Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-06-19
GRANT,S OLD HOME.
Mrs. Grant the Family Finaneier - f.. b. Wash
burns Law office-a Miners Legend Etc.


Mrs. Grant the Family Flnancier - f.. b. Wash
burns Law ofiice-4 Miners Legend Etc.
a correspondent of the St. Louis
Globe Democrat. writing from GaIena,
ILL.,. says: General Grant was never a
good hand to look after money matters
lie used to say: 'My wife is the iinan-
cier OF tho family and this was liter
ally true, as was demonstrated by the
admirable manner in which she man.
aged affairs when the Generals salary
In his fathers leather store at Galena
was only $40 month. Brought UP a
refined lady and accustomed to all the
commoner luxuries of life, she found
herself, on her arrival from ST. Louis.
In circumstances that would have ter
riiled most women reared under similar
circumstances. With q devotion which
characterizes the true wife and mother.
she set herself to work, and soon had a
model little home, which was to her
and her family an earthly paradise.
Her management when Ulysses entered
the army, penniless (being compelled
to buy an outiiO, was characterized by
the same shrewdness and tact, and as
her husband advanced step by step.
she so managed his financial affairs as
to Tit the upward gradations in life he
was rapidly reaching. A few months
ago. when General Grant last visited
his Galena home, he said in my pres
ence: ''My wife runs our New York
house, and no other woman in the uni
verse could do it better than she. |
give her $1,000 a month and ask no
questions. | do not live IN ANYTHING
like prlncely style, but there are but
few men who arc compelled to keep
the appearances that circumstances
have forced upon me of late years that
have more to be proud of than myself,
and leave it all to my wife, who runs
oul HOUSEHOLD affairs herself, keeping
the strlctest account OF expenses and
experimenting every department of
the family establishment
Naturally enough, the people of Gal
ena, including all classes who know the
Grants, are in hearty sympathy with
them in their recent reverses. This
sorrow, and more genuine love for
General and Mrs. Grant has come to
the surface since the failure of the for
mer than was ever before manifested.
Should they determine to return to
their modest little home here they will
be most atlectionately and enthusiastic
cally received.
The old law Office in this city of ex-
Minister Washburne, and occupied by
HIM for more than thirty years, mas re-
Gently been converted into boot and
shoe mandatory. The rooms were
long an object of interest to tourists
stopping in Galena, and were frequently
visited and inspected by the more cur
ious ones. The books, furniture, etc,
remained as they were when Mr.. Wash
burne hurriedly departed for France,
until his return and more recent per
manent removal to Chicago. They
were plain, uupretending suite of rooms
yet IN them have frequently assembled
some of the most distinguished civic and
military lights in the more modern his
tory of our community. They were tie
acknowledged headquarters OF the " hig
aud Republican leaders before the war
in Illinois, and the political schemes
that have been there hatched and plan ;
laid out and set on foot could scarcely
be told in any ordinary volume.
The mining interests of this section
are on the wane, although, in the opin-
ion of experts, but small percentage
of ore has been taken out of the ground.
There are several furnaces in operation
here and hereabouts, though the num-
beris small compared with that of earlier
years. The output of pig lead from
this point during the past year aggre-
gated 10000, 900 pounds. Mining is done
by drifting and shafting.
Many old drifts, running through
the heart of the city, have been discover
ed One of these. which has been ex-
ploded'for many hundreds of feet, furn.
ished q safe retreat at one time for the
murderers of Colonel Davenport al
Rock Island, one of the most horrid
butcheries in the annals of Western
crime. The drift was accidentally dis
covered by some masOps while digging
the foundation for n church, and on
bring explored the skeleton of a man
chained to a rock, was disclosed to view
in the remote end of a cross-cut drift
Old miners have a legend to the effect
that the remains were those Of a French
gambler and cut-throat who came to
the mines from New Orleans in 1928,
and who ran away with the wife of one
Samuels, a lead miner. The pair got
no further than lizard Scrabble, - now
Hazel Green, ten miles from here, when
they were overtaken by Samuels and
brought back to the then settlement oi
Galena. The Frenchmen was tried by
an impromptu court and condemned tc
death, and the husband of the woman
he had seduced was appointed his ex-
ecutioner. His fate was not known
until the discovery of the skeleton above
referred to, when it was remembered
that the wronged husband had partially
disclosed to some of his more intimate
friends the story of the judgment he
had melted out to the destroyer of his
home. Such was frontier iustic in the
old Galena lead mines.