Michael Henry & Maria (Norris) Grimshaw

Westward Migrants from Wisconsin to Minnesota and North Dakota

Michael Henry Grimshaw (from Dorothy Zastrow Grimshaw Album)

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Michael Henry Grimshaw was born on Wolfe Island (or possibly nearby Kingston), Ontario on October 22, 1856. He emigrated with his parents, John James and Mary Ann (Mahoney) Grimshaw to Richland Center, Wisconsin. On January 14, 1879 he married Maria W. Norris, who was born on March 10, 1861 to Benjamin and Lyda Norris. Maria was the younger sister of Eliza Norris, who married Michael’s brother, John Etimer Grimshaw, in 1871.

Michael Henry and Maria had six children, two of whom died in infancy. Maria died at the young age of 32, and Michael remarried to Carrie S.; they apparently had one child. Michael and Maria migrated westward to Minnesota from Wisconsin, where Maria died. Michael moved further to North Dakota, where he is buried.

Website Credits

Photos of Michael Henry and Maria Grimshaw

Marriage Record for Michael Henry and Maria Grimshaw

Michael Henry and Maria (Norris) Grimshaw Descendant Chart

Michael Henry Grimshaw’s Ancestors

Bob Grimshaw's Chronology’s of Michael Henry’s Family and Descendants

Photos of Michael and Maria Grimshaw’s Descendants

Michael Henry Grimshaw's Origins

Final Resting Places

Personal History of Bob Grimshaw, Michael and Maria’s Descendant

Many thanks to Bob Grimshaw for providing almost all of the information and as well as the photographs on this webpage.

A photo of Michael Henry with his older brother is shown in Figure 1. A photo believed to be Maria and her older sister is presented in Figure 2.

An image of the marriage record for Michael and Maria is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 4 shows descendant chart for Michael Henry and Maria. The descendants of Michael and his second wife, Carrie S., are not known.

Michael Henry was the son of John James and Mary Ann (Mahoney) Grimshaw and the grandson of George and Charlotte (Menard) Grimshaw; both of these families are the subject of companion webpages. George and Charlotte raised their family on Wolfe Island, Ontario. John and Mary Ann married on Wolfe Island and apparently had all their children, including Michael Henry, while there. They subsequently migrated to Wisconsin in about 1869.

Photos that are believed to be of John James, Mary Ann and their (surviving) children are presented in Figure 5. The album from which these photos came is in the possession of Kernit Grimshaw, a descendant of William Alexander’s older brother, George Thomas; it is described in more detail on a companion webpage. The photos in Figures 1 and 2 are also from this album. Figure 6 shows photos from another page of the album, with photos believed to be of the Norris sisters who married Grimshaw brothers. 

Figure 5. Photos believed to be of Michael Henry Grimshaw (photo "a," same as in Figure 1) and his siblings and parents. The two boys in the right photo ("c") are believed to be of John Etimer and William Alexander, Michael’s brothers. It seems apparent that the person who affixed the photos intended to show the entire family, with John James and their daughter, Lida, in the center photo.

Figure 6. Another page from the same album, showing photos clearly of the same "vintage" as those in Figure 5. One of the girls in photo "b" is the same as in Figure 5b (i.e., Lida Grimshaw?) On this basis, the two women in "a" are conjectured to be Maria and Eliza (Norris) Grimshaw, sisters who married brothers. The other girl in "b" could be Lida's older half-sister, Eliza Mahoney.

In the fall, 2000, Bob Grimshaw authored the following family history for Michael Henry Grimshaw and his ancestors and descendants. The footnotes are provided immediately after the text. Bob also wrote a personal history of his youth which appears near the bottom of this webpage.

Bob’s Introductory Note: I tried to write a chronology of my branch of the family's migration from Canada. If I'm lucky it will follow. If not I'll send it.

