The Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant | Page 4

debater in the societies for this purpose,
which were common in the West at that time. He always took an active
part in politics, but was never a candidate for office, except, I believe,
that he was the first Mayor of Georgetown. He supported Jackson for
the Presidency; but he was a Whig, a great admirer of Henry Clay, and
never voted for any other democrat for high office after Jackson.
My mother's family lived in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, for
several generations. I have little information about her ancestors. Her
family took no interest in genealogy, so that my grandfather, who died
when I was sixteen years old, knew only back to his grandfather. On
the other side, my father took a great interest in the subject, and in his
researches, he found that there was an entailed estate in Windsor,
Connecticut, belonging to the family, to which his nephew, Lawson
Grant --still living--was the heir. He was so much interested in the
subject that he got his nephew to empower him to act in the matter, and
in 1832 or 1833, when I was a boy ten or eleven years old, he went to
Windsor, proved the title beyond dispute, and perfected the claim of the
owners for a consideration--three thousand dollars, I think. I remember
the circumstance well, and remember, too, hearing him say on his
return that he found some widows living on the property, who had little
or nothing beyond their homes. From these he refused to receive any
recompense.
My mother's father, John Simpson, moved from Montgomery County,
Pennsylvania, to Clermont County, Ohio, about the year 1819, taking
with him his four children, three daughters and one son. My mother,
Hannah Simpson, was the third of these children, and was then over
twenty years of age. Her oldest sister was at that time married, and had
several children. She still lives in Clermont County at this writing,
October 5th, 1884, and is over ninety ears of age. Until her memory
failed her, a few years ago, she thought the country ruined beyond
recovery when the Democratic party lost control in 1860. Her family,
which was large, inherited her views, with the exception of one son

who settled in Kentucky before the war. He was the only one of the
children who entered the volunteer service to suppress the rebellion.
Her brother, next of age and now past eighty-eight, is also still living in
Clermont County, within a few miles of the old homestead, and is as
active in mind as ever. He was a supporter of the Government during
the war, and remains a firm believer, that national success by the
Democratic party means irretrievable ruin.
In June, 1821, my father, Jesse R. Grant, married Hannah Simpson. I
was born on the 27th of April, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont
County, Ohio. In the fall of 1823 we moved to Georgetown, the county
seat of Brown, the adjoining county east. This place remained my home,
until at the age of seventeen, in 1839, I went to West Point.
The schools, at the time of which I write, were very indifferent. There
were no free schools, and none in which the scholars were classified.
They were all supported by subscription, and a single teacher--who was
often a man or a woman incapable of teaching much, even if they
imparted all they knew--would have thirty or forty scholars, male and
female, from the infant learning the A B C's up to the young lady of
eighteen and the boy of twenty, studying the highest branches
taught--the three R's, "Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic." I never saw an
algebra, or other mathematical work higher than the arithmetic, in
Georgetown, until after I was appointed to West Point. I then bought a
work on algebra in Cincinnati; but having no teacher it was Greek to
me.
My life in Georgetown was uneventful. From the age of five or six until
seventeen, I attended the subscription schools of the village, except
during the winters of 1836-7 and 1838-9. The former period was spent
in Maysville, Kentucky, attending the school of Richardson and Rand;
the latter in Ripley, Ohio, at a private school. I was not studious in
habit, and probably did not make progress enough to compensate for
the outlay for board and tuition. At all events both winters were spent
in going over the same old arithmetic which I knew every word of
before, and repeating: "A noun is the name of a thing," which I had also
heard my Georgetown teachers repeat, until I had come to believe

it--but I cast no reflections upon my old teacher, Richardson. He turned
out bright scholars from his school, many of whom have filled
conspicuous places in the service of their States. Two of my