The older children of Andrew Jackson Grisham, Sr. and Gillie Olive  remained in Mississippi and their descendants did not forget the identity of Andrew and Gillie Grisham.  The younger children moved to Texas and their descendants either forgot or remembered incorrectly the names of Andrew and Gillie.  Hence arose much controversy about the identity of Andrew Jackson Grisham, Sr. and Gillie (Olive) Mason

By the time we began researching the Grisham family in 1976, not a single living grandchild of James Lemuel Grisham, Sr. knew the name of his/her Grisham great-grandparents.  

During the summer of 1983, we were determined  (as we have on several other occasions) to find the parents of James Lemuel Grisham, Sr., if it meant searching every family in the state of Mississippi. The obituary of James Lemuel Grisham, Sr. identified his birthplace as Tippah County, MS.

Since James Lemuel Grisham, Sr. was born 29 Dec., 1849, it appeared that all we had to do was to locate a family which had a baby boy named James, Jim, J. L., Lem. Ray, my husband, first searched all of the Grisham/Gresham families listed in Tippah County in the Accelerated Census Index. Not a single Grisham family in Tippah County had such a baby.

Then Ray laboriously searched the entire Tippah County Census. There was still not a Grisham family with a male baby under the age of one year. Since Tishomingo County was on the same Census Roll, Ray searched that county next. In 1850 Tippah County and Tishomingo County were adjacent. In Tishomingo County we found a Grisham family which had a male baby named James. We found the same family again in Tishomingo County in 1860. From the the 1850 and 1860 US Census for MS, it appeared that the parents of James Lemuel were Andrew J. and Gillie Grisham. We felt relatively certain that we had found the parents of James Lemuel Grisham, Sr. Many bits of Grisham  information seemed to match. One of the strongest, we felt, was that the mother in the family was named "Gillie."

Noel Grisham came to the 1985 Grisham Cousins Reunion in Hamilton.  Noel Grisham  had spent more than forty years searching for family records in Mississippi and in England. He was relatively certain that Isaac and Sarah Gillie (Olive) Grisham were the parents of James Lemuel Grisham, Sr. and the parents of his grandfather, Richard R. Grisham. He also felt that George Gresham, who died in 1852,  was the father of Isaac Grisham. Noel was a Church of Christ lay preacher; he retired as Superintendent of Round Rock ISD, Round Rock, TX; and then served as in the Texas Legislature as the representative from Williamson County.  In June, 1986 Noel shared a copy of the  1977 Wm. Q. Hill.

There was much resemblance between the family of Ephraim Grisham and Sarah Choate, and the family whom Noel identified as Isaac Ephraim Grisham and Sarah Gillie Olive.  The 1850 Census enumeration in Lawrence County of Ephraim and Sarah Grisham and the 1850 Census enumeration in Tishomingo County, MS, for Andrew Jackson and Gillie Grisham proved that Ephraim and Andrew were contemporaries.  

Noel Grisham, son of Albert, and grandson of Richard (Dick) related that the Ladder of  Rivers (book about the Olive family) stated that Isaac Ephraim Grisham married Sarah Gillie Olive. Noel further stated that according to Eudora Grisham Kemp, an English professor in a college at Booneville, MS, Andrew Jackson Grisham was the father of Richard Robert "Dick" Grisham. Sr., his (Noel's) grandfather.  (This is the only occasion where we have found Sarah's being used as the first name of Gillie Olive.)

Noel's ancestor, Richard Robert "Dick" Grisham, Sr. could have been less than two years old when his parents died.  

PERHAPS this is an explanation about the confusion concerning the name of our ancestor.

By tradition the descendants of Richard Robert "Dick" Grisham and Andrew Jackson "Jack" Grisham, Jr. have believed that the father of Dick and Jack was named Isaac. Some of the descendants of Jack believed that the mother of Dick and Jack was named Elizabeth, while others thought that it was Gillie.  Jack  and Dick were small children when their parents died. 

PERHAPS they WERE reared by relatives--Isaac and Elizabeth Grisham for a time. There has never been any confusion among the older children of Andrew Jackson and Gillie Olive Grisham about the identity of their parents. James Lemuel, Rachel, Andrew Jackson, Jr., and Richard Robert Grisham were in Texas prior to 1880.

The oldest child listed in 1850 in the household of Andrew Jackson  and Gillie Grisham was Elizabeth.  It is likely (or possible) that this lady was  the daughter of Gillie's first husband--Mr. Mason.  According to the 1850 Census, Gillie was only 14 years older than Elizabeth.  

Isaac G. "Black Ike" Grisham married Elizabeth Mason in Tishomingo County, MS, 27 January, 1859, by J. G. Irvine, Justice of the Peace in the home of A. J. and Gillie Grisham.