Grimshaw Migration

FOUR GENERATIONS FROM CANADA TO WYOMING

George Grimshaw was reported to have been born in England and to have emigrated to North America by way of Canada. He came from a family of ship owners and seafaring folk who had been prominent in the County of Lancashire in northwest England. George married Charlotte Menard on September 9, 1817, in St. Luc, Quebec. His father was Guillaume (William) Grimshaw. His mother was Elizabeth Lepninah. William was said to have come to Canada from Germany¹.

John James Grimshaw, first son of George and Charlotte, was born in Ontario, Canada (probably on Wolf Island) on August 1, 1829². He married Mary Ann Mahoney in about 1848³. She was a widow with a young daughter named Eliza. Her husband and baby had died² in the crossing from Ireland. John and Mary Ann had five sons and a second daughter. The daughter, Mary Charlotte, and one son, Isiah, died soon after they were born. The surviving sons were George Thomas, 1849; John Etimer, 1850; William Alexander,1854; and Michael Henry, 1856⁴. Michael Henry was my grandfather.

Old family letters⁵ pass on information that George Grimshaw came to Canada as Captain of one of the family ships. He met Charlotte Menard, a French women in Upper Canada, and married her. When he returned to England with his new bride they were not accepted by the family there and he was given his inheritance and sent away. Their is no evidence to support this, Nonetheless he did return to Upper Canada. The same source reported that John James owned ships on the Great Lakes. If this is true, John could have married Mary Ann and lived almost anywhere in Upper Canada. His son, Michael Henry, told his daughter, Irene, that he was born in Quebec City and went to school there until he was thirteen years old. That time period would check³ with John’s entry into the United States at Cape Vincent, New York, October, 1869⁶.

John James and his family probably moved to Richland County, Wisconsin soon after entering the United States. He was a witness at his son’s weddings in Richland Center: William Alexander to Jane Turner on December 26, 1872, and Michael Henry to Maria Norris on January 13, 1879⁷. John James apparently resided in Wisconsin near Richland Center until he died from cancer of the tongue in the small community of Orion, Wisconsin on March 19, 1907⁸.

Michael Henry and Maria Norris had five children: Garth,1880; Bertha Luella, 1881; William Clarence, 1884; Thomas ,Meredith, 1886; James Henry, 1888; and Grace Irene, 1890. Garth and Thomas Meredith died soon after birth. William Clarence was my father. Michael Henry moved to Kansas in about 1888 or 1889. His nephew, Thomas Henry Grimshaw remembered the day that they left from in front of Lida Norris’s house in a covered wagon⁹. They returned to the Magnolia, Minnesota area in 1890⁹. Grace Irene was born in South Dakota, January 22, 1890, on the trip back¹⁰. Michael’s wife, Maria, died three years later on February 12, 1893, She was ill from injuries suffered from the birth of her sixth child, according to my father, William Clarence. Irene was placed with another family where she stayed until she was an adult. Michael hired a housekeeper to take care of the older children. The housekeeper, Carrie S., became Michael’s second wife. The boys had difficulty accepting their new mother and their half sister, May.

Michael Henry’s oldest daughter, Bertha, married Harry Curry in 1897, just four years after her mother’s death. Bertha was just fifteen years old. My father, William Clarence was just eight years old when his mother died. He continued to live with his father and stepmother until he graduated from the eighth grade. At about fourteen years old, he left home and worked on farms in Minnesota and perhaps North Dakota. filed for a homestead near Crosby ,North Dakota, on June 6, 1911. His father filed for homestead near Wildrose North Dakota two years later¹². Michael Henry died there on October 6, 1916¹³.

Michael Henry’s older brother, George Thomas had filed for land in South Dakota on October 12, 1908¹². There is some evidence that the sons of John James kept in contact with each other during those years on the homesteads such as album pictures and letters. There is a possibility that Michael Henry’s youngest daughter, Grace Irene was born on George Thomas’s farm, since she wrote that she was born in South Dakota when the family was returning from a trip to Kansas¹⁰.

