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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.
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Morning Star, April 14, 2024, pg. 6 It was 100 years ago that one of Albion's early pioneers, Adaline (Grosvenor) Peabody Ranney (1829-1924) passed away on May 9, 1924 at the age of 95. She is interred in Riverside Cemetery. Born March 2, 1829, Adaline was from a large family that left New York State and settled at "The Forks" in the 1830s. Her father, Ebenezer O. Grosvenor Sr. (1783-1871) was a teacher by profession. Adaline was a true pioneer of Albion. Her obituary stated, "During the early years of her life…Mrs. Ranney took her place in the social and civic life of Albion and did with a will what her hand found to do. She was one of the real builders of Albion. Whatever was her work or her position, she graced it with the grace of a true lady." What is interesting about Adaline is her lengthy obituary, which includes her recollections of early Albion. It describes the long voyage from New York with her parents by canal to Buffalo, then on the ship "Erie" to Detroit, then to Ann Arbor via a four-horse stagecoach. From there they traveled to Jackson and Albion by "private conveyance" as the obituary relates, arriving here in Albion at 10 o'clock in the evening on Wednesday, October 10, 1838. Let's enjoy some excerpts from her obituary, published May 9, 1924 in the Recorder, describing what Albion looked like in 1838: "It was in 1838 then, that 9-year-old Adaline Grosvenor came with her parents to the hamlet of Albion, [her] other brothers of the family having preceded them….Scarcely a dozen buildings, including stores, the hotel and dwelling houses, marked Albion at that time. What is now the lowland, upon a part of which the Dalrymple School site is located, was then a lake. Pond holes were everywhere, even where some of Albion's finest residences now stand and the virgin forest or second growth timber or "grubs" covered the ground which are now our main thoroughfares." "The Village Post Office was located where the present Mounteer [bakery] Block [the Peabody Block where the Foundry Bakery operates today] now stands. It was a one-story building and housed a grocery as well as the United States Post Office. Jesse Crowell was the first postmaster. He lived at that time in the house now standing at 117 W. Porter St. At the Sheldon Block [Parks Drugs building] corner stood the village hotel; a pretentious two-story frame building called the "Albion Hotel." "The Grosvenor family made their home in the frame structure which stood on the site of the present Mounteer home on [110] W. Erie St. and which is still standing, having been moved to W. Ash St. to make way for the dwelling now occupying the spot. It was in this home that Mrs. Ranney was married in 1851 to Walter Peabody, son of Tenney Peabody, one of the first settlers of the early Albion known as "The Forks…Walter Peabody and his brother David built the block which now stands on the southwest corner of Superior and Erie Streets…Here the two brothers were engaged in the mercantile business." I hope you enjoyed the part which stated "Pond holes were everywhere." Today of course we could write, "Potholes are everywhere." From our Historical Notebook this week we present a daguerreotype image of a young Adaline Grosvenor. How many of our readers had ancestors who were pioneers and came to the Albion area before the Civil War?  Young Adaline Grosvenor
All text copyright, 2024 © all rights reserved Frank Passic
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