Phoebe Bethien Grant Smith Tribble

 

This is my Great Great Grandma Phoebe Bethien Grant Smith Tribble. She was a pretty remarkable woman. She is from the same Grant family as Ulysses S. Grant. They were cousins.

Phoebe had 14 children. Her first husband Christopher Monroe Smith died, and Phoebe seem to move on rather quickly. 

The story goes...Phoebe loaded up the chuck wagon with all the children and all her belonging and married another man. Hill C. Tribble was her next choice. He had 10 children himself. The 2 were married, but the marriage did not last long at all.

The children were of various ages...all 24 of them. The children just could not get along. Fights would break out everyday. Hill C. Tribble was the preacher of the local church, and he help to found a school. He taught at the school and is mention is many documents of the area in West Virginia.

Phoebe got pregnant during her time that was married to Hill, but she could not take all the children fighting. She gathered her items once again, and loaded her chuck wagon and took off. It had been raining, and there were many mudslides in the area. Giant rocks were blocking many of the roadways. Phoebe would get out of the chuck wagon with all the mud. Her boots were heavy with mud, and she was pregnant. She would have to give the horses some extra nudges to get them to do something. She also had to put all the kids to work, and have them help get around each situation that they would stumble upon.

One of the wagon wheels rubbed against the side of a mountain and broke the wheel off the wagon. The family set up camp. They finally found a place to stay, but Phoebe did not marry again. She would have Alda (my great grandmother) pretend that her last name was Smith. All of the census records have her listed as a Smith. Later Alda would learn that she was a Tribble and not a Smith. Alda has on her marriage certificate Alda E. Tribble. 

Genealogy is one of my hobbies. I have been tracking down our family roots since I was young. Family Tree Marker is what I use with Ancestry.com

Could you handle 24 kids?

I am working with Schultz Family and the Peterson Family, so here is the link.