I have hypothesized that the Elizabeth Mason who married Isaac G. "Black Ike" Grisham was a step-daughter of Gillie (Olive) Mason because:

a. Gillie was born in 1824 and Elizabeth was born fourteen years later in 1838 as per the 1850 Census enumeration when Elizabeth was listed as the oldest child in the home of Andrew Jackson and Gillie Grisham. According to the 1860 Census Gillie was 16 years older than Elizabeth (Mason) Grisham.

b. Hattie Grisham (daughter of Andrew Jackson Grisham, Jr.) wrote 24 September, 1964, in a letter to my mother that her grandmother, Gillie first married a Mr. Mason before she married Isaac Grisham. Gillie would have had to have been VERY young if she married Mr. Mason and had Elizabeth before marrying Andrew Jackson Grisham, Sr. by about 1842.

c. In the 1860 Census Isaac G. "Black Ike" Grisham and Elizabeth Mason were enumerated immediately after the entry for Andrew Jackson Grisham, Sr. and Gillie Olive.

 

Traditionally Andrew and Gillie died during the Civil War, which probably means that they were dead at least before 1865.  Elizabeth (Mason) Grisham was the only married "sibling," hence she and her husband, Isaac Grisham could have assumed the roles of parents.  However, Elizabeth Mason Grisham died before 1863--SO if she and her husband Isaac assumed the care of the children of Andrew and Gillie--that would move up the dates of death for Andrew and Gillie to MAYBE 1862.  The second wife of Isaac G. "Black Ike" Grisham was also named Elizabeth--Sarah Elizabeth Mason.  

According to Jack Taylor, Robert Henry Mitchell, who served in the CSA, Company G, 3rd Battalion, 33rd Regiment of the Mississippi Infantry was sent on an assignment in November, 1863, to apprehend deserters.     Robert Henry Mitchell married Martha  "Mattie" Grisham on 5 May, 1866.  Could Robert Henry have been searching for the murders of his future father-in-law????

Matilda "Tilda" married in 1869; Ephraim married in 1867;  and James Lemuel married in 1872.

It is speculation that  Andrew Jackson "Jack" Grisham, Jr., George Washington Grisham, and Richard Robert "Dick" Grisham (who was born 16 March, 1861) might have  lived with Isaac G. "Black Ike" Grisham and Elizabeth Mason. That all depends upon when Andrew Jackson Grisham, Sr. was killed and when Gillie (Olive) (Mason) Grisham ended her life. Both died during the Civil War.  Isaac G. and Elizabeth certainly were likely possibilities to have become the care-givers for the orphaned children of A. J. and Gillie.

The first child of Isaac G. "Black Ike" Grisham and Elizabeth Mason died at the age of 9 months in 1860. Their second child died at the age of 15 months in June, 1862. By family tradition Elizabeth Mason Grisham  accidentally caused the death of the second daughter by administering the wrong medicine. Traditionally Elizabeth was so distraught that she committed suicide--possibly as early as  June, 1862, or at least before 1863.  Elizabeth certainly had numerous tragedies in her life--the death of her father, the death of her step-mother and step-father (or whatever relationship Andrew Jackson would have been to her as the second husband of her step-mother), and the deaths of her two daughters, as well as living in the South during the Civil War.

Isaac G. "Black Ike" Grisham married his second wife, Sarah Elizabeth Mason, about 1863. I do not know if Sarah Elizabeth Mason and Elizabeth Mason were related. Traditionally Isaac G. "Black Ike" Grisham was related to Andrew Jackson Grisham and was a first cousin of Isaac C. "Red Ike" Grisham, who was a son of George Washington Grisham, Jr. (who died in Tishomingo County, MS in 1849), who was a son of George Gresham, Sr. who died in Lawrence County, TN, on 16 March,1852.

Isaac G. was called "Black Ike" because (by tradition) he had black hair and because he had a first cousin, Isaac C. "Red Ike" Grisham, who had red hair. Census records documented that both Isaac G. and Isaac C. Grisham lived in the same neighborhood.

We know that Andrew Jackson Grisham, Sr. and Gillie Olive were alive in 1860--because they were enumerated in Tishomingo Co., MS. We know that they were both dead prior to 1870--because their children were scattered about with others. The Grishams lived in the Blackland area of  Tishomingo County which became Prentiss County in 1870.  Blackland is six miles west of Booneville, which did not emerge as a town until about 1860.

The minor children of Andrew Jackson Grisham, Sr. and Gillie Olive (Mason) Grisham --

• Andrew Jackson Grisham, Jr.

• George Washington Grisham

• Richard Robert "Dick" Grisham

could have lived with Isaac G. "Black Ike" and his second wife following the deaths of their parents.   In fact, this might have been the only possible home for these 3 little boys. 

The second child listed in the 1850 Census and probably the first child of Gillie Olive (Mason) and Andrew Jackson Grisham, Sr. was Ephraim "Eaf" Grisham, born 1842. Ephraim lost his hearing during the Civil War. Ephraim did not marry until 18 June, 1867, when he married Elizabeth "Betty" Patterson. In 1870 Andrew Jackson, Jr. (listed as Jackson) and his two younger brothers (George Washington and Richard Robert "Dick") were enumerated in the home of Ephraim and Elizabeth "Betty" (Patterson) Grisham.

ANDREW JACKSON GRISHAM & GILLIE OLIVE (MAS0N)