Thursday, October 25, 2007
Get Grant on his cell
In reading the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, I came across three interesting facts.
First, his mother, Hannah Simpson, was from Montgomery County, Pa. Her family moved to Ohio in 1819.
Second, his father lived for a time with John Brown, the future radical abolitionist, and his family. Brown was hanged after his attack on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry. He was apprehended by Col. Robert E. Lee, Grant's great foe in the Civil War. Grant's dad lived with the family when Brown was a boy, but he also knew him afterward. Grant's father regarded Brown as a man of "great purity of character, of high moral and physical courage, but a fanatic and extremist in whatever he advocated.''
But the most interesting thing I learned was that Grant was for a time a real estate agent. Here's the passage from the book (Page 122, line 4) ..."ln the winter, I established a partnership with Harry Boggs, a cousin of Mrs. Grant, in the real estate agency business. I spent that winter at St. Louis myself, but did not take my family into town until the spring. Our business might have become prosperous if I had been able to wait for it to grow.''
First, his mother, Hannah Simpson, was from Montgomery County, Pa. Her family moved to Ohio in 1819.
Second, his father lived for a time with John Brown, the future radical abolitionist, and his family. Brown was hanged after his attack on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry. He was apprehended by Col. Robert E. Lee, Grant's great foe in the Civil War. Grant's dad lived with the family when Brown was a boy, but he also knew him afterward. Grant's father regarded Brown as a man of "great purity of character, of high moral and physical courage, but a fanatic and extremist in whatever he advocated.''
But the most interesting thing I learned was that Grant was for a time a real estate agent. Here's the passage from the book (Page 122, line 4) ..."ln the winter, I established a partnership with Harry Boggs, a cousin of Mrs. Grant, in the real estate agency business. I spent that winter at St. Louis myself, but did not take my family into town until the spring. Our business might have become prosperous if I had been able to wait for it to grow.''
