Oscar and Irene Grigsby and family
Oscar McAtee Grigsby was born on June 8, 1914 in Trigg County, Kentucky, the son of John Garton Grigsby and Georgia Reid McAtee. Both his parents were natives of Trigg County, his father being a descendant of Jemima Bridges Sholar and Drury Bridges. Oscar grew up as a farmer’s son and as a youth attended Bethel School. He graduated from the eighth grade and then began his career as a lifetime farmer.
On December 11, 1937, when Oscar was 23 years old, he married Irene Gertrude Freeman. Irene was a native of Trigg County and the daughter of Lindsay Livingston Freeman and Elsie Diuguid who were also a family of farmers. Oscar and Irene became the parents of four children, Clarence Ray, born in 1938; Lonnie Oscar, born in1939; Elsie Jean, born in 1946; and Perry Wayne, born in 1952.
After their marriage Oscar and Irene moved in with her parents on their farm. They lived on the Freeman farm until 1943 when they purchased the farm owned by Oscar’s great-grandfather who had settled there in 1855. Oscar and Irene began operating a Grade A dairy on the farm with the assistance of Oscar’s brothers.
In 1948, they sold their farm and bought a rundown farm located two miles south of Cadiz, Kentucky on highway 139. Here they farmed 186 acres of land, continued to operate their Grade A dairy and later began raising beef cattle and sheep. The land they purchased was so poor the previous owner had to buy hay to feed his cow, but soon this land became a model farm to which farmers from far and near came to see the fine things that were being done there.
The rundown farmstead began to undergo an immediate change with eradication of "briars, bushes and broom sedge." In 1947 the extension service enrolled the farm in the TVA test demonstration program. That program resulted in a high fertility program for Grade A milk production. Oscar was committed to farm conservation and Its technical and applied use. He was among the first cooperators in the Trigg County Soil Conservation District program. In 1951 Oscar completed a conservation plan by accomplishing the following: installed complete tile drainage system on two fields; dug four ponds; constructed two miles of terraces; seeded 20 acres of forage crops and established 150 acres of pasture. The Grigsby farm became an example of what can be accomplished by .following a conservation plan. The Grigsbys turned a farm where animals once went hungry to one where 40 dairy cows and 30 heifers feasted dally. Where formerly you were lucky to harvest a half ton of hay per acre, Oscar was gathering three tons per acre. Tobacco yields jumped tremendously, corn production increased from 15 to 75 bushels per acre. Their herd of Jersey and Brown Swiss dairy animals reaped the harvest of productive land created by the Grigsby family. An article in the Paducah Sun Democrat, on April 15, 1958 said that “The family is a shining example that farming efficiency can be attained by prudent use of technical and financial assistance available to all farmers today.”
On Sunday, February 13, 1977, Oscar was driving his 1965 Ford Mustang on highway 139. He was alone, except being accompanied by his dog. He lost control of the car, ran off the road, went through a fence and into a pond. Oscar was pinned in the vehicle beneath the pond. He was dead upon arrival of the ambulance and his death was caused by drowning. Oscar was 62 years old at the time of his death.
Oscar was buried in the East End Cemetery in Cadiz, Kentucky. Irene died on May 6, 2002 in Cadiz at the age of 83. She was buried next to Oscar in the East End Cemetery.
Oscar and Irene Grigsby Tombstone
LINEAGE: (Oscar McAtee Grigsby was the son of John Garton and Georgia Reid McAtee Grigsby, grandson of John Ferguson and Mary Josephine Lawrence Grigsby and great-grandson of James Henry and Elizabeth Sholar Lawrence. Elizabeth was the fifth child of Allen and Jemima Bridges Sholar. Jemima was the first child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)
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