Mercy Corson
ID # 3311, (1798-1893)
| Father | Daniel Corson (1763-1849) |
| Mother | Rebecca Lawrason |
| Birth | Mercy Corson was born in 1798. |
| Marriage | She married Smith Griffin. |
| Death | She died on 5 March 1893. |
| Burial | She was buried at Mt. Vernon Cemetery, Brantford Twp.. |
| Note | 300 Years with the Corson Families in America,etc., by Orville Corson, 1939, chapter XXV, page 286, tells that Mercy Corson first married a Smith Griffin and secondly a Ford. The second husband's name is more accurately Force, or Vorce. A record of her marriage to either of these husbands has yet to be found beyond the information provided in Orville Corson's work, a copy of which is available on Ancestry. We do have records for her under the name of Force in various census years. To date, no information has been found regarding Mercy's second husband, surname Force. A given name has yet to be found. We have no idea as to his dates of birth or death. If he, like she, was a widower at the time of their marriage, then he may well be buried with his first wife. Mercy does appear as Mercy Force, widow, in the 1851 census in Brantford Township. The page is unclear in the matter, but it is possible that she is residing with a family by the name of Londsberry. The 1861 census still has her in Brantford Township. Here, she is shown as age 60 and appears to be with the family of a Thomas and Easter Perrin. She is shown as a member of the family, though this may be misleading, for the Perrin's are in a brick house and Mercy is in a frame house and the more rational explanation may simply be that she is a family of one. She is evidently on her own in the 1871, 1881, and 1891 censuses. She appears as ages 70, 80, and 90, respectively in these three censuses. According to Murray Fair's transcription of Mt. Vernon Cemetery, she died on 5 March, 1893. Beyond this, an obituary does appear in the Christian Guardian, Aug. 30, 1893 and may be found in Vol. 11, Obituaries from the Christian Guardian, 1891-1895, Donald A. McKenzie, Global Heritage Press, 2011. It tells that she was a sister of the late Robert 'Carson' and that she was born at The Thirty, near Grimsby, in 1800. It does not provide us with names of her husbands, but does indicate that she'd had a daughter who had died. The date of her death as shown in the obituary, March 15, 1893, is apparently incorrect. It does say that the funeral was from the Methodist Church in Mt. Vernon, of which she had been a member for many years. A death registration has not been found. A photograph of Mercy's stone in Mt. Vernon Cemetery, as presented by CanGenWeb, shows her name inscribed on her gravestone as Mercy Force. The photograph shows her date of death as March 5, 1893, though the stone is quite worn. An argument follows, which I hope the reader will consider to be reasonable and which is treated as obvious, given the contexts found here. The Brant County branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society has done a transcription of Mount Vernon Cemetery in Brantford Township. Page 18 records for row 14, stone 10, the place of burial for Mercy Force who died on March 5, 1893, age 93y's. Note, above, that the Corson Families in America tells that Mercy first married a Smith Griffin and then a Ford (Force). The OGS transcription of burials close to Mercy's grave has some problems, but are quite solvable with the assistance of photographs of the grave stones such as they appear on CanGenWeb. First, see Rev. Donald McKenzie's work, Vol. 11, Obituaries from the Christian Guardian, 1891-1895, Global Heritage Press Milton, 2011, page 126. This provides an obituary for Mercy, which doesn't tell us a great deal, but does tell us that she'd had a daughter who had died. With this in mind consider that the OGS transcription shows stone 11, next to that of Mercy, as being that of Eliza Dixon, the wife of Charles Dixon, who died May 24, 1844, age 2 yrs. The CanGenWeb photograph of this stone shows this transcription to be wrong. Charles name was Nixon and Eliza's age was 22 years, per the photograph of the stone. To say Charles' wife was age 2 is patently wrong. Immediately next to the gravestone of Eliza is a stone for two children of Charles and Eliza Nixon, Cecelina Lazelle and William Serian. This is followed by a stone for Priscilla E. Nixon. She died April 6, 1850, at age 3 yrs., 5 mos., 22 dys. She is shown as the daughter of Charles and Mary Nixon. Mary is Charles' second wife. This is followed by a stone for an Arthur W. C. Aikman, aged 5 yrs, 2 mos. He is described as the son of Charles and Eunice Aikman. Vol. 4 of the Annals of the 40 describes Eunice as the daughter of Robert Corson, brother of Mercy Corson Griffin Force. If this is correct, then Arthur was Mercy's grand nephew. No date for Arthur is provided in the transcription of the gravestone. The stone for Arthur is then followed by a stone for a Hervey Griffin, who died in 1880 at age 27. He can't be a son of Mercy, but a family connection is at the least probable. It's certainly difficult to reject the idea that Eliza Griffin Nixon was Mercy's daughter and she is treated as such in this tree. Also, please note: Charles Nixon's first wife, Eliza Griffin, was the daughter of a Corson; his second wife was a Corson. The connection between the Nixons and the Corsons appears to be a strong one. |
Child of Mercy Corson and Smith Griffin |
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| Last Edited | 8 Oct 2020 |