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Frances “Fannie” <I>Courtney</I> Carrington

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Frances “Fannie” Courtney Carrington

Birth
Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee, USA
Death
17 Oct 1911 (aged 66)
Hyde Park, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA
Burial
Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA Add to Map
Memorial ID
View Source
Author. A second wife to two notable US Indian Wars officers, Frances Courtney Grummond Carrington chronicled her experiences as a military wife in "Army Life on the Plains", initially published in 1910. Born Frances Courtney into an affluent, pro-Union family in Franklin, Tennessee, "Fannie" had nursed wounded Federal soldiers in the Courtney home during the Civil War Battle of Franklin. A deeply religious and somewhat naive young woman, in 1865 she wed 31-year-old George Washington Grummond, a Federal officer with a reputation for recklessness whose first marriage ended in divorce. He subsequently received a commission in the frontier army, and in 1866 Frances accompanied him to his post, Fort Phil Kearny on the Bozeman trail. There the newlyweds impressed all as a "most charming couple", according to the memoir of the commanding officer's wife, Margaret Carrington, who became the young bride's mentor and close friend. Frances never-the-less was plagued with a sense of forboding, which was exacerbated by the sight of mutilated bodies brought back to the fort, and waking to find her bed invaded by the Wyoming snows. Her fears soon materialized when Lt. Grummond was killed in the infamous "Fetterman Massacre" just months later in December 1866. A widow at 21, she returned to her Tennessee home in 1867. Four years later, after her friend Margaret Carrington's death, she married the distinguished soldier-scholar Henry B. Carrington, Margaret's widower and her late husband's former commanding officer. Although Frances' second husband was more than 20 years her senior, their marriage proved to be a successful one, and with his encouragement, she followed in her predecessor's footsteps by writing a frontier memoir. The books of both Mrs. Carringtons were instrumental in shaping the prevailing historic view of the Fetterman fight and the personalities involved. In 1878 Henry and Frances Carrington moved to Hyde Park in Boston, Massachusetts, where she died at the age of 66. Her survivors included her 87-year-old husband and a daughter, also interred in this plot. The first Mrs. Carrington (nee Margaret Sullivant) is buried in Columbus, Ohio, near other members of the Sullivant family, and Lt. G.W. Grummond in Tennessee.
Author. A second wife to two notable US Indian Wars officers, Frances Courtney Grummond Carrington chronicled her experiences as a military wife in "Army Life on the Plains", initially published in 1910. Born Frances Courtney into an affluent, pro-Union family in Franklin, Tennessee, "Fannie" had nursed wounded Federal soldiers in the Courtney home during the Civil War Battle of Franklin. A deeply religious and somewhat naive young woman, in 1865 she wed 31-year-old George Washington Grummond, a Federal officer with a reputation for recklessness whose first marriage ended in divorce. He subsequently received a commission in the frontier army, and in 1866 Frances accompanied him to his post, Fort Phil Kearny on the Bozeman trail. There the newlyweds impressed all as a "most charming couple", according to the memoir of the commanding officer's wife, Margaret Carrington, who became the young bride's mentor and close friend. Frances never-the-less was plagued with a sense of forboding, which was exacerbated by the sight of mutilated bodies brought back to the fort, and waking to find her bed invaded by the Wyoming snows. Her fears soon materialized when Lt. Grummond was killed in the infamous "Fetterman Massacre" just months later in December 1866. A widow at 21, she returned to her Tennessee home in 1867. Four years later, after her friend Margaret Carrington's death, she married the distinguished soldier-scholar Henry B. Carrington, Margaret's widower and her late husband's former commanding officer. Although Frances' second husband was more than 20 years her senior, their marriage proved to be a successful one, and with his encouragement, she followed in her predecessor's footsteps by writing a frontier memoir. The books of both Mrs. Carringtons were instrumental in shaping the prevailing historic view of the Fetterman fight and the personalities involved. In 1878 Henry and Frances Carrington moved to Hyde Park in Boston, Massachusetts, where she died at the age of 66. Her survivors included her 87-year-old husband and a daughter, also interred in this plot. The first Mrs. Carrington (nee Margaret Sullivant) is buried in Columbus, Ohio, near other members of the Sullivant family, and Lt. G.W. Grummond in Tennessee.


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  • Created by: Nikita Barlow
  • Added: Aug 9, 2012
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95090688/frances-carrington: accessed ), memorial page for Frances “Fannie” Courtney Carrington (14 Jan 1845–17 Oct 1911), Find a Grave Memorial ID 95090688, citing Fairview Cemetery, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Nikita Barlow (contributor 46508077).