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Written by Craig B. Adams
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Jun 11, 2006 at 07:31 PM |
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Mary Ann (Griffith) Freeze (1842 - 1939)
Mary Ann Griffith was born on May 12, 1842 in St. Clair Township Bedford County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Thomas and Margaret (Albaugh) Griffith. Mary Ann was the youngest of eight children, and she was a twin. Her twin sister was named Elizabeth Ellen, and it is not known if Elizabeth Ellen survived infancy.
Mary Ann had a difficult home life. Her parent' marriage was a rocky one. It is conjectured that her father wanted to settle out West but her mother refused. Whatever the cause of their marital woes, Thomas and Margaret separated around 1847, and in March 1850 they were divorced. At the time of their divorce, Mary Ann and her siblings were split up.
In 1850, 8-year-old Mary Ann was living with George M. [last name unknown] and his family in St. Clair. Her father resided with Samuel Sloan and his family in St. Clair, while her mother resided with David Mann and his family in Bedford Borough. Her big brother Daniel resided with Jacob Fisher in St. Clair where he was an apprentice blacksmith, and her brother Isaac was living with John Humbert in Harrison Township. It is not known who his other siblings resided with at this time.
In the early 1850s it is believed that Mary Ann's father took her and her siblings and her aged grandmother, Alice, and headed out West. In 1858 16-year-old Mary Ann resided in Illinois. Only her brother Daniel remained in Bedford County.
Her mother suffered a great deal, and by 1860 she was living in the Cambria County Poorhouse in Ebensburg. She was still living there in 1870, but in 1880, her now aged mother resided with her brother John and his family in Summerhill Township, Cambria County. John had returned to Pennsylvania, presumably to be near his mother. It is not known if Mary Ann ever saw her mother after she was taken out West.
On July 3, 1864 Mary Ann married Henry Freeze in Knox County, Illinois. Henry was born about 1838 in Ohio, the son of David and Rachel (Stumbaugh) Freeze.
Mary Ann and Henry soon made their home in nearby Young Hickory Township, Fulton County, Illinois, where he worked as a blacksmith and they raised nine children.
Mary Ann and Henry had the following children: Jacob Freeze, Ulysses Grant Freeze, Sylvester Freeze, Savilla (Freeze) Chambers, Loretta Freeze, Hespaniola Freeze, Carl Freeze, Isaiah Freeze, and Hezekiah Freeze.
Henry died sometime between 1910 and 1916, presumably at their home in Young Hickory Township. He was in his late 70s.
Her children scattered across the midwest. Her son Ulysses moved to Missouri. Her son Carl moved to South Dakota where he owned a billiards hall. Her son Sylvester may have settled in Minnesota.
In 1920 Mary Ann still lived at home, but she had a boarder.
Mary Ann soon moved to the home of her son Hezekiah in Peoria, Limestone Township, Peoria County in her later years. She died there on July 6, 1939. She was 97.
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Last Updated ( Jun 12, 2006 at 05:56 AM )
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Griffith 
