Groom-Radley Family Tree

from http://members.tripod.com/~GroomS/NEEDHAM.html
by Loma (Groom) Harrison

NOTES

1. My Grandfather, Rev. Needham York Groom, was born February 6, 1847 in Union Parish, Louisiana, the fourth of seven children born to Elizabeth and Elijah Groom.

2. When he was two years of age, the family moved to Homer, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana.

3. The family soon moved to a farm, seven miles from Homer, and it was here that Needham grew up.

4. Needham's father, Elijah, died in 1859, when Needham was 14 years of age. Elijah was buried on a plot of land on the family farm, which later became Cold Springs Grave Yard. His grave is marked with a huge granite stone with no inscription on it.

5. In 1860, Elizabeth petitioned the Court for a tutor for her five minor children: George, Needham, Arzena, Maldotha, and Delfunda. With good tutors, Needham received a good education.

6. After Elijah's death, Elizabeth donated two acres of her farm land to the Cold Springs Baptist Church for a new church building to built on it. It was probably in this Church that Needham began his life's work as a Baptist minister.

7. In 1864, Needham married his childhood sweetheart, Margaret Gryder, who was also his closest neighbor. The Groom and Gryder farms were across the road from each other. Margaret's parents, Hiram and Mary Dora (Hays) Gryder owned and operated a General Merchandise store, located on the corner of their farm where the two roads cross.

8. On February 16, 1870, Elizabeth sold her farm to Thornton Bridgeman for which she received $600.00. (This did not include the two acres she had previously donated to the Cold Springs Baptist Church). On September 6, 1913, he donated the plot of ground where Elijah was buried, to be a public burying ground. It is now called Cold Springs Burying Ground.

9. Margaret and Needham reared their eight children on a farm in Webster Parish, near the town of Serepta, Louisiana.

10. In 1876, Needham and his family, together with his Mother Elizabeth and his brother Delfunda "Babe", moved by ox-carts from Louisiana to Van Zandt County, Texas. My grandfather Needham told my father Millage Short Groom that when they came to where they must cross the river, they had two choices. They could all cross by ferry for $.50, or they could make the ox-carts float across by stopping up the cracks with pitch tar and they could all float across. They chose the later. My dad asked his father, "Do you mean to tell me that you did all that work to save fifty cents?" Grandpa told him that in those days fifty cents would buy a whole barrel of flour.

11. In Van Zandt County, the two families bought farms near each other in what is now the Phalba Community.

12.The ninth child, Lou, was born to Needham and Margaret, soon after they arrived in Texas.

13. Margaret died soon after Lou's birth. Dad said that the weather was bitter cold and Margaret had to do the family washing outside, working over the big black iron pot of boiling water, where the white clothes were boiled. She took pneumonia and died from the exposure. She was buried in the Phalba Cemetery in an unmarked grave. In 1985, the Groom Reunion Group placed a nice granite tombstone at her grave, with the inscription, "In loving memory of Margaret (Gryder) Groom. 1844-1878)". After Margaret's death, Needham married Adline (Wages) Dean, and they had six children .

All fifteen of Grandpa Needham's children lived to be grown, except the oldest child, Ida, who died when she was 15 years of age. She is buried in the Phalba Cemetery next to her mother, Margaret's grave and the graves of her grandmother Elizabeth (Bryan) Groom, and her Uncle Delfunda "Babe" Groom. I have a picture of Grandpa Needham (Bible in hand) with his nine grown sons: Augustus "Gus", Robert Lee "Bob", Martin "Mart", Short, Alexander "Alex", William "Willie", Jerome, Frank, and Harvey. Few people could be so fortunate. The picture is priceless.

I never really knew my grandfather Needham. When he came to see us in Bailey, Texas, shortly before mother died, I remember the family's sitting around the dining table near the old pot-bellied stove, just talking and talking. Since I was only five years of age, I do not remember what kind of person grandpa really was, so I know him through the loving memories that my father had of him. Since he and my father were both Baptist ministers, they had a lot in common. Dad described his father as a very kind, gentle man who dearly loved his Lord and his family.

Dad's second wife, Celeste (Green) Groom, and his father, Rev, Needham York Groom, died about the same time in 1915, he with pneumonia, she with pellagra. Celeste died in the home of her parents in Kaufman County, Texas, and Rev. Needham died in his home in Hood County, Texas. Dad grieved deeply because he could not be with his father during his last illness and death, but he could not leave his wife while she was dying an excruciating death with that terrible disease, pellagra.

Researcher and Compiler: Loma (Groom) Harrison, descendant of Rev. Needham York Groom and Rev. M. S. Groom.)

I am indebted to many members of the Groom family for information they gave me about the family. My cousins, C. V. Gauntt, grandson of Martin Groom, and his wife Marie have collected statistical information on about 700 descendants of Grandpa Needham Groom and have graciously shared all of it with me. My sisters, Lorena (Groom) Spence and Geneva (Groom) Barnes, and I visited Claiborne and Webster Parishes in Louisiana and saw many of the places where my great Grandfather and Mother, Elijah Groom ll, and Elizabeth (Bryan) Groom lived and reared their families and where Needham, Margaret and their 8 children lived. M.D Dean (grandson of Indiana (Groom) Dean) and his wife, spent a whole day driving us all over both Parishes, showing us the places of interest, and telling us all the information they could about all the family.