Surname Saturday: GRUNDEN [Part 2]

MARY LOUISA GRUNDEN NEWBY

My maternal great, great grandmother

Daughter of Joseph and Martha Dungan Grunden, granddaughter of Samuel and Margaret Anderson Grunden

Years ago when I would google "Grunden", 95% or more of the hits would turn up sites written in German. There might only be a dozen to two dozen hits in all. Now, the Internet world has leaped huge, gigantic leaps and there is no end to the hits on this surname. On Facebook alone there are over 300 Grundens listed. And if you put in the alternative spelling of Grundon, you get well over 100 more listings.

Mary Louisa Grunden married John Alby Newby on July 18, 1863 in Henry Co., Indiana. They had five children: Gertrude M., Charles Lee, Frank, Bertha M. and Edward. Louisa died February 3, 1893, just five months before her first grandchild was born, my grandmother Mary Fern, daughter of Charles Lee and Ida May Trowbridge Newby. Seven years after her death, John married the widow, Julia Ann Langdon Morris and Julia was the only grandmother my grandmother or her siblings ever knew. When I received John Newby's obituary and lengthy memorial from the Knightstown Banner I learned that Mary Louisa had been an invalid for 12 years before she died. I have not found an obituary for her but there was a death announcement from the New Castle Courier, February 10, 1893, page 8 column 3: "Mrs. John Newby died at her home here on Friday from dropsy. The funeral services occurred at the M.E. church on Sunday."

John and Louisa are both buried in the Glencove Cemetery in Knightstown, Henry Co., Indiana. No stone has been found for either one of them.

Glencove Cemetery - screen capture using Google Earth and Jing

Click here to see Part 1

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