In our Saturday Spotlight we are featuring a script from our 2016 Cemetery Walk which featured the families and stories behind some of Warrenville’s street names and landmarks. This spotlight tells the story of Sarah Cora Briggs Ferry Grant, of the family for whom Ferry Road is named. If you enjoy this and want to hear more stories of Warrenville history, you can view this year’s Cemetery Walk here which was broadcast through social media.

Sarah Cora Briggs was born on July 19, 1853 in Sussex, England, to her parents Eliza Malthouse and Thomas Briggs. Her family moved from England when she was two years old, bringing her and her older sister Eliza and Ellen to America in the hopes that they would have a better life. They first moved to a farm in Dundee, Illinois. After three years there they headed to DuPage County.

Sarah and her sisters received a good educations in their new country, not something all women in those days received, and she became a teacher. Her middle sister Ellen married George Elson and settled in Turner Junction, the town we know today of as West Chicago. Shortly after her wedding, Sarah also married, marrying James Ira Ferry on December 7, 1870.

The Ferry family were from New York and had come with the large pioneer group that followed the Warren family what we know of today as Warrenville. James, a lifelong DuPage resident, had also worked in education and had served as a school director, ensuring that DuPage’s children received a good education. James was also a staunch Prohibitionist and was involved greatly in the Warrenville community.

Sarah and James raised six children on the Ferry farm, the same farm where James was raised. The farm was on 232 acres along the road named for the family, Ferry Road, and what is today Route 59. For many families in the area in those early days of the Warrenville community, having close neighbors and family and friends was an important aspect of life. The family made many trips into the Warrenville settlement, including visits to their cousin Sarah Warner Manning and her husband Rockwell, another prominent early Warrenville family.

Map of early Warrenville showing Rockwell Manning landholdings

Sadly, after eleven years of married, James passed away. Sarah became administrator of the family estate after James’ death, something that would have been all but impossible for her to have done in her native England, where women had more limited rights at that time. Sarah continued to manage the Ferry farm. By that time, her father, a widower was also living with her and her children, helping out on the farm. In 1893 her father did something very few immigrants did in those days and made a visit back to England to see his family. It was a journey he treasured, but he was also glad to return back to the Ferry family farm.

The Ferry farms as shown on a 1904 map of the northern edge of Naperville township, just south of Warrenville.

In 1897, Sarah remarried, marrying David John Grant. David was a Canadian immigrant who came to Illinois in 1830s. He had served in Company F of the Illinois 105th Infantry Regiment fighting three years in the Civil War.

Once Sarah and James’s son George was old enough to run the Ferry farm, Sarah moved to Wheaton where she lived until her death in 1931. Sarah’s grandson Elmer and his wife Elaine inherited the Ferry family farm from George. The part of the farm that was located south of Ferry Road was sold to Northern Illinois Gas Company in 1962. In 1969 the last Ferry farm parcel was sold to Continental Can Company. After that Elmer and his family moved to Naperville. It was the first time in over 130 years that a Ferry had not lived in Warrenville.

Saturday Spotlight: Sarah Cora Briggs Ferry Grant