52 Cousins~Through War and Peace: The Story of Hannah Davis Grant

 The “52 Cousins” series of biographical sketches are Artificial Intelligence (AI) compiled narratives of selected individuals from my Genealogical database.  The selected AI will used the RootsMagic Individual Summary from my Genealogical Software, Roots Magic. All genealogical data is my research material acquired over the past 46 years of research. Today's Biography of Hannah Davis Grant was compiled with the assistance of Claude Sonnett 4 and is entitled:

Through War and Peace: The Story of Hannah Davis Grant

Early Life and Family Origins

Hannah Davis was born in May 1846 in Chesterfield, South Carolina, to Robert Richard "Ricks" Davis (1821-1850) and Sarah "Sallie" Rivers (1818-1901). Tragically, Hannah's father died when she was only about four years old, leaving her mother Sarah to raise the family alone during the difficult years before the Civil War.

Hannah grew up with her siblings Frederick and Elijah Davis. After their father's death, the 1850 census shows young Hannah living in her grandfather William Rivers' household, where she appeared as his granddaughter. By 1860, when she was about fourteen, Hannah was recorded living with her mother Sarah and her brothers in Chesterfield County.

Growing Up in the Civil War Era

Hannah came of age during one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Born just fifteen years before the Civil War began in 1861, she would have been a teenager during the conflict that tore the nation apart. South Carolina, having been the first state to secede from the Union in December 1860, bore witness to some of the war's most significant moments, including the first shots fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in April 1861.

As a young woman in her teens during the war years (1861-1865), Hannah would have experienced the hardships faced by Southern families—shortages of food and supplies, the absence of men who went off to fight, and the economic devastation that followed. Her brother Frederick served four years in the Confederate Army, as noted in his 1915 obituary, giving the family a personal connection to the conflict.

Marriage and Family Life

Around 1867, at approximately twenty-one years old, Hannah married William Riley Grant (1831-1898), who was about fifteen years her senior. The couple settled in Chesterfield County, where they raised their family and built their life together.

Hannah and William had at least two daughters:

• Nancy Jane Grant (1867-1898), who sadly died at age thirty-one
• Sarah Frances Grant (1873-living), who married Henry Eddins

The 1880 census provides a snapshot of the Grant household at Court House, Chesterfield County. William (listed as "Rilah") was forty-five and working to support his family, while Hannah, then forty, managed their home. Their daughters Nancy, age twelve, and Frances (listed as "Francis" and mistakenly recorded as "Son"), age nine, were still living at home. Also residing with them was Joseph Grant, a twenty-one-year-old male relative.

Life After the Civil War

The decades following the Civil War were a period of dramatic change in South Carolina. The Reconstruction era (1865-1877) brought federal troops, new state constitutions, and attempts to rebuild the shattered Southern economy. By the time Reconstruction ended in 1877, Hannah and William were established members of their community, raising their young daughters during a time when the South was slowly recovering from the devastation of war.

The late 1800s saw the rise of the textile industry in South Carolina, transforming the state's economy from one dependent on agriculture to one increasingly industrial. Chesterfield County remained largely agricultural, and families like the Grants would have witnessed these changes reshaping their world.

Widowhood and Later Years

Hannah's husband William Riley Grant died in 1898 at age sixty-seven, leaving Hannah a widow at about fifty-two. That same heartbreaking year, her daughter Nancy Jane also passed away at just thirty-one years old. These double losses must have been devastating for Hannah.

Following William's death, Hannah lived with her surviving daughter Sarah Frances and son-in-law Henry Eddins. The 1900 census shows Hannah, then fifty-four, residing in their household in Cheraw, Chesterfield County, along with her four granddaughters: Lillie, Katie, Nancie, and Annie. Sarah and Henry had been married for eleven years and had four children, all of whom were living—a blessing in an era of high childhood mortality.

Hannah continued living with the Eddins family for many years. The 1910 census still shows her as part of their household, now age sixty-four, though by this time only three of Sarah's six children were still living. By 1920, at age seventy-four, Hannah was recorded living with her stepson John Washington Davis and his family, listed as "Step-Mother" in the census—though the exact nature of this relationship is somewhat unclear from the records.

Community and Faith

Hannah was part of a close-knit community centered around Zoar United Methodist Church in Chesterfield County. Her brother Frederick's obituary from 1915 noted that he was "a life long member of the Methodist church," suggesting the family's deep roots in the Methodist faith. This would have been an important part of Hannah's life, providing spiritual comfort and community connection throughout her long years.

