Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand

Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand

Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand Johnstone, 1838-1922

• Father: William Chambers LeGrand b. 16 May 1803, d. 4 May 1841
• Mother: Jane Green Paul b. 6 January 1811, d. 8 May 1843

• Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand was born on 29 January 1838 in Alabama.
• 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 Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand, Mary Jane LeGrand, Milton Paul LeGrand and Margaret Deborah LeGrand.
• 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.
• Charles George Rush and Sarah Norman appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1850 in Macon County, Alabama. Other members of the household included Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand, Benjamin Andrew Rush, John H. Wesley Rush and Amanda Harris.
• She married Robert A. Johnstone, son of Robert Johnston and Jane Huston, on 16 July 1857 in Macon County, Alabama, with James L. Cotton, MG, officiating.
• 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.
• In a letter to her uncle John Brown LeGrand on 31 January 1859, Mary Jane LeGrand Wood
  wrote: ". . . Pa & Ma you know left 5 children, 4 girls and one son. They are all married and doing well except the youngest. She is now grown, 18 years old this month, she only came out as a young lady this winter, has been going to school all the time. Mrs Gindrat the lady that raised her has no children of her own, she treats Willie as though she was her own child. She has had every advantage. The rest have all had the same good luck. I have seen none of them since we moved to Texas 9 years ago. Willie is comming to see me this spring, Mrs Gindrat speaks of coming with her. Happy will be the time when we meet. Brother Milton deserves a great deal of credit. He went out to make a living for himself at 16 years of age. He now owns part of a large drug establishment in Montgomery Ala, his father-in-law and himself are in partnership. Brother is a very steady hard working man, attends very closely to his business. He has only one child, a little girl. Sister Margaret married a Mr Weaver, she has three little daughters. Sister Cornelia married Dr Johnston, a dentist. She has a little boy only a few months old. They are both living in Selma Ala. We all correspond. . . ."
• Robert A. Johnstone and Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1860 in Selma, Dallas County, Alabama. Other members of the household included Hampden LeGrand Johnstone.
• Robert A. Johnstone and Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1870 in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama. Other members of the household included Hampden LeGrand Johnstone, Helen Parker Johnstone and Robert LeGrand Johnstone. Also in the household were cook Eliza Kop (age 21) and nurse Mary Kop (14).
• Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand became a widow at the circa 1876 death of her husband Robert A. Johnstone.
• Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in New York City, New York County, New York, at 202 Eighth Avenue. Other members of the household included Hampden LeGrand Johnstone, Helen Parker Johnstone, Robert LeGrand Johnstone and Margaret LeGrand Johnstone.
• Hampden LeGrand Johnstone appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1900 in Glen Ridge, Essex County, New Jersey, at Ridgewood Avenue and one domestic servant.. Other members of the household included Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand, Helen Parker Johnstone, Robert LeGrand Johnstone and Margaret LeGrand Johnstone.
• Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand appeared in the US federal census of 15 April 1910 in Glen Ridge, Essex County, New Jersey, at 96 Ridgewood Avenue and one domestic servant, living next to her son Robert.. Other members of the household included Hampden LeGrand Johnstone and Margaret LeGrand Johnstone.
• Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand appeared in the US federal census of 1 January 1920 in Glen Ridge, Essex County, New Jersey, at 96 Ridgewood Avenue and two domestic servants, living next to her son Robert.. Other members of the household included Hampden LeGrand Johnstone and Margaret LeGrand Johnstone.
• Cornelia Anne Elizabeth LeGrand died on 15 April 1922 at age 84 in Glen Ridge, Essex County, New Jersey, at 96 Ridgewood Avenue at her residence.
• She was interred at Rosedale Cemetery, Orange, Essex County, New Jersey.
• The following appeared on 16 April 1922 in The New York Times: [Died] Cornelia Le Grand Johnstone, widow of the late Dr. Robert Johnstone of Huntsville, Ala., and beloved mother of Hampden, Robert and Margaret Johnstone, at her home, 96 Ridgewood Av., Glen Ridge, N. J., on April 15. Services at late residence Monday at 4 o'clock.

• Last Edited: 22 Jul 2014

• Charts: Descendants of LeGRAND John & Margaret Chambers