Histories

Biographical Information: GRANVILLE SHARP PURVIS, born 1846 (? or 1845), died 29th August 1911 (aged 66) in Christchurch, Bournemouth, Hampshire, England, of tuberculosis and exhaustion. Graduated (c.1869) in pharmacy from Howard University, Washington, D.C. Pharmacist in Detroit, Michigan, until 1906, when he apparently retired and moved to England. Inherited 1898, from his father, the store and dwelling house at 4232 Market Street, West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A reference in the Oberlin College Alumni Register (1908) says that he was living in Bournemouth, England. At that time Michigan state law forbade interracial marriages. He and Elizabeth (who was apparently white) had to marry out of state and would have also had to live apart and maintain separate households in Michigan. Possibly he will have sold up his various business interests in Detroit and moved to England with his wife and daughter. Married Elizabeth ….., who was living (1920) as a widow with her daughter Marian (see 1.1.3.2.2.7.1. below) in Los Angeles, California, and was still living there in 1935 (per the City Directory), having one daughter:-