MOSES GROVES
EARLY MADISON PARISH
Madison
Coordinator Note: Many thanks go to Billie Grunden of Jasper, Texas for
preparing this report. Billie has spent many hours researching the Moses Groves
family, and Madison Parish is honored to have the benefit of her investigation on
this website. Moses Groves was one of the earliest settlers and one of the largest
landowners in the region, having come to the area from Mississippi before Madison
Parish was created in 1838.
Richard P. Sevier 
November 2006.
Little is known about the
early years of the life of Moses Groves. The earliest recorded information is
that a Moses Groves served in the Mississippi Territory command of Lt. Colonel
Nixon during the War of 1812. Somewhere in Mississippi he became acquainted
with the Cogan family. Patrick Cogan was one of the earliest persons to own
land in Claiborne County, Mississippi, having received a grant of 400 arpents
from the Spanish Government. His land grant was confirmed by the U.S.
Government in 1805. This land was located 40 miles North of Natchez on Bayou
Pierre. Patrick Cogan was affiliated with Thomas W. Cogan, but the relationship
is not known. Moses Groves developed a close relationship with a young lady and
on April 26, 1817, Thomas W. Cogan cosigned a marriage bond for Moses Groves,
and on April 29, 1817, Moses Groves married Rachel Cogan in Claiborne County,
Mississippi. Rachel was not the daughter of Thomas, but may have been a sister
or niece. The following year, 1818, in Claiborne County, the first child was
born to Moses and Rachel, a son they named Horace H. Groves.
Moses Groves proved to be a
successful planter, acquiring more and more land, some from the U.S. Government
and some from individuals. Prior to 1830, his acquisitions were in Mississippi.
His smallest purchase was one of the most interesting. He, along with Thomas W.
Cogan and Lewis Powell, bought one acre in Claiborne County in 1826 to be used
for the site of a Methodist Meeting House. The Meeting House was to be used by
all “professions of Christianity” when not in use by the Methodists.
By 1830, Moses was beginning
to acquire land west of the Mississippi River. That year he bought several
tracts of land on Bayou Vidal, which at that time was located in Concordia
Parish. He borrowed money to buy land and slaves and to have operating capital
that all plantation owners needed. In 1835, he mortgaged 2166 acres on Bayou
Vidal for $30,000.00 to the Bank of Louisiana, the mortgage being recorded in
Vidalia, Concordia Parish. In December of 1833, he paid $16000.00 for 18 to 20
slaves. In 1838, Madison Parish was created and most of his plantations were
then located in Madison Parish. Many of his transactions were recorded in the
Old Record Book and Notary Book A of Madison Parish. Some of his plantations
had names recorded in a notary record, but some did not. His “Home” or “House”
Plantation stretched along the north side of Bayou Vidal from the present
community of Afton to within a few miles of King. It contained 5000 acres. It
was upon this land that the Groves family burial ground was located in Section
1, Township 15 North, Range 12 East.
The Basin Plantation contained 2350 acres, part north and part southeast
of Roundaway Bayou, along current Highway 603. The 1600 acre Moses Groves King
Place was neatly bisected by Roundaway Bayou, and now has Highway 603 through
the west portion. It was a few miles north of the Basin Plantation. One
plantation was simply referred to as the River Land Lots and lies along the
west bank of the Mississippi River between plantations later known as Dahlia
Plantation and Killiecrankie Plantation. Various other tracts of land owned by
Moses Groves dotted the southern portion of Madison Parish and parts of Tensas
Parish, some wholly owned, some undivided quarter or half interests.
Outline of some of Moses Groves properties in 1848. From
La Tourrette’s Map of Louisiana
Moses Groves’ wife, Rachel,
died sometime before November of 1839. A family meeting was held before Parish
Judge Richard Charles Downes, and the heirs were recorded in parish records.
Horace H. Groves, the oldest child, was the only child not considered a minor.
The minor children were George W. Groves, Elizabeth Groves, Celia Ann Groves,
Moses Groves, and Elijah Groves. A decision was made to sell the Basin
Plantation, along with slaves, livestock, equipment, and 2000 bushels of corn.
At auction it brought $78000.00 for the estate. Horace H. Groves received
$6500.95 for his 1/12 part inherited from his deceased mother.
Moses and Rachel Groves were
very good friends with George W. Grove and his wife Celia A. King Grove (Grove
spelled without an “s”) of Willow Glen Plantation. They may have been related,
but that connection cannot be made at this time. However, the Moses Groves
family was related to a King family. Moses and Rachel named a daughter Celia
Ann and a son George W. When Moses Groves needed a witness, it was usually
George W. Grove who signed with him. Other friends or relatives were Thompson
King and Charles Carpenter. Ann Cogan, Rachel’s sister, married Charles Lee,
and they owned a plantation in what is now Tensas Parish.
As was the custom of plantation
families during that time, their entertainment consisted of many social events
such as balls, parties, and visiting one another, sometimes for several days at
a time. The affluence and freedom from everyday chores enabled the people,
especially the young ladies to focus on the latest fashions and fads. Tutors
were hired to live on the premises to instruct the children in reading,
writing, and arithmetic. Older children were often sent to a boarding school
for more formal education. The children of Moses Groves were no exception.
