Miranda Elizabeth Grinstead

Mrs. Miranda Elizabeth Preist Grinstead, aunt of J. R. Grinstead, 107 years old died at the home of her son, Pam Grinstead of Longwood, MO. She suffered a stroke the day before she died. The following is from the "Sedalia Democrat":

This remarkable woman, the mother of 13 children, whose philosophy of life was not to worry, to do her best and leave the rest to God, retained her clear mental faculties, her keen sense of humor until a short time before her death. Even after her paralytic stroke which left one side helpless, she was conscious. She kept her interest in her friends, regretted that her hearing was failing because it was often necessary to ask persons to repeat their conversations, but it was hard to believe that she was not a woman of 80 or 90, instead of well over the century mark.

Mrs. Grinstead was born in Logan County KY, near Russellville, March 24, 1833. She came to Pettis County with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George S. Preist at the age of four, along with four brothers and sisters and two negro slaves. They made the journey in a wagon drawn by oxen. They settled on a 1,100 acre farm near Hughesville in 1838 before Sedalia was established. The youngest child in the family was only six weeks old when they came in a covered ox-wagon bringing with them two saddle horses. She fled during the Civil War and returned at the end of the War. Her father bought the land for $1.25/acre.

"We were five weeks on the road," she said in describing the overland trip. "We stopped to rest on Sundays only. We children rode in the wagon, just as we pleased. We crossed the Ohio River on a ferry. After we had crossed we discovered we had left a little dog on the other side. We children raised so much racket my father went back after him. It cost father $1, and that was no small sum in those days."

After they arrived on the farm and had settled there, Mrs. Grinstead went about the serious business of obtaining an education. A teacher was employed by her father. "My education continued," she said, "just as long as my father paid the teacher."

Her father organized a church that was named for him, Priest's chapel and was a Methodist Episcopal church, the second church in Pettis County and the first of its denomination.

"Making a living was comparatively easy in those days," Mrs. Grinstead said. "When we needed meat, my husband would go out before breakfast and kill a deer."

The Civil War interrupted the Grinsteads' peaceful life. The Grinsteads were Southerners. "When the Yankee militia was organized in Missouri, it threatened conscription of my husband. He fled to Denter to escape that. I was left with the other women, my children and the Negro slaves. It finally got too hot for us. Yankee troops awoke us at all hours in the search for rebels. At one time, a whole northern regiment was camped in our front yard. We were treated nicely, but we decided to return to Kentucky."

"We crossed the Mississippi river at St. Louis, just before orders were issued that no more slaves could be taken South." one of the family slaves ran away before the journey started. He was Richard Rush and he now lives on Missouri Avenue in Sedalia.

"After President Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation, one of the Negro women left us. She left her daughter to me to rear and I kept my promise to her. I brought her up."

Grinstead returned after the war and for several years was employed as a freighter across the western prairies. Later the Grinsteads moved to Oklahoma, then Indian territory. Mrs. Grinstead served as postmistress at Tishomingo several years.

Mrs. Grinstead keeps abreast of the times and is an ardent supporter of President Roosevelt. She said that she was for the return of beer, but added that she thought "we would have to wait to see whether it will do us any good." She added that she does not and will not drink beer.

Mrs. Grinstead never misses a meal and feels "fine." She is an expert with her needle having won fifteen prizes with it at the state fair since she became 75.

She is not at all prone to frown upon the youth of today. "Young people are condemned for a lot of tings they don't do. If the girls want to smoke, let them. So far as I am concerned, I have never seen a drunken woman in my life."

Mrs. Grinstead does not let thoughts concerning her extreme age trouble her. "I don't think anything about my age. My business is to be ready when my times comes."

Mrs. Grinstead remembered seeing St. Louis which was just a hamlet and trading post. She was impressed by the sight of men in prison garb working on the banks of the Missouri River near Jefferson City.

When the Preist family reached their destination, they built a one room cabin. As time permitted they rented the saw mill at night so that Mr. Priest and his slaves could saw enough timber to built a two room house with a half story above which was reached an outside ladder. Mr. Priest's church was used as a school house, and Mr. Priest hired William Newbill as a teacher. Children boarded with the Priests to attend school. Fox and Geese was a favorite game played like checkers on a homemade board using red and yellow corn.

Mrs Grinstead won awards for her quilts and household products at the county fair. Mrs. Grinstead told reporters that the old times were much better. "They had singing schools and started their songs with a tuning fork. The drakes played the fiddle for their dances and the white men "called off."

Her father built the first Methodist church in Pettis County before he was a member of any church. Mrs. Grinstead had been a member for about 95 years.

She was married in 1852 to William Travis Grinstead. He had been a forty-niner and went to California at the time of the gold rush, returned and became a freighter to Salt Lake City. Mrs. Grinstead was a consistent reader of the Bible and frequently quoted passages. At the age of 75 she broke her right arm and in order that she might write to her children, learned to use her left hand. Her body was taken to Whitesboro, TX for burial.

Miranda and William had 13 children. A PREIST genealogy was prepared by Nellie Ayers of Memphis, TN.

This came from an August 26, 1933, article from the "Kansas City Star Journal." The clipping is in the possession of Mary Jo (Grinstead) Schneider.