into a quart jug! Cousin Nan relates: "When Grace Mary was born in the middle of a thunderstorm, the only person in the house with Minnie was Aunt Emma (Brookman). Minnie was very cool and self possessed, she told Emma to wrap the baby up and lay her down. Emma was greatly perturbed and greatly relieved to see the midwife arrive - Mrs. Ogburn - a fine pioneering character, who admired Minnie's self possession."
Isabel and Grace Mary Grove taken by EL Gulick in Merna, Nebraska
On 21st January 1879 Christopher George, the first child of Christopher Charles and Mary Grove was born, followed in the next three years by Mary Theresa and Arthur Patrick.
Having heard of better farming land in Nebraska for homesteads and tree claims, George Dodd and Christopher set off on an inspection trip. Evidently they were favourably impressed because Christopher's wife Mary wrote to her sister-in-law, Helen in Redhill on 8th December 1882: "You will have heard of the intended trip to Nebraska. I am not highly delighted at the prospect, in fact rather dread it, and I shall be sorry to lose Emma, but you see we are not doing very well here and we shall get a much larger farm for nothing beyond certain fees. It being a Catholic settlement we shall hope to have a church and resident priest, although at first we shall be even worse off in that respect than we are here. (The nearest church was at Kearney forty miles away, although mass was often said in various farm houses by travelling priests.) It will, as you say, be quite an undertaking to take three such small children on a long journey and we shall have to stay somewhere while the house is being built. (The fact that the new railway now passed a short distance in front of Christopher's house is believed to have reconciled Mary to the move, as she dreaded one of the children straying onto the track). We had dinner with William and Emma last Sunday. They have such a nice comfortable house, furnished well and prettily, hanging plants in fancy pots in every window and Emma keeps everything beautifully. She is a famous little housekeeper. I and the children stayed with Minnie while George and Chris were in Nebraska. The weather is frightfully cold - everything freezing - quite a difficulty to get breakfast in the morning, bread frozen, milk a solid block, butter ditto. Lucy had a few days of it while she was out and could tell you a little about it. I did not mind the cold so much then as I do now. I believe I get more cowardly every year."
The heat in the summer was also very intense, and there were occasional tornados.
In l883 George Dodd and Christopher (shortly followed by the Brookmans) took their wives and families on the 250 mile journey, which involving a crossing of the Missouri River. Some of the furniture went on the train, but the families themselves travelled in covered wagons, staying at farms (or as Nan says 'so called hotels') overnight. George Dodd's wife Minnie was pregnant and her baby, named Catherine, was born shortly after arrival in Dale, but died soon afterwards. The Grove brothers established themselves again in adjoining farms at Dale in Custer County.
William Brookman's Certificate granting him Citizenship of the United States of America in 1888
Plan of sod houses in Dale. The rectangles are quarter section farms, the dots are houses and farm buildings
Cousin Nan records: "The sod houses on these prairie farms were marvellous structures - with walls three feet thick. A wire door flush with the outside kept out flies. It could be closed as you stood in the three feet before opening the main door into the main room - with its beautifully laid oiled wood floor, and deep-set windows with a wide sill in the three feet walls giving a window seat. The walls were plastered, the door openings having a rounded finish. When one realises how quickly these houses were built by pioneers without training or experience it seems incredible. I think the window frames and doors may have been prefabricated."
Grove child's drawing of a typical sod house
Angela Meloury (Australian cousin) recalls her mother's (Isabel Mary - Tiny) memories of Dale in her Memories of a Lifetime written around 1965: "The houses were built of prairie sod with cedar for rafters. The sod houses were warm but it was a continual fight against dust and insects. Grass grew all over them out of the sod. A lot of them had no windows, so blankets were hung over them. Life was really raw with Indians aplenty and many bad characters around stealing horses and shooting settlers. If you saw a tornado coming the only thing to do was to lay flat on the ground. Sometimes we saw snakes, even rattlers."
In August 1885 tragedy struck Christopher's family. A few days after giving birth to Lucy, Mary died aged only 35. Christopher was left with the baby, four other children to raise and a farm to run. Cousin Nan writes: "My mother was laid to rest with Minnie's two babies on George Dodd's farm. One of my first memories of Grace Mary (aged about 7) is of her telling me that the railed space on the open hillside marked my mother's grave and getting me to gather flowers to throw on it. Around us Mary Agnes Emma (aged 10), my brother Christopher (aged 6) and the others were playing." The coffins were moved to the churchyard, when the church was built at Dale.
