Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/category/history/)
There have been black families living in Granby since pre-Revolutionary times. Since even the free blacks could not vote or hold public office, were not leaders in the church or government and rarely owned businesses, they are practically invisible in the history of a town.
Each time I drive by the house at 28 Copper Hill Road, I think of George Guay. Guay lived in that house while running his grocery store for nearly half a century.
The first Memphis public library opened in 1893. The benefactor was none other than Frederick H. Cossitt, the former Granby resident and philanthropist.
Historian Dennis D. Picard reads Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart in North Granby’s Lee Cemetery.
Where do spirits go when their home is destroyed? An early 19th century dwelling at 18 East Granby Road was torn down late in 1998.
You may have noticed the temporary signs in front of 32 houses from the town green down Salmon Brook Street to just below the Salmon Brook Historical Society.
Frederick and Catherine Cossitt had four children. The oldest was Helen Marcellus Cossitt who married Augustus D. Juilliard in 1877.
The stone house at 109 West Granby Road is where Helen Green lived all her life. Green was the first woman from Granby to represent the 7th District in the state legislature and she dedicated her life to public service and education.
In this time of the pandemic, the Salmon Brook Historical Society has found a way to stay outdoors while sharing Granby’s history. Stroll Through Granby History is an opportunity to both walk and learn while being appropriately distanced from each other because it is all done outside.
From 1921 to 1946, the house at 225 Salmon Brook Street was owned by Dr. Ernest Pendleton. From 1921 to 1928 Dr. Pendleton lived on the first floor with his family and ran a hospital on the second and third floors.