Pioneer Families of Tennessee

OUR GRANT FAMILY IN TENNESSEE, OREGON AND BEYOND contributed by, Joe Mode jmode@mindspring.com This little endeavor was supposed to be easy. I would simply copy the birth and death information from my great grandmother’s Bible and be done with it. Well, that’s not how my brain operates apparently, for before I knew it I had began filling in gaps and names and dates to supplement her bible information. Then I decided that birth and death dates alone were boring and pictures should be added. Then those little scraps of paper containing stories and quotes began bothering me, and the census records. Well, heck, why not just include the whole shebang and consolidate my material into something worth reading. So, that’s what I have attempted to do here. Much of the information is verified and accurate, I’m sure of that. Some of the information came from other Grant researchers. I cannot vouch for said material, but feel that it is reliable and consistent with what I have been told. I know that there will be errors, which I hope will be corrected by others in the family. This, then, is a great conglomeration of all of the Grant material that I have collected or has been sent to me. I hope it is helpful to everyone doing research on our Clan Grant. The family information contained herein, in part, is found within the Grant family bible once in the possession of my (Joe Mode) great grandmother Jerusa Edith Grant Bowers. It is believed that John Grant, Jr’s.  father was John Grant, Sr., who, along with his brother Major James Grant, founded the town of Grantsboro in Campbell County, Tenn. They may have had a brother named Hamilton as well. The parentage of James and John is questionable and incomplete and discussed herein along the way. Both James and John Grant, Sr. were supposed to have served in the Revolutionary War. Part of Grantsboro was inundated by T.V.A., but the community of Grantsboro still exists today. One letter in my possession states the following: Grantsboro, originally Grantsborough, was named for Chester’s mother’s family. Her Grandfather,Major James Hamilton Grant, and his brother, John Grant, served in the Connecticut Regiment in 1775 at Valley Forge and saw the British surrender at Yorktown. They knew intimately President Washington, Aaron Burr, Thomas Paine, William Blount and many public men of the day. They both spoke fluently German, Spanish, and French. In Philadelphia they made the acquaintance with the partners of Henderson and Company and came here on a surveying trip and crossed the junction of the Clinch and Powell Rivers where they selected 100 acres of land on the north banks of the rivers for a future town. In Dec. 1778 the General Assembly of Tennessee authorized Major Grant to lay out the town lots with streets and alleys. (Maybe the General Assembly of North Carolina. Tennessee was not a state until 1796) Front Street along the river was to have stores and public buildings, the first of which was a white oak, hewed log store built for Major Grant. At the May 1780 term of Knox County Court (Not sure about this either) Major James Grant was appointed to keep the ferry at the junction of Powell’s and Clinch Rivers. The first doctors that came to the area usually stayed in his home and it was at Gransboro that the first school of record was taught in what is now Campbell County. Page Portwood, one of George Rogers Clark’s soldiers, was the teacher. The second school of record was taught there, too, by Abigail Grant, the daughter of Major Grant’s brother, John Grant. It was from this cousin that Chester’s mother was named Abigail. Her father was John Wesley Grant, who served as Tax Assessor for 13 years. (Written by Alice Coker) From the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the internet, and county records: *A Pvt. James Grant is listed in Saybrook, Connecticut on 11 April 1781 as being a soldier in the Connecticut Line who received supplies from several towns. Given 30 pounds/shilling bounty. * 1796 James Grant wrote a letter to Gov. John Sevier from Philadelphia to inform Gov. Sevier of prepared       briefing on important domestic and foreign affairs. * 1798 James Grant appointed Grantsborough Commissioner, founded Grantsborough. * 1801 James Grant appointed commissioner for Grantsborough and Anderson County. * 1802 May term, Knoxville, Major James Grant appointed to keep book for the ferriage. * 1805 James Grant appointed commissioner of ? * 2 Dec. 1806 James Grant appointed Clerk of the Court of Pleas, Campbell Co., Tenn. * 1806-1810  James Grant appointed commissioner of Campbell County. * 1806 James Grant appointed trustee to Franklin Academy in Campbell County. * 1808 James Grant Lieutenant Colonel Commandant 33rd Regiment. * 1809 James Grant was clerk of Campbell County during the March Term. (From Wilson’s Gazette, Vol.   6, No. 14, No. 274, 7 April 1810) * 1824, January 31st.  James Grant died, age 71, and was buried at David Ridenour’s place. The Rev. Sugar     Jones preaching his funeral and the sermon being on I John, 4:17. Herein is our love made perfect. Have seen references stating that James Grant was buried at Mount Moriah Church and has no stone.  