Following the disaster, the childless William and Emma Brookman adopted Arthur Patrick (aged 3) and Emma Mary (Cousin Nan, then aged 2). Cousin Nan remained with the Brookmans (returning to England with then in l890) but Arthur Patrick returned to his father's family. Around this time of sorrow George Dodd was kicked by a mule he was breaking. The injury, which was to plague him for the rest of his life, caused him to be bedridden for the last eight years of his life.
Despite the tragic loss of Mary and two of Minnie's babies the days in Nebraska were also a time of achievement. A matter of pride was the building of the Catholic church in Dale. George Dodd served on the Committee with two other settlers, Mr J. J Downey and Mr R D McCarty. The choice of dedication was a problem. St Patrick's would not be popular with the non-Irish settlers, some German, some French. St George's wouldn't do either. The dilemma was being discussed at the Brookmans on St.Andrew's feast day, when Anne Emma suggested the solution - St. Andrew's.
Building agreement for St Andrew's Church
The dedication of St.Andrew's, Dale, Nebraska
Likely to have been present were George Dodd and his wife Minnie, with children May aged l2, Grace 10 and Isabel 7; William Brookman and wife Anne Emma (Grove); widower Christopher Charles Grove with children Christopher George 9, Mary 7, Arthur 5, Emma Mary (Cousin Nan) 4 and Lucy 2.
Picture 2540 Butcher collection/Nebraska State Historical Society. The Building Committee were George Dodd Grove, J J Downey and R D McCarty. From information in the Pioneer History of Custer County it seems likely that the church was built in 1887. Research by Bernadette Trotter.
Sadly the timber structured church was damaged beyond repair by fire in the early 20th century. The usable timber was used to rebuild the church at Merna which had been blown away in a tornado.
On 26th September, 1889, Minnie gave birth to her seventh and last child and only son, George Joseph, amid much rejoicing. George Dodd, Minnie and their family returned to England in 1892, but sadly not in time for Emma Elizabeth (who died on 22nd January 1892 aged 88) to realise her dream of seeing her grandchildren. The Brookmans had already returned to England two years earlier. And so the sole remaining Grove, Christopher, decided to try pastures new. He undertook another wagon train journey with his two sons and two daughters.
An undated letter (probably l893) written to Grace Mary from her cousin Mary Theresa (Christopher's eldest daughter) reads: "We have camped outside St. Mary's since Tuesday, but expect to start in again tomorrow as rent is $6 an acre and Papa does not feel he can give so much. He does not know whether to go to Pope County in Kansas or Sacred Heart Mission, Oklahoma."
In fact he decided to go to Oklahoma, which was being opened to settlers to claim and live on. At that time Oklahoma was still Indian Territory and not yet a State. The Sacred Heart Mission, near Shawnee, was founded by Franciscan Nuns.
The Church at Sacred Heart
Christopher and his family settled nearby in Konawa, where he continued farming. Mary Theresa stayed at home to help bring up her brothers and sister, Christopher, Arthur and Lucy. Their sister Emma Mary (Cousin Nan) had gone to England with her adoptive parents, Anne Emma and William Brookman. Mary Theresa later entered the convent and took the name Sister Monica. Sister Pancratia, who was Associate Director of the St Anthony School of Nursing, recalled stories told by Sister Monica of how hard the farming life was in the early days, the cold in the mornings, washing clothes on a scrub board and milking the cows.
Mary Grove (right) with her friend Lizzie Higginbottom, daughter of another settler
The Grove family put down roots, grew and flourished in this region. Many descendants of Christopher Charles and Mary Coakley still live in the area today, some bearing the Grove name and all proud of their heritage.
Notable American descendants include award winning Tony Hillerman, a best selling novelist (son of Lucy Grove Hillerman, daughter of Christopher Charles Grove). He has published 22 books; 11 set on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico. His books are translated into l8 languages, the latest (2003) being Icelandic and Korean.
Other American Grove writers are the late Lawrence Grove (son of Christopher George Grove) who was a reporter with the Dallas Morning News. He was in the press car in the motorcade when President Kennedy was assassinated. After working for 20 years as a journalist, Anne Hillerman (daughter of Tony Hillerman) is now a freelance writer and editor, writing coach and workshop director.
Some Grove family members in 1929 - back row, left to right, Christopher George, Arthur Patrick with their father Christopher Charles Grove and other members of the growing family