Daughter Celia married Alonzo Snyder, a lawyer, and Horace H. Groves married
the daughter of Henry S. Dawson, another Madison Parish plantation owner. In
1850, Moses Groves, age 17, was a student at Oakland College in Claiborne
County, Mississippi, which was not surprising since his uncle, Charles Lee, was
one of the original trustees, and Thomas W. Cogan was one of the first to
donate money to form the college.
After losing his wife, Moses
Groves did not have much longer to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He lived only
about 2 more years and had passed away by February 1842. At that time, his
estate was appraised and land held in community with his wife was valued at
$122165.00; non community land, $5477.83; slaves, $53550.00; livestock,
$5016.00; cotton and fodder, $7500.00; household furniture, $1000.00, for a
total of $194708.83. There were notes payable to Moses Groves and when added to
the inventory, produced a grand total of $207261.83 free of debt. Not a small
sum for that day and age.
Horace H. Groves was
appointed administrator of the estate, a job he took very seriously. In 1850,
the estate owned 124 slaves, among the top ten in terms of number of slaves owned
in Madison Parish. Horace worked to keep the estate intact. Unfortunately, he
became so angry with his brother-in-law, Alonzo Snyder, that on November 12,
1848, he wrote the following will:
It is my last wish and
request that my aunt, Mrs. Ann Lee, and James G. Gerden be my executors and
they administer on the estate of my deceased father and mother and further pray
and hope that Alonzo Snyder will NEVER (no way) have anything to do with my
property and the property belonging to the estate. It is my wish that Volney
King, my cousin, (after the debts are paid) receive five thousand dollars of my
estate.
Horace H. Groves
The will was written before
his marriage to Catherine Dawson. There is no record of any other will written
after his marriage and birth of two daughters. The succession or probate
records became an issue later when his daughters had to file a lawsuit to
retain possession of the lands they inherited from their father. The records
could not be found. Horace basically raised his younger brothers, especially
Elijah who was only about 5 years of age when his father died. Horace did not
marry until Moses and Elijah were old enough to be responsible for themselves,
but he did not have the pleasure of rearing his own children, passing away in
1856 at the age of 38 years. Catherine
Dawson married again to Sherrard Clemens, a lawyer and U.S. Congressman from
West Virginia. Theirs was a life of affluence, thus Horace’s daughters, Rachel
Lee and Catherine, grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, with every privilege.
Rachel Lee
Groves
Meanwhile, Elijah farmed the land that belonged to his nieces since he
was the administrator of the Moses Groves Estate. He later sold his portion of the land but not that portion
belonging to Rachel and Catherine. The next owner also cultivated their land.
In the subsequent land sales, eventually their land was included in the deed of
sale. From 1890 to the final settlement in 1895, their brother, James
W. Clemens, worked diligently to give his sisters undisputed title to their
land. By this time, Rachel had married a Madison Parish resident, James D.
Gilpin, and had passed away, leaving four small children. Catherine, Horace’s
daughter, was a widow living in Mississippi. A lawsuit was filed and won in
Madison Parish, but was appealed to the Supreme Court of the State of
Louisiana. The land was returned to the heirs of Horace Groves, but a crash in
the value of real estate and the extensive expenses of the prolonged
litigation, left them with nothing.
Early and untimely deaths
were common in Madison Parish due to yellow fever, typhoid, and other endemic
health problems. All of the Moses Groves family died at a young age. In fact,
George died in 1842 at age 19 years, and the sisters, Elizabeth and Celia Ann,
passed away before May of 1852. In her will, Celia Ann gave her jewelry and
trinkets to various friends and relatives, but her portion of the Moses Groves
Estate was given to her husband, Alonzo Snyder. Thus, Horace was forced to deal
with Alonzo.
In 1857, Alonzo sold his
undivided fourth part of the Moses and Rachel Groves Estate to a New Orleans
man. Being the good lawyer that he was, Alonzo specified everything he was
selling, right down to one fourth of the household and kitchen goods and
furniture. This probably did not make the Groves family very happy, because in
1860, Elijah Groves bought the fourth part, particularly Dalmatia Plantation,
and returned it to the estate.
In the years following the
Civil War, the economy worsened. Elijah Groves, who had married Julia Scott,
was the only surviving heir that actively tried to manage the Moses Groves
estate. In fact, he may have been the only surviving child of Moses and Rachel
Groves. He had to bear the burden of seeing his parent’s estate, their little empire,
fall on hard times and dwindle. He died before the age of 40, passing away
sometime between 1870 and 1872.
Eventually, the remaining lands were sold, some for taxes. The separate
tracts were given other names, such as Tchoula, Point Clear, Waterford,
Richland, and Kellogg by subsequent owners. Elijah and Julia had two daughters,
Annie and Celia, thus Moses and Rachel had no male grandsons to carry on the
Groves name.
Today all that is left of the
Moses and Rachel Groves Estate is the family cemetery. Once consisting of three
acres dedicated to be a family burial ground forever by Elijah Groves in a deed
recorded in 1860, it now contains a couple of above ground graves surrounded by
broken tombstones pushed by farm equipment into a tiny area. Located in a
cultivated field about a half-mile west of Watts-Sevier Road on Hwy 603, it is
an unjust memorial for a pioneer family who worked so hard and was instrumental
in making Madison Parish flourish in the days prior to the War Between the
States.
What remains
of the Groves family tombstones