Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1885-07-29
Ulysses Simpson Grant.

IN York State, on Mount McGregor
| a spur of the Adirondack mountain
one thousand feet above the level oi
the Atlantic ocean, of cancer in the
throat, aged 63 years.
The Grant family to which the
General belonged was of British ar
listrocratic extraction.
His first American ancestor was
Matthew Grant, who landed among
the Plymouth Puritans in 1630-ten
years after the landing of the May
flower people.
The Grants fourished in the woods
of New England one hundred and for
ty-six years till the revolutionary
war in which they took part on the
side of the colonies.
Noah Grant, widower, the sixth
man from Matthew Grant, moved to
and settled among the Scotch Irish
in the woods of Westmoreland coun-
county, Pennsylvania, in 1870, and
two years after his settlement he mar
ried widow named Rachael Kelley.
Two years after the marriage, Jesse
Root Grant, the father of the Gener
al, was born near Greensburg, West
moreland county, Pa. Noah Grant
remained in Westmoreland till in II
70, when ..he embarked on fat-bot-
toned boat with his wife and five
children, horse, two cows, cooking
utensils and all the rest of their
worldly goods, on the waters of the
Monongahela, thence down the Ohio
river forty-five miles below Pittsburg
and settled in the woods of Ohio.
The Grants had been pioneers in
the woods ofAmerica, and their home
in the wilds Of Ohio was no new ex-
perience to them.
The family was prosperous in their
transplanted state for all of Noah's
children lived to amass considerable
estate
Jesse Root Grant, father of the
General, while boy, employed him
self at such hand work as is peculiar
to new settlement and at an early
age learned the tanning business,
which he pursued almost to the end
of his earthly career Shortly after
he was established in business as a
tanner, be married Miss Hannah
Simpson, daughter of a farmer who
had moved from about twenty miles
from Philadelphia, Pa, to Ohio. 1t
will thus be seen that both the moth
er and grandmother of the great
general were Pennsylvania women.
Jesse Root Grant and Hannah Simp-
son were married June "a, 1921. On
the 9th day of April 1922, Ulysses
Simpson Grant was born at Point
Pleasant, Clermont County Ohio.
There was nothing remarkable
about the boy, Ulysses, he
is represented as a sober, thought
full boy. a modest and quiet listener
rather than talker.
a journalist, who was a boy with
him in Ohio says: when 1 knew
him he was stumpy, freckled faced,
big headed country lad of fifteen, or
thereabouts, working in his fathers
tan yard, and there was often much
joking at his expense. He attended
the local schools but was not notably
a bright scholar.
He had ambition to becomea cadet
at West Point and when an anapplicant
failed to pass an examination he ask
ed Thomas L. Harner, Congressman
in that district to have him appoint
ed to the vacancy. He was appoint.
ed, and thus came the greatest gener
al of modern times
He graduated in 1S43, number
twenty three, in class of thirty nine.
He passed through the Mexican
war with credit.
In 1S4S he resigned his commits
sion in the army and was married in
August of the same year to Miss Ju
liza I. Dent, eldest daughter of Fred
erick Dent, q merchant of st. Louis.
This marriage was happy one and
has been blessed by family of four
children, three of which are sons.
After the retirement of Captain
Grant from the army in 184S, his ia
ther Jesse, and his wife's father Fred
erick Dent set him up as a farmer,
the elder Grant owned the land, and
Dent furnished the stock. The place
was about eleven miles from st. Louis.
The captain built story and a half
log house on the land and went to
work and many cords of wood he
hauled himself, those eleven miles to
st. Louis. He called the place Hard
scrabble"
He farmed ten years and then in
company with man named 81. Boggt
opened real estate and loan agency
in St Louis. He was in that business
about a year, and then was placed by
his father, in leather store, with hi:
brother Orville in Galena, Illinois
The Captain had been the owner o
four slaves while he lived in Mo.
The breaking out OF the rebellion
in 1861, found the Captain in tn,
leather business in Galena. He volun
teered, and was commissioned Col
onel by Governor Yates, of Illinois.
His first expedition was from Cairo
with two regiments, a light batter,
and two gunboats to sieze the cit.
of Paducah in Kentucky, which stat
had been posing before the countI,,
as neutral state The Rebels go
out of his way and the siezure of th'
town in the old blue grass state csus
ed considerable talk. His next ex
plot was movement against Bel
|, mont, Mo-, with an army Of 3,lO
men. A fight took place from whicl
ne withdrew his force, both partie
claimed the victory.
On the End day of February 1861
} he left Cairo with An army of 100
men, and before the month close