William Clarence met Ragnhild Eckstrom, who had emigrated to North Dakota from Norway, in about 1914. They were married on February 15, 1915. Ragnhild was my mother. Ragnhild filed for land under the homestead act on August 1, 1918¹². Her land was better than my father’s, so he abandoned his homestead and they moved on to hers. The following years proved to be very difficult. The winters were hard, followed by dry summers^6?. The farms in North Dakota were devastated from lack of water. Most of the crops had no irrigation and the outcome of each planting was completely dependent on the weather that followed. By 1921 the William C. Grimshaw family decided to give it up, sell what they could and move on to try again in Wyoming. On October 8, 1921, the Grimshaws held an auction sale where they sold all their livestock and equipment except one team of horses and a wagon¹⁴. William and Ragnhild loaded their four children (Grace, Esther Russell and Lyla) into a covered wagon and started the long drive from near the Canadian border to the Northern Wyoming town of Sheridan. Their hired hand accompanied them. When they arrived in Sheridan the hired hand disappeared with the team of horses¹⁵. Their beginnings in Wyoming were humble, but they managed to grow in number and become part of the community. Fern was born on June 3, 1922, soon after the family got settled at 705 North Sheridan Avenue. I, Robert, was born on July 4, 1926. Jean was born on October 10, 1928,and Nancy was born on August 22, 1934.

NOTES

1. Madelain Menard, 1999

2. Baptismal Records, Census Records, etc

3. Census Records

4. Family Letters: Thomas Henry to Fern, Irene to Robert, Pearl to Robert; Census Records; Marriage Records.

5. Letter: Thomas Henry to Fern

6. Declaration of intention to become a U. S. citizen, October 22, 1869.

7. State of WI, Registrations of Marriage

8. State of WI, Death Certificate

9. Letter: Thomas Henry to William Clarence

10. Letter; Irene Bilquist to Robert

11. Newspaper article and letters from May

12. BLM Records

13. Death Record

14. Sales Poster (see Figure 

15. Conversations

The sales poster referred to in Note 14 has survived in Bob Grimshaw’s records and is shown in Figure 7.

A number of photos of Michael Henry and his descendants have survived and are shown below. A photo of Michael Henry and three of his children is shown in Figure 8. His two oldest children, Bertha and William, are shown in Figure 9.

William Clarence and his wife, Ragnhild, are shown in a composite photo in Figure 10. Tow of their children, Fern and Robert, are shown in Figure 11.

\Figure 11. Fern Ethel and Robert William Grimshaw, two of William Clarence and Ragnhild Grimshaw's children.

Figure 12 shows two photos of James Henry Grimshaw, who died of an apparent unknown illness at the age of 42. 

Figure 12. James Henry Grimshaw. First photo taken during World War I. Date of second photo unknown. Photos provided courtesy of Bob Grimshaw.

Michael Grimshaw's origins are well documented and are described on webpages for his parents John James and Mary Ann (Mahoney) Grimshaw (click here), grandparents George and Charlotte (Menard) Grimshaw (click here) and likely great-grandparents William and Elizabeth (Zephaniah) Grimshaw click here. 

As noted above, Maria (Norris) Grimshaw died young and is buried in Minnesota (near Laverne). Her headstone is shown in Figure 13. Michael Henry remarried and lived in North Dakota when he died; he is buried there. His death certificate is shown in Figure 14.

Figure 13. Headstone of Maria (Norris) Grimshaw, which is located in a cemetery near Laverne, Minnesota.

Figure 14. Image of Michael Henry Grimshaw's death certificate. It indicates that he died of paralysis in Garret or Garnet Township, Divide County, North Dakota on October 26, 1916. He is buried in Wildrose cemetery. The informant was his son, William C. Grimshaw.

In 1998 Robert William ("Bob") Grimshaw prepared a summary of his early years, including growing up in Wyoming during the Depression, which is presented in the text below. Pictures of Bob are included in Figures 15 and 16.