Lieutenant Colonel Granville Adolphus Frambes
by Polly Horn


The Columbus Dispatch,
September 12, 2008

Granville Adolphus,  born May 10, 1834,  was the 10th child of Joseph and Eleanor (Sargent) Frambes of Washington Township in Clermont County, Ohio.  His mother died and his father married  Elizabeth Ritchie when Granville was a little over five years old.

By 1850, the family lived on a farm near Felicity in Franklin Township still in Clermont County. 

Education was stressed in his youth.   Both Granville and his brother Oliver S. Frambes attended Ohio Wesleyan University.  Oliver was a miller in the 1850 census but he went on to found the University of Southern California.      See Dispatch Article    

EDUCATOR


By 1860 Granville was a school teacher in Porter Township in Delaware County.  I suspect he came there with the Spragues, but he dwelled next door with the P. P. Lott family during the 1860 census.   There was a Sprague family in Clermont County also near the Frambes family there.

                                       CIVIL WAR   59th Ohio Infantry

September 21, 1861, Granville A. Frambers enlisted as a Captain in the Army at the age of 27.  He was  commission in Company B, 59th Infantry Regiment Ohio on 21 September 1861.  On October 1, 1861, Granville was  in Company B of the 59th Ohio Infantry Regiment at Camp Ammen in Ripley, Ohio.    The company of 609 men under Col. P. Fyffe was taken by steamer to Maysvillle, KY, where they arrested a number of prominent Rebel sympathizers and then moved on to Camp Kenton. On October 16th Granville was promoted to Major.  Under General Nelson they were on a sweep of eastern Kentucky to Ivy Mountain and on as far as Piketown where they camped.  After a week of very low rations they returned to  Kentucky, and took steamers to Louisville where they joined General Buell who was organizing the Army of the Ohio.

Granville was promoted to Major on August 11, 1862. Six months later on March 9, 1863 he became a Lt. Colonel and served as commander of his men at Chickamauga  See his log to headquarters..

Chuck Grapes found the following in History of Woman Suffrage.  "Sophia Thompson served three years in the 59th O. V. I. Another woman soldier, under the name of Joseph Davidson, also served three years in the same company. Her father was killed fighting by her side at Chickamauga."

I was given a document saying he was part of the Charleston Union POWs exchanged on August 3, 1964.  I have not been able to verify this. 

Throughout the remainder of his military career he was part of the major battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga,  Mission Ridge and the march to the sea.

On October 31, 1864 the 178 remaining men the 59th Ohio mustered out under Lt. Col. Granville A. Frambes in Nashville, Tennessee.  They were paid and discharged from Camp Chase. on November 1, 1864. Granville returned to Ohio as a war hero.

MARRIAGE

                                                      
On November 25, 1863 Granville married Lucina Louisa Stark (born October 23, 1841 in Kingston Township, Delaware County, Ohio).  Reverend L. D. McCabe performed the ceremony in Berkshire Township in Delaware County Ohio. Lucina's lineage is shown below.

Sunbury had a log school on the north east corner of Sunbury Square.  Col. Granville raised $5000 from residents to build a private two story brick school in the middle of the village green.  The Masons needed a home and since all the men in town belonged to the masons they meant the square restriction and were allowed to add the third floor to the Sunbury Institute.  The building was completed in 1868.  Unfortunately, Col. Frambes did not raise money to pay his teachers or provide materials so the school closed three years after it opened.  Sunbury built a public school on Harrison Street. 

Frambes bought farm land just north of Columbus, became a trustee for Ohio Wesleyan and served as an assistant superintendent for Columbus public schools.  Around 1890 Granville sold his farm to the agricultural college next door and eventually it and two other farms became Ohio State University.

Eventually Granville was caught selling memberships to the Freemasons and was so ostracized he died penniless.  Oliver paid for his funeral and burial in Green Lawn Cemetery. He died June 21, 1901, Lucina died August 23, 1903 and is buried with him.  Frambes Avenues remain in his memory in Columbus and Sunbury.

Just before an OSU vs USC football game on September 2008, The Columbus Dispatch ran an article about the Frambes brothers who once owned the land of the two universities based on information from Oliver's great great nephew, Robert Neal.  I got my information from Jack Frambes also of central Ohio.

 

Family Genealogy

Col. G. A. Frambes wrote the family history as "it was told to him" in the family Bible.  I have paraphrased it for the article below.

 

FIRST GENERATION

John Peter Frambes of Radeburgh, Bavaria, imported to the Port of Philadelphia on the ship "Phoenix"  which was  under the leadership of Captain Honor of Rottendam.  On board was Katrina Roggen, a young widow with two daughters. They soon married and settled in Absecon, Great Egg Harbor in Atlantic County, N.J.  They were married a short time and had no children.

John Peter age 34 (he was born September 15, 1723 in Holland, Germany, married seventeen year old Mary Margaret Hoffman who was January 1, 1739, in Holland, Germany.  They moved to  Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1760.  They were driven out by Indians and moved to New Jersey between Bargainstown and Somers Point on or near Scull Farm where they lived and died. 

John who went by the name Peter and his wife are buried at the Zion Methodist Episcopal Church near Bargainstown.  The inscription on their tombstones read " He was a Weaver, very skilled and wove double coverlets,  He talked German but also learned to talk English.  Peter died in 1802.  Mary died in 1837 of cancer of the nose and face.  She was a very intelligent lady who learned to speak English.  They raised a family of 12 children, six boys and six girls,  They lived a religious life and were members of the M. E. Church." 
 