Final Days

Hannah Davis Grant died on June 23, 1923, in Chesterfield County, at the age of seventy-seven (though her death certificate listed her age as seventy-nine). She was laid to rest the following day, June 24, 1923, at Zoar United Methodist Church Cemetery, the spiritual home where her family had worshipped for generations.

Her death certificate recorded her parents as Robert Rich Davis and Sallie Davis, preserving for future generations the connection to the family she had been born into seventy-seven years earlier. At the time of her death, she was remembered as the wife of W. R. Grant, a testament to the enduring nature of that bond even twenty-five years after his passing.

Legacy

Hannah Davis Grant lived through some of the most transformative years in American history. Born before the Civil War, she witnessed the conflict's devastation, survived the uncertain years of Reconstruction, and lived to see the dawn of the modern era in the 1920s. Her life spanned the age of horse-drawn carriages to the age of automobiles, from a largely agricultural South to an increasingly industrialized nation, and from a world without electricity to one where electric lights were becoming common.

Through it all, Hannah remained rooted in Chesterfield County, surrounded by family and community, embodying the resilience and endurance of her generation. She is remembered not just through official records, but through her descendants and her final resting place at Zoar United Methodist Church Cemetery, where her story remains part of the fabric of Chesterfield County history.

Hannah Davis Grant is my 2nd Cousin 3X Removed. 

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1. 1900 U. S. Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Cheraw, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, enumeration district (ED) #17, Page: 37A; Line 25, Dwelling 322, Family 322, Household of Henry EDDINGS; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com : viewed 26 August 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm T623_Roll: 1523.

2. 1850 U. S. Census, Chesterfield District, South Carolina, population schedule, Chesterfield District, South Carolina, Page 179B, Line 16, family 1242, dwelling 1242, Household of William Rivers; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2010); citing National Archives Microfilm M432 Roll 851.

3. 1860 U. S. Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Page: 128B; Line 8, Dwelling/Family 489/488, Household of Sarah [RIVERS] DAVIS; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 3 August 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm M653_1217.

4. 1860 U. S. Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Population Schedule, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Page: 108; Line 26, Dwelling 206; Family 204, Household of Riley GRANT.

5. 1880 U S Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Court House, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, enumeration district (ED) 005, Page: 334A; Line 1, Dwelling 430, Family 430, Household of Rilah GRANT; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 31 July 2022); citing  National Archives Microfilm T9-1225.

6. 1900 U. S. Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Cheraw, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, ED #17, Page: 37A; Line 25, Dwelling 322, Family 322, Household of Henry EDDINGS.

7. 1910 U. S. Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Cheraw, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, enumeration district (ED) #0032, Page 40B; Line 76, Dwelling 301, Family 305, Household of Henry EDDINGS; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com : viewed 27 August 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm T624_1455.

8. 1920 U. S. Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Court House, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, enumeration district (ED) #40, Page: 171B; Line 84, Dwelling 276, Family 284, Household of Jno W. DAVIS; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com : viewed 27 August 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm T625_1690.

9. Hanna Grant, death certificate #009173 (23 June 1923), Vital Records, Department of Health, Austin, Travis County, Texas.

10. James C. Pigg, Chesterfield County Cemetery Survey; Self-Published, 1995, Page #831. Tombstone of Hannah GRANT; No Birth date - June 13, 1923, Zoar United Methodist Church Cemetery, Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, South Carolina.

11. Mr. [Richard] Fred Davis, Sr. obituary, The Chesterfield Advertiser, Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, 10 November 1915, page 1, col. 5.

12. Leon Madison Rivers, "Leon M. Rivers Genealogical Collection," genealogical data, 1920's, Box 3, Folder 75, reviewed 14 June 2005, Leon M. Rivers Genealogical Collection; South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, South Carolina. Elijah Davis married Mattie Deese.

13. Pvt. William Riley Grany, compiled military record (21 Regiment Company D, South Carolina Infantry, CSA), U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865 (Provo, Utah: www.ancestry.com), N/A.

14. Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, database and digital images, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed  26 August 2011); Memorial page for Pvt William R. Grant; (unknown - Aug. 17, 1898); Find a Grave memorial # 50687275, Citing Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church Cemetery; Cheraw, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, USA.