Mary
Catherine
(Fawcett) Gribble
(1833-1911)
Mary
Catherine (Fawcett) Gribble was born
in 1833 (or 1832) in Preston County, WV, the daughter of Charles
B. and Phoebe (Miner) Fawcett.
Mary married Henry Harrison Gribble (1826-1886), a farmer, who was the son of Archibald and Delilah (Joseph) Gribble of Pisgah, Preston County. Henry's mother also has been named as "Margaret."
The Gribbles had 13 children -- Eugenus C. Gribble, Emma Shaw, Deborah Jane "Jennie" Christopher, Alice "Ally" M. Friend, Ida B. Groves King, Arley Overton Gribble, Timber "Lake" Gribble, Anna W. Gribble, Charles I. Gribble, Ira Gribble, Vasie R. Gribble and two whose identities are not known.
Sadly, son Ira is said to have "died in
youth," and Vasie passed away in 1879, at the age of four. Vasie was laid
to rest in Fairview Cemetery located two miles east of Pisgah, just a few years
after the burying ground opened. Her badly eroding grave marker -- seen at
right -- was barely legible when photographed in April 2007.
Henry is mentioned in Wiley's 1882 History of Preston County for having served as proprietor of a store on the site of the old Corbin's store room, succeeding E.T. Brandon. In 1867, he turned over the business to J.M. Godwin, "when the house burnt down."
Circa 1865, the Gribbles lived in
Merrittstown, Fayette County, PA, where their daughter Ida was born. By 1869,
they had moved to Pisgah, Preston County, and in 1872 were residing in nearby Bruceton
Mills, Preston County. When the federal census of Preston County was taken in
1880, they lived in the Grant District.
Today, the small community of Pisgah abuts the eastern edge of what is now Coopers Rock State Forest.
On Feb. 13, 1887, Henry died at the age of 61 at Pisgah. He had suffered from pneumonia, which led to his passing. His remains were laid to rest in the Fairview Cemetery in Pisgah.
Mary outlived her husband by a quarter of a century. She died in 1911, and was buried beside her husband.
Apparently
Henry had possession of the old Gribble family Bible, mentioned in the 1933
book, Genealogy of Some Early Families in Grant and Pleasant Districts,
Preston County, West Virginia, authored by Edward Thorp King, of
Marshalltown, Iowa. The book states that the Bible was "stereotyped for the
American Bible Society by D. & G. Bruce, New York, 1829, and now owned by a
granddaughter Mrs. Effie Smith, Pisgah, West Virginia."
The Gribble genealogy is spelled out in the July 30, 1908 edition of the Preston County Journal (seen here), one of a series of articles that year on the "Pioneers of Preston." Henry, Mary and the children are named. A copy of this article is in the Minerd-Miner-Minor Archives.
Their burial information is included in the book, In Remembrance: Tombstone Readings of Preston County, West Virginia, Volume III, authored by Janice Cale Sisler. In later years, the Gribbles' adult children Arley Overton Gribble, Jennie Christopher and Ida King also would be laid to rest at Fairview with their respective spouses.
Fairview Cemetery near Pisgah
Copyright © 2000, 2002-2003, 2006-2007 Mark A. Miner