The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1864-04-07

af5es.
Gan intimate, ersonal.sfriend of
Lieut.. Gen. Grant" communicates to
the National Intellige'scer biogra-
phical sketch of that officer, which ap-
pears to be much more complete than
any that has appeared heretofore.
Owing to the great popular interest in
all that relates to the now actual COM
mander of our armies, we make the
following extract from this skech:
THE GRANT FAMILY.
General Grant was born at Point
Pleasant, Clermont county, Ohio, on
the 28th day of April, 1922, and is
consequently only in his forty second
year. His father, Jesse R. Grant, a
tanner by trade, is native of Penn
sylvania, and was born in Westmore-
land county in 1894, and is now living
at Covington, Kentucky. The Grant
family is of Scotch extraction. In the
early part of the sixteenth century
two brothers emigrated from Scotland
to the Colonies. One settled in Con
necticut and the other in New Jersey.
From the one who located in the form.
er colony have sprung the Grants Of
the North, and from the one in the
latter the Grants of the South.
The mother of Gen. Grant was
Hannah Simpson, a woman remarkable
for good sense, attention to her domes
tic duties, and serious Christian char.
acter, blended with easy manners
She is type of the mothers who pro
duced the heroes of the Revolution
In 1918 she removed, with her father
John Simpson, from Montgomery
county, Pennsylvania. where she wa.
born, to Clermont county, Ohio and
was welded in June, 1921, with hel
present husband. Ulysses is the frs
child born of that marriage, and the
"S." in his name stands for Simpson
the name of his mothers family. /
is significant, however, that the initials
I"U. S." stands for the United States
and Unconditional Surrender" BY
which sobriquet he is SO well and pop
ularly known in the army.
ULYSSES AT TWELVE.
In bis boyhood he always exhibited
a business turn, and was never withou
some particular purpose in hand re-
quiring responsibility, perseverance and
zeal-serious enough for one mature in
years. An incident in point will illus
trate this.
At the age of twelve he aspired tc
the management of his fathers draugh
team, and was entrusted with it for the
purpose of hauling some heavy hewed
logs, which were to be loaded with the
aid of levers and the usual appliance:
by several stout men. He came with
his team and found the logs, but no,
the men. A boy of more imaginative
genius, and of equal but of differently
directed contrivance might have laid
down to listen or dream, or build
houses of chips. Not so with this boy
who, unlike others, acted upon the idea
that where there was a will there was
a way, and hesitated not at the under.
taking. Observing fallen tree, hav.
ing a gradual upward slope, he un.
hitohed his horses, attached them to a
log, drew it horizontally to the tree
and then drew one end of it up the in
clined trunk, higher than the wagon
track, and SO as to project few feet
over, and thus continued to operate
until he had brought several to this po
sition. Next be backed the wagon un
der the projecting ends, and finally
one by one, hitched to and drew the
logs lengthwise across the fallen trunk
on to his wagon, hitched up again and
returned with his load to his astonisheG
father.
HIS MILITARY CAREER PRIOR TO THE
REBELLION.
! On the lst of July, 1889, Grant en-
tered the Academy in class of abou
one hundred, and while at West Poin
did not seem to be particularly attrac
ted by speculating philosophy, but wal
, remarkably fond of the more solid ane
concrete forms of demonstrative math-'
matics and of all experimental ex
ercises. He was the only one tha
had not studied the course at least ON
year, and many of them had received
, collegiate educations. Only thirty nine
of the members graduated, he gradua
ting in the middle of the number, Jun
80, 1843, and was soon after attached