John Grinnell and Rhoda Denning Grinnell

Thanks to my very distant cousin Laura G. Prescott, I now have images of the tombstones of my Great-Great-Great Grandparents, John GRINNELL and Rhoda DENNING Grinnell.

John GRINNELL (spelled on his tombstone GRINNEL) was the son of Nathaniel GRINNELL and Ruth CLARK and was born on 30 April 1773 in Tiverton, Rhode Island. Four generations before, his ancestors had settled in the nearby settlement of Little Compton, Rhode Island. Why Nathaniel located to Tiverton has remained unknown. The marriage between John and Rhoda DENNING took place on 14 November 1794, the location is not known. There has been much speculation as to her maiden name. Her tombstone records it as DENNING but other researchers have recorded is as DENNIS and DEMING. No conlusive evidence has been discovered on her ancestry. Rhoda's birth has been recorded as 25 May 1779, thus making her 15 years old at the time of their marriage. Her place of birth is sometimes recorded as Conneticut and other times as in Berkshire County, Massachussetts. Shortly after their marriage, the GRINNELL's left New England for western New York and settled in Farmington, Ontario County.

Western New York was the frontier at the time and John and Rhoda must have been true pioneers, clearing land and preparing themselves for lives as farmers. Little details are known about their lives. As of 1997, it was reported that the home they built in Farmington was still in use, some 200 years after it was first built. John died on 28 March 1828, leaving Rhoda with several children still at home to be cared for and reared. She appears to have remarried sometime following John's death to Mr. Henry PIERSON, a Revolutionary War veteran who also lived in the Farmington area.

Rhoda was known to have become a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church later in life. Although there was some speculation through the years that John and Rhoda were Quakers because they were buried in a Quaker cemetery. Rhoda's death took place on 2 June 1861, during the beginning months of the American Civil War. What a story she must have been able to tell--having grown up during the years of the American Revolution and living through to see the first shots of the Civil War. What changes she witnessed to our expanding infant nation.

The pioneer spirit was passed on to several of their children. Five of them migrated to Michigan and others to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Their descendants are numerous.

John and Rhoda had a large family that included thirteen children. They were:
Phebe GRINNELL 1796-1797
Joseph GRINNELL 1798-1883 m. Sylvia SKINNER
Abner GRINNELL 1799-1880 m. Eleanor LANE
Morris GRINNELL 1801-1876 m. Margaret LANE
John GRINNELL* 1804-1889 m. Eliza ISAACS
Minerva GRINNELL* 1806-1865 m. Cyrus MOORE
Clark GRINNELL 1808-1842 m. Parnell ST. JOHN
Spencer GRINNELL* 1810-1876 m. Charity MALONEY
Rhoda GRINNELL 1813-1889 m. Jacob LANE
Caroline GRINNELL 1815-1861 m. James Berry
Ezra GRINNELL* 1817-1897 m. 1)Charlotte MURRAY, 2) Lydia MURRAY, 3) Caroline GARFIELD
Thomas B. GRINNELL 1819-1879 m. Sarah CASE
Hiram GRINNELL* 1821-1869 m. Nancy MURRAY

(* denotes that this individual migrated to Michigan.)

John and Rhoda are buried at the North Farmington Friends Cemetery in Farmington, New York. This cemetery has simply been refered to in many Grinnell genealogies as the Quaker Cemetery. The images of their tombstones have also been posted on the great website: Findagrave.com