Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-12-22
PASSES AWAY AT HER WASHING
TON HOME.
HAS BEEN ILL SINCE FALL
Was rs Years Old, Leaves Four Chill
dren, and Body Will Rest Beside
Her Husband in the Magnificent
MausoIeum in New York City in
the Banks Of the Hudson River.

emu came DIT 11.Il y CLOCK ldSI ulSuI.
Death was due to heart failure She
was 76 years old and had been declin-
ing since fall.
Julia Dent Grant, widow of Ulysses
S. Grant, was as lovable as wife,
mother and woman as her husband
soldier and gentleman.
Many years ago, in the days when
slavery was recognized as lawful and
scriptural, an established custom, and
all that was right and proper, on a
plantation near st. Louis lived girl
whose three great passions were devo-
ton to her father. her mother and her
black nanny. A light-hearted child,
with a mind untroubled by the later
ideas of higher education, and with
life only made more interesting by
the desultory yet withal loving teach
ing of an indulgent father This girl
was Julia Dent, afterward to be the
wife of one of the great figures in the
anti-slavery war.
Girlhood merged into WOmanhOOd
and couple of winters were spent
in ST. Louis, where Julia Dent learned
all the culture and accomplishments
demanded of southern ladies in those
days, and time slipped by almost I'M
consciously, until one day the father
found that his daughter was a woman
and that she should make her entree
into society. At this time the section
Of the country around st. Louis was
largely settled by the military and
therefore it was not surprising that
Miss Dent, the belle of the neighbor-
hood, should be the recipient Of much
attention.
Then occurred the romance, and to
describe this little better can be done
than to use Mrs. Grants own words.
Once speaking of this matter to a
friend she said:
1t was long time ago, that ro-
nance, and he wasn't a general then.
| don't know that it was particularly
romantic either. I had heard con-
siderable of him before he came, as
he was my brothers chum at West
Point. 1t was an odd coincidence that
after they graduated my brother was
sent to distant post, while Lieuten-
ant Grant was stationed at Fort JEFF
ferson, a few miles from my fathers
plantation near st. Louis. 1t was
pleasant winter when he came,
bringing my brothers letter of intro
duction. The dance and the dinner
parties were especially merry and the
nfH oh nf toi n
ing.
"Then spring came, and with it the
Mexican war, and Lieutenant Grant
had to go away. Before he left for
the front had promised to be his
wife. My first realization of what war
meant came in those long, anxious
days and months and years Of the
Mexican war. When the Mexican war
closed Lieutenant Grant came back
with laurels and a captaincy. Every
one admired him then, but none was
so proud of him as the girl who had
discovered the true soldier spirit in
him before he demonstrated it to the
world.
"Then we were married. Never shall
| forget that hot August evening when
I came downstairs in my wedding
gown, and felt as happy at that mo-
ment as if I had been married in
church as girls now are, with a
great crowd of people to see me. 1t
wasn't the fashion then, by the way,
for girls to be married in church.
They were always married from their
own homes and in what would be
thought now, I suppose, rather too in
formal way"
During the civil war honors came
fast to the Grants, and the four years
in the presidency and trip around
the world. Then Gen. Grant got in
to financial trouble. Two days before
the failure Of Grant & Ward in New
York w. H. Vanderbilt demanded Of
General Grant the repayment Of $3.50,
900 which he had loaned him. The
money could not be repaid, and Mr.. !
Vanderbilt began suit General Grant
allowed a judgment to be entered !
against him, but soon after he and
Mrs. Grant decided to Mr.. Vanderbilt
all the property which they held
jointly.
A time came later on when Mr.
Vanderbilt wished to sell this real
estate and create from it trust fund
for Mrs Grants benefit. To this prop
osition Mrs Grant wrote in reply:
Upon reflection l find that l cannot,
will not accept your munifcance in |
any form"
After General Grants death a bill
was passed by congress allowing Mrs.
Grant an annual pension of $4,000, fol-
lowing a precedent set in the case Of
the widows Of ether presidents. The
sale OF her husbands memoirs also
brought her in large amounts Of
money.
She had lived quietly since then and
had travelled much, but always with
one or other Of her children. There
are 4 children, Mrs. Algeron Sar- /
toris, herself a widow, Gen. F. D. !
Grant commander of the denartment