I also found this little item in an old Knoxville newspaper and unfortunately cannot recall the name of said paper, nor do I know if this James Grant is kin to us, but thought I would provide the information just in case he is. This James Grant would have been born ca. 1785. Perhaps this is James Hamilton Grant, son of James and Abigail Grant. This written during the time when “F’s” were put in place of  “S’s” so will leave it as it was written.  THIRTY DOLLARS REWARD   Deserted from Highwaffee Garrifen, on the night of the 19th inftant, William Ellis and James Grant, and on the night of the 22nd following, Robert Tapley, foldiers of Captain Vandyke’s Company. James Grant is twenty-four years of age, five feet eleven and a half inches high, black eyes, dark hair, dark complexion, by occupation a farmer, was born in the ftate of Connecticut, Suffield County, enlisted at Highwaffee Garrifon. The clothing the two former wore off, is unknown. It is believed they will make for the Spanish Dominions in Weft Florida. Any perfon apprehending faid deferters, or either of them, and delivering them at this poft, or to any officer in the United State’s army, or confining them in jail in the United States, fo that they may be had, fhall receive ten dollars for each, and reafonable expenses paid. Rob Purdy Lieut. Colo. Commanding, November 4th 1809    The text for the layout of Grantsborough, is as follows:  The present construction of Grantsborough is here laid down so as to include 100 acres in a figure lying 154 poles in length & 104 5/100 poles in width, of which 50 ½ acres is here represented in Lotts. July 26th, 1799. Martin Evans. Each lot on the main street is 10 rods square, the other lots are only ½ acre lots. The main street 100 feet wide. The Spring Common is 10 poles wide. The cross streets are each 4 rods wide. 11 rods? common on each side of the town.  From the book Tennessee County History Series the following is written about James Grant: From time to time groups of people petitioned the Tennessee General Assembly to create new counties. It was because of two such petitions that Anderson County came into being. In September 1801 James Grant, who had served in the Revolutionary War and was a personal friend of George Washington, headed a petition bearing 113 signatures of Knox and Grainger County Residents. It asked for relief from the long, hard trips which, if made in winter, were over roads almost impassible. Made in summer, these trips prevented residents from tending their crops for several days. Almost simultaneously with Grant’s petition, 278 Knox County residents presented a similar petition to the Legislature.  On November 6, 1801, a private act was passed and approved to take effect “from and after the 13th day of December next.” The act was titled “An act to reduce Knox County to its constitutional limits, and to form two new and distinct counties by taking part of Grainger County.” The two new counties were named Anderson and Roane, and their birth date was December 13, 1801. Two or three years earlier before, James Grant had settled near the confluence of the Clinch and Powell Rivers in the area which was then a part of Knox County, later in Anderson County, and still later a part of Campbell County. He laid out the town of Grantsboro which is one of the oldest towns in Tennessee. James and his brother resided on a large farm and, while East Tennessee was not properly plantation country, the Grant farm and several others were called plantations. After Anderson County was created, James Grant filed application for a Revolutionary War pension; it was approved. His file contained his original military discharge which was signed by General George Washington. Major Grant, as he was known, was quite an interesting character. After he came to East Tennessee from his former home in Connecticut, he helped organize Knox County’s first Masonic Lodge, the Polk Lodge of Knoxville. Grant was Senior Warden and John Sevier was Master. Grant was proud of the fact that he was a personal friend of Washington, and always carried with him some letters written him by Washington. Another memento of their friendship which he always carried, was a silver medallion made up of various Masonic emblems. It had been given him by Washington who, while President, was master of the lodge of which both he and Grant were members. This medallion is now in the Special Collections of the University of Tennessee Library in Knoxville. Major Grant was also said to have been a person friend of William Blount. Certainly Grant was one of the more colorful characters who played a part in early Anderson County history. A review of his close association with President Washington and other national historic personages is a vivid reminder of the American Revolution and its meaning to all Americans. Grant was the first chairman of the Anderson County Court after its organization, and he remained chairman until his farm was cut out of Anderson and made a part of Campbell County. From The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications: James Grant was a Revolutionary soldier from Connecticut where he served under Return Johnathan Meigs, and a reputed friend of George Washington; first chairman of county court; clerk of Campbell County court, 1806-1810; founder of the town of Grantsboro (1798) at the junction of Powell and Clinch Rivers (now inundated); trustee, Franklin Academy, 1806; lieutenant colonel commandant 33rd regiment, 1808; died on 31 January 1824, aged 71. From the