Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of Charles Graves

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Descendants of Charles Graves

5. GEORGE F.² GRAVES (CHARLES¹)^31,^32,^33,^34,^35,^36,³⁷ was born April 1837 in Chazy, Clinton Co.,NY, and died Aft. 1900 in Michigan. He married MARTHA SHIELDS³⁸ 15 June 1868 in St. Mary's, Muskegon,MI. She was born 1848 in Illinois, and died Unknown.

Notes for GEORGE F. GRAVES:
In the 1860 census, George is working as a Mill hand in Muskegon. He is living with his parents. He is a widow by the 1900 census, and living with the Brown family in Muskegon township.

Newspaper Article: EARLY DAYS!

"George F. Graves, 55 Strong avenue, came to Muskegon, July 5, 1854. 'I was born in Clinton county, York State' he said, ' and moved from there to Pewaukee Wis, and from there to Muskegon. upon my arrival I went to Sand Creek. No, I didn't go in any canoe. I had to walk up in the sand. There was one sawmill belonging to E.W. Merrill's brother, at Sand Creek, and all else that was there was a boarding house and three houses. It was pretty wild, about as wild as it could be. There wasn't anybody within seven or eight miles. There were no Indians there at all. There were some on the river then though but they had no camp there and you only saw those who traveled up and down.
" I came down from Sand Creek a month after on a raft of lumber, going back to Wisconsin and then returning to Muskegon in the fall again.
" When I came to Muskegon there were seven or eight mills here. They were those of Ryerson & Morris, Chapin, Marsh & Foss, Trowbridge & Co., George Ruddiman, John Ruddiman - in North Muskegon - towards the Bay Mill swamp, an old water mill at the mouth of Behr Lake, and Ryerson & Morris' Bay Mill. At that time they were just commencing to build the mill which burned down last summer, owned by Frank Alberts & Co. which was the C. David mill then.
" I came to Muskegon on a sailboat, the 'Kitty Grant' There wasn't a steam boat on Muskegon Lake then, not even a tug. There was a scow with a little engine on her, but it took all day to get across Muskegon Lake. (The "Kitty Grant" was a 78x21x7, 2-mast wood schooner, which mainly carried bulk freight such as lumber. It was built in Milwaukee, WI in 1853 and later capsized in Lake Michigan, on 8 Oct, 1884)
"The first season I did odd jobs, teaming and one thing and another, and the second I worked in Foss' mill. One thing I did that first season was to draw logs on the beach. The big pine logs would drift up on the sand so I would hitch a chain to a log and drive the oxen into the water and then wade in up to my neck to unhitch it. That was so they could get the logs to float to the mill and manys the time I've been in the icy water up to my neck.
"We had more fun in those days than now. In Mrs. Witherel's boarding house we used to say 'Mrs. Witherell may we have a dance tonight: and she would say 'I don't care.' and everybody would come and, well, they would have a big time too. All were alike then - doctors, lawyers, teamsters, everybody. What they would call a public dance they would have in Mrs. Boyd's house. There was only one little hotel, the old Muskegon House, on the corner of Pine and Western avenue, opposite where the Wierengo Hotel is now.
" We used to dance everything - cotillions, opera reel, Scotch reel. There's no finer dance than the cotillion for me. No there was no waltzing then. Only the Germans would waltz.
" A great time twould be in the summer, about June when the big drive would come down. They would march the streets in all kinds of costumes and have a big time then.
" The only schoolhouse then was on the corner of Clay avenue and Terrace street, and when I would drive by with a team and a cord of wood, the children would jump on like flies. Finally a little girl fell and caught her foot between the beams of the sleigh and broke her ankle. So after that they would tell me to whip the children if they jumped on. William Badeaux, I remember, jumped on one day and I gave him such a horse whipping. his father said to put it right onto him. William never saw me afterwards but what he would laugh and ask me if I remembered it.
" I was once offered the best part of Muskegon - from the corner of the Hackley bank down through the Occidental, and then south, 40 acres in all - for $12 an acre. A man owed me $100 and he said I could have the land for $12 an acre, but I told him I wouldn't pay $12 for the whole of it.
" On Western avenue, from where they Lyman block now stands, clear down to where the Rodgers house is on Morris street. I broke the first ground and sowed it into rye. I built a fence clear down to the Occidental. There was no street there then - no road way down to the mouth, nothing but a patch.
" About 24 years ago this winter, I was up in the woods and I started from Houghton lake about three o'clock one afternoon with a big satchel on my back and they told me they thought I could make Gerrish's farm which was ten miles. Well, I saw a guide board nailed to a tree, which said 'Gerrish's Farm' and I went a little way into the place and then I said 'I guess this will fool me' I hadn't been particular enough to inquire if the farm was on the road. So I made up my mind to go right along. The road had not been broken and there was about 10 or 16 inches of snow and I got so tired. Night overtook me and it was snowing as hard as it could snow. I looked for a little low pine to see if I couldn't build a fire and then I made up my mind that I was so tired that if I should lie down I would be frozen stiff inside of an hour. So I kept on. At last I came to a place where they were putting in logs. All I could make out - it was so dark - was two buildings on the flats where the logs were and I couldn't tell what they were. I looked and saw a light in the distance. So I went there and asked the people if they kept travellers and they said: 'No' pointing to another house in the distance, but I had hardly left when they called me back. The lady said I looked so tired she couldn't let me go on. My wasn't I tired! It was 22 miles I had made since three o'clock in the morning - and walking all day in the deep snow. I walked in the tracks of two horses that had come down ahead, but that was worse than no tracks.
" I had been sleeping on pine boughs for two months but that night when I got to that house they put me in a feather bed and I couldn't sleep at all. The next day I went on. I had to go about 12 miles before my next stopping place and it was up hill and down all they way. It snowed all the time. It was then about the fourth day of April - and all of twenty five years ago, anyway. It was noon before I got to a stopping place where I had dinner with a man who was making shingles. That night, by good luck, a man from Big Rapids took me aboard and drove me to Farwell. Others who had driven by me just before would whip up their horses when they saw me.
" The next day I couldn't walk across the room. I was so stiff. Afterwards I took the train to Whitehall and then to Muskegon. It was a 40 mile tramp that I had taken through the snow all the way.
" From Foss' mill I went down to work for Truesdell & Co., inside the sawmill. We had pretty fair pay at the time but saw better afterward. Common labor was a dollar a day and board, and sawyers had $2.00. At that time, Charlie Hackley was working for a dollar a day. Our time was 11 hours a day. We commenced at six and worked till six, with an hour's nooning. We worked nights when the mill ran night and day, but they had two crews, one crew till 12 at night and the other till noon. We were glad to sleep when we weren't at work. It was awfully bad working in the mills in those days because there was nothing done by machinery. We had to do everything by hand.
"All those who invested in those days got rich. There was a chance for the poor man then. Now rich men take up everything. There is no heavy work in the mills nowadays. Everything is done by machinery. We never dreamed in those days of band saws to cut lumber; and I've seen as many cut fingers as any man I guess.
" One time, Andrew Morveau, Edward Munseau, Henry Bourdon, Daniel Morveau and myself went up to the bayou. A lot of Indians were camped out there. Henry Bourdon was the greatest man for fun that ever lived and he was going to peek in a tent where some squaws were when Andrew Morveau came up behind him and gave him a push over into the tent. That's the only time I ever saw Henry Bourdon frightened, but those Indians were harmless; there was no danger.
"Bourdon saw some muskrat meat hanging up and he gave a squaw a shilling to cook some so we could all have some to eat. Well sir, muskrat are good eating and the squaws know how to dress them and cook them too."

