William Chambers LeGrand

William Chambers LeGrand

• Father: John LeGrand b. circa 1770, d. 21 January 1816
• Mother: Margaret Chambers b. circa 1780, d. circa 1845

• William Chambers LeGrand was born on 16 May 1803 in Montgomery County, North Carolina.
• He married Jane Green Paul, daughter of Andrew Paul and Deborah McRee, on 11 March 1829 in Anson County, North Carolina.
• The following appeared on 31 March 1829 in the Raleigh Register and North-Carolina Weekly Advertiser: Married, in Anson county, on the 11th inst. Mr. Wm. C. Legrand to Miss Jane Paul.
• William Chambers LeGrand and Jane Green Paul appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1830 in West Side PeeDee River, Montgomery County, North Carolina, and it is an educated guess that the male age 10-14 is William's younger brother Thomas.. Other (counted but unnamed) members of the household apparently included Mary Jane LeGrand.
• The following appeared on 9 September 1833 in the Carolina Observer: Meltonsville Academy, Anson County, N. Carolina.
       The Trustees announce to the public, that this Institution is in successful operation, under the direction of Mr. William C. Legrand, whose qualifications are of the first order, and who has made great proficiency in the mental and moral improvement of the Students committed to his care. The Trustees confidently hope, that from the superior qualifications of the Superintendent, the salubrity of the situation, the good morals of the neighborhood, together with the advantages of Methodist and Baptist preaching, a Sunday School and Temperance Society, that a liberal patronage will be received from the public. The Trustees pledge themselves to visit the Academy, observe the progress of the Students and see that good order is preserved.
       The terms of Tuition are $12, $16 or $20 per annum, according to the scale of education adopted. Boarding can be obtained in respectable Houses at $5 or $6 per month, including Bedding and Washing.
       By order of the Trustees, D. A. Covington, Sec'y. 
• In a letter dated 20 July 1839 to William Chambers LeGrand in Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama, Edwin Oswald LeGrand wrote from San Augustine, San Augustine County, Texas: "Brother William, I have perhaps been careless about writing you. In your last you urged me to send you some funds which I flatter myself to be able to do this fall. . . . If I can make sales of land for par funds to the amount that will justify my visiting the U.S. I will come on myself for a few months though we have lettle else here than Texas notes which are so depreciated at present as to avail but little in the U.S. I have a quantity of good land. Mr. Smith says you desire very much to move to Texas. I would be more than happy in seeing you and your family here but would advise you to wait further advice before you bring your family, for we anticipate difficulties in this country for some time to come. We have had two very severe fights with the Cherokees this week in both of which the Texans were successful. In the latter of which fights among the slain was their principal Chief. I would suggest that you visit the country before you move. Your affectionate brother, E. O. LeGrand."
       Quoted from Helen Johnstone Rose's book Our Family History: Johnstone, LeGrand, MacGillivray, Maclaren (1981), kindly shared by her nephew John B. Johnstone.
• William Chambers LeGrand and Jane Green Paul appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1840 in Macon County, Alabama. Other (counted but unnamed) members of the household apparently included Mary Jane LeGrand, Milton Paul LeGrand, Margaret Deborah LeGrand and Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand.
• William Chambers LeGrand died on 4 May 1841 at age 37 in Macon County, Alabama.
• His wife Jane Green Paul became a widow at his death.
• He was interred at Tuskegee City Cemetery, Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama.
• Following the deaths of their parents William Chambers and Jane Green Paul LeGrand in the early 1840s, the LeGrand children were taken into various families. Mary Jane, the eldest, spent time with Charles and Sarah Norman Rush and with Theodore and Caroline Mays Brevard. She and Green Mark Wood were married by Judge Brevard, and they named their first child Rush Brevard Wood. Margaret was raised as the only child of Letitia Ann Wood McNair (daughter of Green Wood’s cousin Ashley Wood) and her husband Edward McNair. Cornelia was raised in the household of Charles and Sarah Norman Rush, and Virginia William “Willie” was raised from infancy as the only child of John Henry and Mary Harris Gindrat (whose niece Sarah Anne Harris later married Willis Breazeal Wood). Likely son Milton Paul LeGrand also was taken into the Rush family, but no record has been found of his earlier years; by 1850, at age 17, he was serving as an apprentice in the household of druggist Henry F. Godden in Marion, Alabama.
• Upon the grave marker of Capt. Charles George Rush in the Rush family cemetery in Macon County, Alabama, who died on 9 December 1857, is written:
       Here lies C.G. Rush, the orphans friend,
       and we the children of W.C. & J.G. LeGrand
        are numbered with the many for whom he
       cared, he is gone but his memory will ever
       be cherished by the orphans.
• Mr. A. Lyttle, a lawyer of Wadesboro wrote a letter on October 11, 1858, in which he says: "Wm. C. LeGrand who married Jane Paul, I have long been associated with. His mother's name was Margaret Chambers and his father's name was John LeGrand. After the death of John LeGrand his mother married Andrew Wade. William C. LeGrand ran through all his property and was supplied in part with all the necessaries of life by my wife's former husband, Dr. McRee, and herself as she was a cousin of W.C.L. He was a fine man but a bad manager. Both he and his wife's family were highly respectable."
       Quoted from Helen Johnstone Rose's book Our Family History: Johnstone, LeGrand, MacGillivray, Maclaren (1981), kindly shared by her nephew John B. Johnstone.
• The following is from a letter of James L. Beverly of Wadesboro, North Carolina, written on April 12, 1891, copied in longhand by Aunt Margaret in 1902. "Jane Green Paul married William C. LeGrand on March 10, 1829. They lived near Wadesboro, North Carolina. His brother Edwin O. LeGrand married and moved to Texas. The girls all married. James and John LeGrand were last heard from just before the late war. They were quite thrifty old bachelors, owning valuable mill property and a large whiskey distillery in Burk[e] County, North Carolina. When John LeGrand died he left his children well, but William C. was fond of high life and after he married, went through all his property. They lived with Duncan McRee, his wife's cousin, and his wife in the same house. William failed in business and sold his land to the McRees. He taught school for a while. There is no stain on the character of any of the LeGrands. They are very fine people."
       Quoted from Helen Johnstone Rose's book Our Family History: Johnstone, LeGrand, MacGillivray, Maclaren (1981), kindly shared by her nephew John B. Johnstone.
• In a letter to her cousin Lizzie Leigh Wood James written about 1933, Margaret LeGrand Johnstone Philbrick wrote: "A letter from A. Lyttle of Wadesboro Oct 13, 1858, says that Wm C. LeGrand's father lived in the fork of the Rocky River and the Pedee, and that a Lyttle once owned part of the same land. John LeGrand the father of Wm C. had Edwin O., William C., James, and John, sons – Mrs. Hall & perhaps other daughters. Buck LeGrand (Homer), James L. & Hampton LeGrand were brothers of John. Mrs. Hall lived in Fayetteville N.C."

• Last Edited: 9 Aug 2014

• Charts: Descendants of LeGRAND John & Margaret Chambers