ABIAL GRANGER
Submitted by Leonard Granger

Abial Granger, an early pioneer of Bremer County, Iowa arrived in spring of 1856 with members of his family from De Kalb Co, Illinois. Abial Granger was born 1788 at Westfield, Hampton County, Mass., the son of John Martin and Sarah (Griffin) Granger, who were married March 11, 1783, in Turkey Hills,(Simsbury) Hartford County, CT. They lived in Westfield, Mass, where he owned a powder mill.

On June 15, 1778, the father John Martin Granger went to Fishkill, New York, and there joined the regiment of General Putman, enlisting for three years. He had previously been in Captain Fowler's company of Colonel Morley's regiment of Massachusetts troops. He was 5 feet, seven inches in height, and with brown hair.

The Granger family ancestors originally came from England around 1640 and have been documented in detail in a book "Launcelot Granger of Newbury, Ma and Suffield, CT. by James H. Granger and was published in 1893.

The beginning of the revolution found a goodly number of Grangers still living in Suffield, CT.. There were twenty-seven heads of families in 1775, who paid taxes, but as of 1893 all but four had left the area. By 1820,Abial Granger, the third child of John Martin Granger's large family of thirteen children, had moved to Vermont, where he married Melissa Gleason and had started a family.

Abial Granger and his wife Melissa, had four sons, William, Orville, Ebenezer, and Charles and one daughter Mariah, when in 1838, the Granger family and other related families began a trip west from Vermont. After a brief a brief stay in Lower Canada, they came to Chicago, Illinois by way of Lake Michigan and from there on to De Kalb County, Illinois, which trip was made overland by oxen, the principle mode of travel in those days. The Grangers farmed in Genoa Township, De Kalb County, Illinois and were involved with the political development of the area. The mother Melissa (Gleason) Granger and their youngest daughter died in 1842 of a milk sickness.

A son, Ebenezer A Granger, born 2 Nov, 1834 in Vermont, went to Bremer Co, Iowa, where he purchased a farm, in Polk Township, and after his return on 22 Feb, 1855, he married Olive Marsh , born 10 Mar, 1834 in New York, the daughter of Alvah and Hannah (House) Marsh.

In the spring of 1855, the Granger/Marsh families decided to move to Iowa, since by then all the children had married except Charles M. Granger, who was seventeen and living at home. Son, William Granger and his wife decided to remain in Illinois, but the other families moved to Bremer County, Polk Township, Iowa and later, the Oroville Granger family went on to Harrison County, in western Iowa.

In the Bremer County census of 1860, Polk Township, Post Office of Horton, dated 9 July 1860, Abial Granger is listed as age 72. His son Charles Granger is still living at home. The next farm was home to Ebenezer Granger and wife Olive with their children, Willard and an unnamed baby. A nearby Polk Township farm, is home of Marcus and Mariah Marsh, with their six children.

The 1870, Bremer County, Iowa census had Abial Granger, an invalid. age 82, living with his son Charles Granger's family. The Ebenezer Granger family with three children were farming 320 acres of fertile land in Polk Township, and Marcus and Mariah (Granger) Marsh family also was farming in Polk Township with their nine children assisting the household.

Abial Granger is buried in the Horton Cemetery, Polk Township, Bremer County, Iowa. but date is not known, est 1875.. After many years of searching by family members, his burial site has been located and documented by members of the Bremer County Geo Soc and Horton Cemetery... ..

Refer:1883 History of Bremer Co, 1919 History of Chickasaw Co, 1840 Census of De Kalb Co, Illinois, 1893 Granger History by James H. Granger, and Granger family researchers.

Above taken from Bremer Country, Iowa Gen Web Project. Summary written by Leonard Granger and posted at the following URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~iabremer/Biographies/g.html