More About GEORGE F. GRAVES:
Occupation: 1900, Farm Laborer
Residence 1: 1860, Muskegon Village, Muskegon Co.,MI
Residence 2: 1873, 221 Western, Muskegon, Michigan
Residence 3: 1900, Muskegon twp., Muskegon Co, MI
Residence 4: 1903, Grand Rapids, Kent Co.,MI; Home for the Aged

Child of GEORGE GRAVES and MARTHA SHIELDS is:

GEORGE E.³ GRAVES, b. 1869; d. Unknown.

6. CAROLINE² GRAVES (CHARLES¹) was born September 1841 in New York, and died Unknown. She married ALEX MARCOUX³⁹ 1871. He was born March 1830 in Canada, and died Unknown.

Notes for CAROLINE GRAVES:
1860, age 18, living with parents in Muskegon. Working as a Seamstress.
1870, age 28, living with parents in Muskegon. Caroline and her sister, Adeline, are twins.

Notes for ALEX MARCOUX:
Per Graves family files at Hackley library, Caroline & Alex had 4 children.

More About ALEX MARCOUX:
Immigration: 1850, To United States
Occupation: 1880, Laborer

Children of CAROLINE GRAVES and ALEX MARCOUX are:

	i.		ELIZABETH 'LIZZIE'³ MARCOUX, b. August 1871, Michigan; d. Unknown.
	ii.		CHARLES MARCOUX, b. June 1876, Michigan; d. Unknown.
	iii.		EDWARD MARCOUX, b. January 1880, Michigan; d. Unknown.
	iv.		FRANK MARCOUX, b. Bet. October 1881 - 1891, Michigan; d. Unknown.

7. ELIZABETH² GRAVES (CHARLES¹) was born 10 March 1846 in Redford or Chazy twp., Clinton Co.,NY, and died 03 October 1937 in Muskegon, Michigan. She married JOSEPH DAVID. He died Unknown.

Children of ELIZABETH GRAVES and JOSEPH DAVID are:

	i.		ARTHUR³ DAVID, d. Unknown.
	ii.		EDWARD DAVID, d. Unknown.
	iii.		FEMALE DAVID, d. Unknown; m. H.B. RICHARDSON; d. Unknown.

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