My Genealogy Hound

DANIEL GROSVENOR (deceased). Daniel Grosvenor, who was ranked among the earliest inhabitants of Troy, was born in Fairfax Vt., May 8, 1795, and was directly descended from an old English family of that name; his boyhood was spent on a farm, where he acquired his education mainly by his own exertions, studying such books as he could procure, by the light of a pine knot or the brush-heap fires. When 19 years of age, he belonged to a militia company of Green Mountain Boys, and went, with his squirrel rifle over his shoulder, to join the army and assist in repelling the British attack on Plattsburg, N. Y.; he here participated in the battle of Plattsburg, lasting about three days, in September, 1814, and was a witness to Commodore McDonough’s victory over the British fleet on Lake Champlain. He came to Ohio in 1819, settling at Troy, where he supported himself by teaching school while pursuing his legal studies; he was duly admitted to practice April 12, 1822, and served as Auditor of Miami Co. from 1822 to 1829. Dec. 1, 1829, he married Frances Barber; she was born at Colerain, Mass., July 29, 1804, and while yet a child, removed to Truxton, Cortland Co., N. Y.; in 1821, she came to Ohio with her relatives and settled in Troy; they had seven children, all but one of whom arrived at mature age; three were boys and four girls, and of these the eldest son and two daughters are deceased, and two sons and two daughters are yet living. The subject of our sketch continued in the practice of his profession at Troy many years, and also engaged in mercantile pursuits, until failing health compelled him to quit the law office; he was prominent in political life as an original and out-spoken Abolitionist in the times when danger attended such an avowal, but he lived to see the fulfillment of his prophecies and hopes during the late civil war. He was long connected with the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Troy until the time of his death, which event occurred in the month of August, 1867, at the advanced age of 72 years; his aged widow survives, and still resides at the old family place in Troy.