Re: Grow Family of Jackson, Michigan

Thomas Grow III (1743-1824) was a Revolutionary War Soldier from Hampton CT. He loaned the State of CT money for the Revolution by allowing soldiers to take uniforms & provisions from his store.There are antiquity notes from the State of CT that can be found on the internet made out to him.Thomas Grow III married Experience Goodell (1747-1811) on June 1, 1767. Her family was one of the first settlers in CT, Mother was Experience Lyon & Father was Ebenezer Goodell.Expereience Lyon was the dau of Abial Lyon & Judith Farrington.Thomas Grow I was the son of "John Groo/Grow of Ipswich, CT" - see the book by that name for complete listings of family lineages. Many of the (14) children of Thomas & Experience Grow moved to Homer, Cortland Co, NY after 1800.One of the daughters married Rev. Alfed Bennett, 1st Pastor of the Homer Baptist church & one married his bro, Deacon Asa Bennett.Several other dau's married deacon's in the church.Son Elijah Grow (1779-1850) married the dau of a local CT Pastor, Lois Palmer (1784-1850).Elijah & Lois moved to Cortland Co, NY also, & Elijah was head of the Cortland Bible Society in 1832.Lois & Elijah had (17) children between 1803 & 1828, including 2 sets of twin boys.(7) were born in Hampton Ct & the rest of them were born in Homer, Cortland Co, NY.(3) sons with their families moved to Oakland Co, Michigan by 1836, and in 1837, most of the other members of Elisha's family followed, including all hisgrown children & their children, going via the Erie Canal to Buffalo, across Lower Canada by teams, then by lake boat to Detroit, & on to Waterford, Michigan where a farm of 160 acres was bought and which became the family home.It was still occupied & owned by a descendant in 1913.Several sons became home builders.The City of Detroit had about (35) families living there then & many homes in Detroit, Jackson, Lansing, & especially Pontiac where many of the Grow's setteld, were built by the Grow Brothers. One of Elijah's sons, William Breed Grow, became a minister & near the end of his life wrote a book which tells of their early days in Michigan."85 yrs of life & labor".Many if not all of the people named Grow in Michigan are descendants of the Elijah Grow family & if you can research your family birth & death certificates & thru the information there, can get back to before 1900, you will probably be able to find your lineage in the book "John Groo/Grow of Ipswich".I found a good friend of mine was a 4th cousin, a Grow descendant (I live near Holland, MI) and there were also several descendants on her street she learned about through a man who found her Father's name in the book I mentioned & researched his children, (as well as other Grow's in the book) & went looking to find all the Grow descendants he could find....uncountable, because most of Elijah & Lois's (17) children had lots of children themselves. There was a family reunion held in Pontaic in 1865 & there were 183 descendants then that attended, so you can only imagine how many there are now!!! Elijah & Lois are buried with other family members in theClarkston Cem, Waterford, Oakland, [email protected]