website www. tngenweb.org/Campbell/military/revwar, which list several references: James Grant was born ca. 1754 in Saybrook, Connecticut. Abbigail Moore, came to keep house for him and became his common-law-wife and mother of his son, James Hamilton “Hamp” Grant born ca. 1810. Lists Hamp as marrying a Petit ,and Catherine Comer on 2 April 1855. Daughter of John Comer When James Grant was discharged from the army he went to Philadelphia where he worked for a time learning the printer’s trade in Benjamin Franklin’s printing office. We worked with George Roulstone, publisher of the first newspaper, The Knoxville Gazette. James Grant was one of the surveyors employed by Stockley Donaldson to lay off 200,000 acres of land beginning near Cumberland Gap on the northern side of the Powell and Clinch Rivers, and a 12 ½  mile square survey south of  the Clinch River in Anderson County. In May of 1800 the Knoxville County Court licensed James Grant to establish a ferry at the forks of the river. Sometime around 1802/1806 Grant’s brother, John Grant, came to Tennessee to live and operate the ferry. His Rev. War pension file number is S38759. James and his brother Hamilton Grant served for nine years, fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill, White Pines, Valley Forge, and saw the British surrender at Yorktown. From the book, Tales from the Grassroots of T.V.A by Marshall A. Wilson: James Grant is the same “Major” Grant, confidant of territorial Governor William Blount, who in 1797 carried an incriminating letter from Blount to his frontier agent and Indian interpreter, James Carey. That letter was a key and apparently a convincing bit of evidence which led to Blount’s impeachment soon thereafter while he was a senator from Tennessee. James Grant and his brother John, natives of Saybrook, Connecticut, came to settle on the land that became Grantsboro in, or possibly before, 1794. James was born in 1754 and died in January 1824. His common-law wife was his niece, Abby (Moore?). Their only son was “Colonel” James Hamilton “Hamdon” Grant who, with his second wife, Catherine Comer, had seven children. The youngest was Columbus M. Grant, best known as “Lum.” He was born 18 April 1873. I first met Lum in January 1935 at his home in Fincastle, about four miles east of LaFollette. He was one of the most charming men I have ever known. His courteous attitude, bearing and the careful and precise enunciation of every word were most profound. Lum was married but had no living children when I knew him. He had made his living for many years as an itinerant optometrist. He would buy a large assortment of spectacles and travel by horse and  buggy through rural areas of East Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky, selling them from door to door---that is, until the states required licenses to practice that trade. Thereafter, he sold his glasses only in four or five counties of East Tennessee where he was licensed for exceptional reasons. At Lum’s home, from an old, round-top trunk he withdrew, I will guess, as many as forty bundles of papers, each tied so tightly with strings that they crumbled the contents. These papers he had inherited from his father and grandfather, Major James Grant. We spent a half day browsing and reading some of the old documents Lum wished me to see. I made a few notations, but no formal inventory. Instead, I inquired whether he would donate or even sell these documents to some public library, and he refused. I then begged him to allow me to make photo static prints of them. He somewhat reluctantly agreed, but only upon the condition that the work be done at his home, in his presence. Among the trunk’s contents that day, the only items I recorded are these:  1.        A letter signed by President George Washington to Governor Blount. 2.        A map, or plot, of the proposed town of Grantsboro, drawn by James Grant, surveyor. 3.        A petition for a pension to be granted to John Grant, brother of James, for his services in the Revolutionary War. The petition, and an affidavit signed by James, revealed that both John and James had fought in the battle of Bunker Hill, and that John was destitute. 4.        A silver medal with James’s name inscribed on it. 5.        A deed to James Grant for a silver mine beside Long Creek which flows into the French Broad River. It appeared that the mine was very near the present White Pine in Jefferson County; if so, probably it was a lead or zinc mine. 6.        A documented land entry for 60,000 acres of land on the south side of Holston (Now Tennessee) River, opposite the city of Knoxville. I do not remember who filed the entry, nor do I know whether a grant was ever made pursuant thereto. 7.        A letter from the father of the famous William G. McAdoo, Jr. to Colonel James (Hamilton) Grant. 8.        A letter from William Blount to Major James Grant, inviting him to dinner. 9.        