SECOND GENERATION

The children of John Peter and Mary Margaret were:
        1. Nicholas Frambes born June 1, 1758
        2.  Andrew Frambes, born October 17, 1769
        3.  Hosea Frambes
        4.  Peter Frambes born Dec. 22, 1761
        5.  Michael Frambes
        6. John Frambes born Dec. 28, 1763
        7.  Rachel Frambes
        8.  Mary Ann Frambes born Dec, 30, 1765
        9.  Margaret Frambes born Oct 20, 1772
       10. Sarah Frambes
       11. Polly Frambes
       12. Susan Frambes

In 1783, 24 year old Andrew married 16 year old Sarah English who was born in February 1767.  Sarah was one of 9 children of John and Prudence English who came from England to settle in New Jersey.  Members of the M. E. Church, they were said to be "good people but a little proud."

Like his father, Andrew was a weaver and a farmer.  He served as a private Minuteman in Glouster Co., New Jersey Militia during the Revolutionary War.  He was a good. religious man and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  In 1790, Andrew died shortly after the birth of his third son, Joseph, who will become the father of Granville.  He is buried at the Zion Church near Bargainstown like his parents.

Sarah, widowed at the age of 23, has three small children and is likely pregnant with her fourth, married Peter McClain in 1791.  Andrew McClain was born in September 21, 1791, not a full year after Joseph so many family members think he might have really been another Andrew Frambes.  

Peter McClain's father was killed at the Battle of Brandywine sot through by seven grape shot.  His mother, Amy,  married James Nelson who was a Revoluntioary War soldier at one time on Washington's staff.  He lived to be 119.

Peter and Sarah lived near Cape May until 1806 when they moved to Nicholsville in Clermont County, Ohio. Peter died in 1830 and Sarah lived with her children until her death in May 1849.  She is buried at Mount Carmel near Laurel, Ohio.

THIRD GENERATION

The children of Andrew and Sarah (English) Frambes were:
     1. Mary Frambes , born January 2, 1784
     2. Peter Frambes, born April 13, 1786
     3. Joseph Frambes, born September 30, 1790

Daughter Mary died in 1791 and was buried beside her father.  The two boys came to Ohio with their mother but shifted for themselves.  Peter got $50 from the estate of his father by walking back to New Jersey to claim it.  Joseph sold his share for a field of wheat which the flies ate up.  The boys cut wood for 25 cents a cord at Williamsburg.

Joseph Frambes married Eleanor "Nellie" Sargent, the daughter of John and Hester (Camden) Sargent.  John was a very intelligent but very eccentric man.  He was a farmer and a preacher.  He died in December 1835 at the age of 83.  His wife died at the age of 82.
 

FOURTH GENERATION

The children of Joseph and Eleanor (Sargent) Frambes were:
    1.  John W. Frambes, born November 24, 1814
    2.  Mary Ann Frambes, born November 15, 1816
    3.  Nacea Ellen Frambes, born April 15, 1819
    4.  Hester Ann Frambes, born March 21, 1821
    5.  Caroline C. Frambes, born June 29, 1823
    6.  Francis M. Frambes, born September 27, 1825
          (He went West in 1849-50 to hunt for Gold during the Gold Rush)
    7.  William P. Frambis, born January 7, 1828
    8.  Oliver S. Frambes, born November 29, 1829 was a miller in 1850
          (He founded the University of Southern California)
    9.  Flavino Frambis, born October 12, 1832
   10.  Granville Adolphus Frambes born May 10, 1834
           (He built the Sunbury Institute in 1868 now known at the Sunbury Town Hall in
             Sunbury,  Ohio)
Joseph Frambes then married Elizabeth Ritchie and they had
     11.  Minerva E. Frambes, born October 11, 1839
            (She is mentioned in Civil War letters)

     12.  Sylvester Frambes, born October 11, 1839

Granville became a teacher and taught in Porter Township, Delaware County, Ohio.  He is shown as single, living with the P P. Lott family in 1860 census.

In Berkshire Township, Delaware County, Ohio, on November 25, 1863 Granville married Lucina Louisa Stark (born October 23, 1841 in Kingston Township, Delaware County, Ohio).  Reverend L. D. McCabe performed the ceremony.

Lucina's family began in this country when Aaron Stark arrived in Mystic, Connecticut in 1635.  The family line goes
          Aaron's son William was born in 1664
          William's son Christopher was born in 1698   
          Christopher's James Stark was born in 1740
          James son, Paul was born in 1769
          Paul's son Almon Stark,  was born October 27, 1797 and became a judge
          Judge Almon Stark married Deborah Van Sickle on December 11, 1823.  Deborah
                was  born September 28, 1802 in Sunbury, Ohio.  They had Thomas Jefferson
                (1820-1852), DeWitt Clinton (1825-1830), James Monroe Stark (1831) John
                Almon (1839-1858), Louisa Elizabeth ( 1835-1838),
                Lucina Louisa (1841-1903),
              
 and Elizabeth Jane (1845-1850). Most of these children did not reach adulthood
                and are buried in Stark Cemetery  in Porter Township in Delaware County, Ohio.
             
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(01/06/2013)