The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911, 1909-02-24
WHEN GRANT WAS A FARMER

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WHEN GRANT WAS A FARMER.
The True Story of the Ex-Army
Officer Peddling Wood on
Streets of St. Louis.
At the time of her marriage my
father had given Julia eighty acres of
land, a part of the White Haven
estate, and situated only about half q
mile from our dwelling. On this land
the captain and Mrs. Grant decided to
build their home. 1t was good land,
and with the aid of the three slaves
which father had given Julia they had
no fear of not earning a living.
Perhaps I ought to explain some
thing about these slaves. For two
generations the story has been current
in certain parts of the country that
Captain Grant himself was q slave
owner. He never was, but his wife
was. The Dents had owned slaves
from the date of their settlement in
this country. At the time 1 was
growing up my father owned about
thirty slaves, of all sizes and sexes.
Either at birth, or As We grew older,
he gave to each of his three girls three
negroes. These, with the parcels of
the homestead which he gave US as his
bridal present, were supposed to be our
dot. When Julia was born father
gave her the girl Eliza, little ginger
colored Julia Ann and Dan, who was
about the most polished specimen of
human ebony you ever saw. They
were to serve her as maid, cook and
house boy. My sister Nelly, who
afterward became Mrs. Sharp, had
Phyllis, Susy and John. As for me,
1 was given Mary, my old nurse, Lucy,
Louise and JEFF.
Thus, we were each provided with
our slaves, and at her marriage Julia,
Of course, brought her three to Captain
Grant. And although know that he
was opposed to human slavery as an
institution 1 do not think that he was
at any time a very rank abolitionist or
that he opposed it so violently that the
acceptance Of Julia's slaves had to be
forced upon him.
The house that the Grants built
was Of logs. The logs for it were cut
and shaped by the captain himself 1t
was planned by Mrs. Grant, and was
both fashioned and furnished with an
eye to the artistic, as we'll as for COM
fort and coziness. Though not pre-
tentious to modern eyes it was not the
mean, ramshackle hut that the popu-
lar mind supposes it to have been. It
had five good rooms and a hall, which
furnished all the space the Grants
needed at that time. I know that it
was on exhibition at the Worlds Fair
in St. Louis, and it looked anything
but elegant there, amid its more garish
surroundings. But it had been built
fifty years before, and it had not been
lived in for a great many of those
years.
The captains father, Jesse Grant,
gave him $1,000 to furnish it with,
besides q team and q wagon. With
this team of two white horses, COW,
the three slaves, the eighty acres of
land, and the log house the Grants
began life as civilians.
A very prominent man has recently
said on a public occasion that General
Grants life at this time was q failure.
1t is difficult for those who knew him
intimately in those later fifties to
regard it as such. It is true fame had
not yet come to him, nor had riches,
but he had never shown greater
strength of character, greater fortitude
under adverse circumstances, nor more
determination than he did at this time
nor do I think that anything he did
in the Civil war is more to his credit
rs . man than these simple days of
hard work on his Missouri farm. If
earning and winning the reputation of
being one of the best farmers in .
country Of farmers is to be q failure,
then, perhaps the ex-army officer at
that period was . failure. He worked
early and late; his crops were put in
always At the right time, and cult.
waited at the right time; they turned
out better than crops of his neighbors.
He had Dan to help him, and in busy
seasons he hired other helm. Int the