An old family Bible printed in 1804. I think it was late in February that Mary Baker, head librarian for the University of Tennessee, and I went to Lum’s home and photographed a great many of his documents with a special camera. Later, Miss Baker told me that she had authenticated the signature of George Washington. Following Mary Baker’s and my visit to Lum, thirty years passed before I learned that a friend of the University, many years earlier, had purchased some or all of the documents and trinkets of real value and donated them to the University. My informant was a friend, James Preston Hess, who had been a business manager of the University and secretary of its Board of Trustees. ( Special Collections Library at U.T. Knoxville has in their possession the Masonic Medal and a letter dated 12 June 1796 and signed by George Washington. Lum’s material was bought by W.C. Taylor of Townsend, Tenn. and donated to the University of Tenn. Folks there, as of 28 February 2007, say this is all they have of the original material. Folks at the McClung Museum and the McClung Collection in Knoxville also state that they do not show having possession of this collection) Copied from Families of Norris Reservoir Area by Marshall A. Wilson, 1949, is the following: The mother of his (James Grant) son, and common-law wife, was his niece, Abbey . She may have been a daughter of James’s sister who married a Moore. George L. Ridenour says one of Abby’s sisters was Elizabeth Grant Moore and another sister was his (Ridenour’s) great grandmother. 1.        James Hamilton “Hamdon” Grant, son of James Grant Died on 11  March 1893. Married first a Petit and had children James Grant born ca. 1838 and died in Missouri, and Jerusha Grant. Married second to Catherine Comer, daughter of John Comer. She died 15 April 1900 and their children were John Grant born 6 August 1856, Abby Grant, Elizabeth (Betty) Grant, Jerusha Grant (May be the same one listed above) who married a Perkins, separated with no children, Fanny Grant who did not marry, Columbus M. “Lum” Grant who was born 18 April 1873 who married Mary Alice Creekmore, and William B. Grant who died very young  A letter from Cousin Erin Grant Wagner, dated Wednesday, 7 November 2001: Erin Grant Wagner is the daughter of Ethan Hayward Grant of Michigan, who was the son of Ethan Conrad Grant of Oregon, son of James Rufus Grant and Susan Ellen Walker. James Rufus being the son of John Parker Grant and Sarah Jones. Erin forwarded two of her Grandpa Ethan’s letters to me, the first of which says: “My paternal grandfather was John Parker Grant, a direct descendant of Richard Grant, who came over from Scotland and settled in Connecticut. Richard was the great grandfather to Ulysses S. (Grant), who changed his name from Hiram Ulysses when he went to West Point. He and my grandfather were cousins, although my grandfather wasn’t very proud of it. It seems the Southern Grant Clan knew only the more distasteful things about Ulysses, who was a failure in everything he did. But what I heard most about, aside from the General’s drunkenness, was how he treated  “poor old Hannah,” his mother. I got the impression she paid his way through West Point splitting rails….” It goes on quite a bit and as soon as I can get these letters in some semblance of order will scan them and send them on to you. (Will add this info when received, Joe Mode) Another letter from cousin Erin Grant Wagner’s dated Friday, 9 November 2001: I started reading some of Grandpa Ethan Grant’s (son of James Rufus and Susan Ellen Walker Grant) manuscripts and while a good portion of some of them are interesting, I DID run across some information that may help us in our research. Ethan wrote: “Went home after my 21st birthday in Argentina, mother(Susan Ellen Walker Grant Heatherly) gave me a heavy enameled tin box she said my father(James Rufus Grant) had told her I was to have when I was of age. It was locked and its key had been lost, so it had to be pried open. It was crammed with the Grant family records, dating back from 1724, when one Richard Grant had arrived from Edinburgh as a soldier and later accepted a land grant of 100 acres near Bristol, Connecticut, and raised a family.”  “His first born was named John, the first of five- first sons named John down to Grandpa Grant(John Parker Grant). Each had drifted southward to New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and into Campbell County, Tennessee, where grandpa was born and following his marriage to Sarah had bought the Coon Hollow property near Liberty Hill in Grainger County, Tenn. Each had updated the family history prior to Grandpa (John Parker Grant), who evidently felt his contribution was made unnecessary by Grandma’s (Sarah Jones Grant) entry of the family’s statistics in the family bible. It was suspected that Grandpa was illiterate. In any event, Grandma named her first-born James Rufus and he made up for Grandpa’s dereliction or illiteracy by adding all he knew about his father’s(John P. Grant) family and some of his own life to within a year of his death at the age of 30 in 1902.” “While he made little mention of his own formal schooling, he wrote a legible record with an indelible pencil on several pages of lined school tablet sheets, mentioning his strict upbringing, the long walks to Liberty Hill school and his distaste for cultivation of the corn and tobacco crops in Coon Hollow’s rocky soil. Also mentioned was his difficulties with his younger brothers Wain, Wiley, and Louis and his sister Laura’s romance and marriage to a neighbor named Eck Moyers. Brother Wain was the most obedient and easiest to manage, because he had the “happy disposition of Papa(James Rufus Grant) and the good sense of Mama.” (Sarah Jones Grant) Back to Pioneer Families   Next - The Family of John Grant HOME