My Genealogy Hound

Edward C. Grace, a prominent merchant and highly regarded citizen of Farmington, Oakland County, belongs to one of the pioneer families of this section of the State. He was born in 1857 in Farmington township, Oakland County, Michigan, and is a son of Theodore and Elizabeth (Randolph) Grace.

Amasa Grace, grandfather of our subject, came to Michigan from New York, and located in Farmington township, Oakland County, securing a large tract of government land. He cultivated this property and also conducted a country inn, for the accommodation of the traveling public, especially the pioneers passing through the country and greatly in need of a place to rest after long and tiresome journeys. He kept a team of oxen with which to assist the heavy wagons through the wilderness, where there were yet no roads opened, the land being in many places low and swampy. He was located 18 miles from Detroit and at that day it was considered a three-days journey.

On the farm in Farmington township, Theodore Grace was born in 1834; he resides in Detroit, being connected with the wholesale dry goods house of Edson, Moore & Company. His brother, William, controls the homestead farm; Benjamin lives in the village of Farmington; Charles lives in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, and Emily is the wife of Frank Cornstalk, a farmer on a fine 80-acre farm east of the village of Farmington. The mother of our subject died in 1860 and his only brother, Otto, is also deceased. Three children were born to the father’s second marriage, viz : William, Surges and Jennie.

Our subject received his education in the public schools of Farmington township, and then entered his father’s store at Franklin, where he clerked for eight years, and later clerked for 18 years in Farmington. In 1898 he took charge of this store and conducts it in a successful and up-to-date manner. His long experience has made him well acquainted with the tastes and demands of the community and he makes it his pleasure to supply everything in a mercantile line to be found in an establishment of the kind.

In 1884 Mr. Grace was married to Jennie Maria Webster, a daughter of Gardurous Webster, the late well known retired farmer and harnessmaker of Farmington, who was born April 21, 1813, at Clarence, Erie County, New York, and was a son of Justice Webster, a farmer and chairmaker, who was born in 1781 at Whitestown, Oneida County, New York. Justice Webster’s wife, Eliza Doney, was a daughter of a Revolutionary soldier under General La Fayette, In 1832 Gardurous Webster removed to Detroit, where he learned the harness and trunk business, and in 1837 came to Oakland County, buying a farm in Farmington township as a home for his parents. In 1841 he was married to Lorinda Sandrough, who lived but three years, and in 1846 he was married to Lucinda Green. His children were: Charles Loren, Wilmot Hale, Maria Louise, James Judson, Emma Dell (wife of Rev. C. H. Morgan of the Methodist Church) and Jennie Maria (Mrs. Grace). In 1844 Mr. Webster removed to the village and there engaged in harness making until 1871, when he retired from activity. He was prominent in public life, and served as street commissioner and village treasurer for 15 years. He was a leading member of the Methodist Church. His death on January 13, 1898, removed one of the best known and most esteemed citizens from Farmington. He cast his first vote in 1840 for President Harrison. His widow still survives, aged 81 years, having been born August 10, 1822.

Mr. and Mrs. Grace have one child, Lulu L., born September 30, 1884. In politics Mr. Grace is a Democrat, and fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias.