Welcome, Baby Henry Grierson

Our family is delighted to welcome a new baby in the family: Henry Grierson, son of William Grierson (Grier) and Susan.

Grier and Susan were married on April 9, 2005 at the Holy Family Church in South Pasadena, California. That is my cousin, Rich, serving as father and Best Man, to the right of Grier. Rich is the one who was chaperone to Heather and Jenn in Williamsburg~he also attended Heather's wedding there~he really gets around! Heather's daughter, Eliza, and Grier's son, Henry, are third cousins who live across the country from one another. They share a great-great grandmother, Minnie, the Girl From Williamsburg.

Baby Henry Grierson was born on December 20, 2008 at 12:03 p.m. in Pasadena, California. He weighed 7.79 lbs. and he was 21  1/4 in. long.

Since then Grier and Susan have been very busy taking care of Henry, entertaining visitors and enjoying Christmas celebrations!

Baby Henry was named after his great-great uncle, Gen. Benjamin Henry Grierson, who was born in 1826 and lived until 1911.

General Grierson was a career officer in the United States Army. He was a cavalry general in the volunteer Union Army during the American Civil War and later led troops in the American Old West. He is most noted for a daring 1863 expedition (Grierson's Raid) ordered by Grant through Confederate-held territory that severed enemy communication lines between Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Confederate commanders in the Eastern Theater.

On March 2, 1867, Grierson received a brevet promotion to the rank of Major general in the United States Army for his famous raid.

Colonel Grierson is a prominent figure in Turner Network's documentary, "Buffalo Soldiers." The part of Colonel Marlowe, played by John Wayne in the movie "The Horse Soldiers," is loosely based on Grierson.

It will be very interesting for our new baby cousin to learn about his great-great uncle as he

grows up!

General Benjamin Henry Grierson

July 8, 1826 ~ August 31, 1911 (aged 85)

Heather, David, and Eliza in Williamsburg

In response to my welcoming story about Baby Eliza, our cousin Rich wrote in with an amusing anecdote about his trip back to Williamsburg with his daughter, Jenn, and cousin Heather. All three were attending the annual get-together of the descendants of our Grandmother, Minnie, and her siblings. Here is Rich's story...

"I had been charged with 'chaperoning' the girls and was driving them everywhere and making sure they had breakfast, lunch and dinner. We ran off to Chownings Tavern one evening and the entertainers came by. I asked some very insightful questions about jigs vs. reels and the Scottish sound vs. the Irish sound, and I was quite certain that my clever repartee was what caused the entertainers to dwell on us so. They had us playing colonial games and pounding the tables to the music...we went there another night or two and on the last night, after the family dinner, the girls wanted to go back again.

I suggested they just walk down the street and I'd hang around Merchants Square. Everything was closed there, however, so I roamed down to Chownings, too. I looked in the window and the girls seemed to be having a good time~and I didn't think they needed an old man cramping their style~so I went back to the hotel. THAT'S when the minstrel struck. In my absence he slipped her his phone number...and after a few months of talking across the country, they were engaged."
Heather and David were married on May 5, 2007, and had a beautiful wedding and reception at Providence Hall in Williamsburg.

On October 30th, 2008, their daughter, Eliza Adalaide, was born, also in Williamsburg (please see my post on December 17th).

And this is a photo of Eliza's first visit with Santa Claus!

Welcome, Baby Eliza Adalaide, our newest "Girl From Williamsburg"

Our new baby cousin, Eliza, was born on October 30, 2008, in Williamsburg, Virginia. She weighed 6 lbs, 7.3 oz and she was 19 inches long. Her mom and dad are Heather and David, Heather's parents are Joanne and Mitchell, and David's parents are Birgit and David. Joanne has already had a trip back east to meet her new granddaughter.

Eliza is becoming very alert, according to her mom, Heather, and she loves to be held sitting up so that she can look around. She loves to be bounced! Her mom and dad hear a lot of cute cooing noises, and they have even learned that Eliza likes showers. She has grown three inches in a month and a half!

The birth of Baby Eliza helps bring our family full circle in an interesting way. Before the turn of the last century (in the late 1800's), Eliza's great-great grandmother, Minnie Galt Braithwaite, was born in Williamsburg. She was the eldest of eight children who had dreams for her future. In October 1896 she applied to be admitted to the College of William & Mary, but she was declined (twice!) because she was a woman. Not to be deterred from her plans to make her mark upon the world, Minnie took the Civil Service examination and entered the Indian Service. She packed a large picnic basket and rode the train west to Winslow, Arizona, where she worked under incredibly difficult conditions teaching the Navajo and Hopi Indians in the remote area of Blue Canyon.

Later at Fort Mojave Minnie met and fell in love with Clarence Wilmot Jenkins, and they were wed in California, founding a family in 1909 with the birth of their first son, and a family farm in the Sacramento Valley in 1910. Minnie went on late in her life to write a book, Girl From Williamsburg, about her experiences teaching in Arizona. (On Saturday, October 5, 1996, the College of William & Mary held the inaugural event in the annual Minnie G. Braithwaite Lecture in Women's Studies series which is held in honor of Minnie, the first woman to apply to the college.)

Eliza's mom, Heather, was raised near that family farm in California. She met her husband-to-be, David, on a trip back to Williamsburg to visit with descendants of Minnie and her siblings. David is a musician with Colonial Williamsburg, as well as head of the language department at the high school, and on one memorable evening when he was performing in Chowning's Tavern, he met Heather. They were married in Williamsburg on May 5, 2007.

That's when Minnie's circle was closed. One of her descendants came "home" to Williamsburg and has now founded her own family!

Eliza, we California cousins can't wait to meet you. Until then, enjoy your very first Christmas. With you in their arms, mom and dad's holidays will be complete...God bless you, little one, and may the guardian angels watch over you.