Grimes' Obituary
A. C. Grimes, 1906 newspaper photo
Ralls County Record
New
London, Missouri, Friday, March 31, 1911
Capt.
Ab. C. Grimes Dead
Captain
Ab. C. Grimes, a noted Confederate mail carrier, pioneer river pilot and manager
of hunting preserves, died at his home, No. 437 Olive Street, St. Louis, last
Monday night.
He
was 76 years old and had been ill for a month.
His
career was linked with the life of Mark Twain, the late humorist, as both were
pilots and members of the same Confederate company.
For
thirty years Captain Grimes guided river steamers through tortuous currents. On
leaving the river the old soldier located in Lincoln county and managed game
preserves, which were visited by thousands of St. Louisians.
Capt.
Grimes moved to St. Louis four years ago.
He
was twice married. His second wife was much younger than he. Shortly after his
second marriage, in 1905, Captain Grimes shot a man whom he accused of insulting
his bride.
The
river pilot was born to the rank as his father was a pilot on the earliest boats
on the Mississippi river. His mother's brother was also a pilot and owner of
steamers plying the Mississippi.
When
the Civil War began Captain Grimes left the river and joined a company organized
at New London, Ralls County, by Captain Theodore Brace. Mark Twain enlisted in
the same company on the day that Grimes was accepted.
During
the war General Sterling B. Price selected Captain Grimes and Robert Louden to
act as mail carriers. These intrepid fighters smuggled mail between the soldiers
in the Southern Army and the home folks in the North.
Six
times the late Captain was captured by Union soldiers, but on five occasions he
escaped. When taken the sixth time he was incarcerated in the Gratiot Street
Prison, from where he attempted to escape and got shot.
Prior
to his effort to escape he was sentenced to be hanged, but this was commuted
through the influence of the late Archbishop Ryan of Philadelphia, who was then
located in St. Louis. The Confederate soldier was sent to Jefferson City for
confinement.
When
stealing through the lines to get his mail in the hands of the soldiers on the
battlefields, Captain Grimes was assisted by many women now living here who were
Southern sympathizers.
After
the war and his retirement from the river, Captain Grimes became manager of the
King's Lake Shooting Club in Lincoln county. He remained with the club thirteen
years and then built a clubhouse a few miles down the shore of the lake. This
clubhouse he named Grimes' King Lake Club, where he lived for ten years.
Since
coming to St. Louis he has conducted a moving-picture show, next a shooting
gallery and lately has worked for the General Compressed-Air Vacuum Cleaning
Company.
Lucy Glascock Grimes
His
first wife he married in New London in 1865. She was Miss Lucy Glascock, who
died in 1903. They had seven children, of whom two survive. They are Hudson
Grimes, No. 3448 Pine Street, and Mrs. W.L. Mitchell, of Ferguson, St. Louis
county.
The second Mrs. Grimes, Nell Tauke Grimes (1906 newspaper photo)
Mr.
Grimes' second marriage took place December 15, 1905, in Lincoln county to Miss
Nell Tauke. She survives him.
The
remains will be laid to rest in Barkley Cemetery this (Thursday) afternoon.
Barkley Cemetery, New London, Missouri
|
||||||
©2001 D. H. Rule
No reproduction or distribution without consent of author.
Feel free to link to this or any other page on the site.
Please don't hyperlink to pictures, query for copying permission.
Total site hits
since January 25, 2001
