Show GRANT an and GALENA NA A ell T A ae 0 HAIL TO THE CHIEF IN T ra AD I 1 I 1 1 r rant Memorial homo by ELMO EL SCOTT WATSON I 1 UK date ditto Is april 27 1822 the place Is the little backwoods town of point pleasant on the ohio river 25 mile miles cast east of cincinnati la in the home of 0 jcsse jesse root grant f foreman oreman of a small tannery hie him wife hannah simpson grant has presented him bilth hie his first child a aa eon for the 11 first st six weeks of his life the baby ti Is I 1 ather lather and inot mot tur lir it cannot a tee upon a name then in the tile lords of W 11 woodward in hie his blo biography graphy albit general grant it was as agreed r finally to let darice decide he the question the assembled relatives so the story runs wrote the names of their choice on slips of paper folded up the slips nud aad drew one it N ans as ulysses the name that had been teil by grandmother simpson El evidently dently the outcome was not wholly sati satisfactory factory to the masculine part of the family somebody who was there succeeded in tacking hiram on in front of ulysses so the child was all cukuls d allram ulsses grant thus the first chapter in the story of a nun rilin ind and a town the scene shifts now to the north cud rud west tome some miles on ft et high point of land rising abruptly from a little river which empties into the mighty mississippi six sit rulles away a settler from kentucky named thomas january has bas es ts a trading fost rosl canadian voy toy agdur and american traders call the jan carye point there Is a good reason for establishing a aral ing post there away aay back in 17 1700 00 a french nan man named le sacr ascending the mississippi had discovered indians working rude lead mines war mear this river and in his report he called it the hirer river of es later la lit the cen tury a trench trader aimed la fevre dished himself here and the nane name na ne of fevre river was wag tacked on to the american frontiersmen later anglicized tact name to the lever I ever river and that name with mith its unal agana suggestion of ill health persisted until 1820 1826 then 4 januarys point became known as galera and tie the I 1 leier cier river as the galena river because galena Is lie the name of the valuable sulphite of lead lend which was mined there so while ulisis grant Is growing up into irto a lusty young manhood back in ohio the trading pou poet on oil the fever river Is growing inan int the lusty little settlement of galena in the sew new state of 0 illinois more trading posts are established because this Is still the hat ft et uis andl n coun try and the red nan man his many things the whit man wants and lc i ersa but the thing which is bringing a rush of migration there and which would haie justl justified fled a proud chamber of corn com berec boast of watch galena grow growl I 1 I 1 if there had been chambers of commerce in those days Is the lead mining industry lext to st louis louls galena was the tle most la im town in the aa est and Galen lans began suffering from delu delusions ions of grandeur they boastfully predicted predict el that it would soon over shadow the old bench trench and spanish mesrop Us its to the south had som one uld told them that it would soon be displaced in importance by i little town tova named chicago which squatted down among tile lie marshes on the shores of lake igan they would haie laughed long and loud for everybody who went west in those days visited galena and eury body included na lional and wold to notables tables the barquis dc de la fayette the prince de Jol neville of the royal house of bourbon dolly madison bif lf i of the fourth president of he te until states martin van buren and zachary tavor fatura presidents ars alexander hamilton joseph smith mormon prophet charles ft h mner and jefferson davis then a young ilett nant in the united states 51 Ss my b t ua laoj lu to lead lend ine lost taue laue of the by 1800 galena had reached the apex of its fame and its claim to distinction at that time it hid lai no way of knowing that in lest less than bait half ft a century it would become a town that bad had died on its feet a quiet little village resembling nothing so much as an old man bask tag ing lo 10 the sunshine and dreaming of tie days of his youth it could not have known that it would come to be famous principally th through rolligh the of its name with 04 th naze of a man who had not yet through its narrow winding streets it probably bad had never heard beard of the town of point pleasant ohio and gainly the birth of a eon son to jesse and cr lit there on april 27 1822 meant nothing to calena 1 for the addley of another business en lo 10 itz list it meant nobl ing moo to galena when the elir grant then owner of a tannery in covington ky bent sent his two sons jeese ease root and samuel simpson B apson to open a leathar tore store in the illinois town bo go galena could not dot realize the importance to it of an event which took place in april 1800 hamlin gaiane GaI ou land and in hie his I 1 life of grant I 1 describes ft scrIbes it is follows men stood on the levee watching the steamer itascu Ita sctt while the nosed her way up the tor tyous current of the galena river as she swung rp fo to the wharf attention lon was attracted to a passenger on the deck wearing a blue cape over coat As ali the boat truck struck the landing this man rose and gathered a number of chaira chairs together evidently part of his household tio furniture inho ho Is asked one man of a friend on the river bark that Is captain grant garit jsse jesse grant grants oldest eon he as in the Ilex mexican Ican war N it ak oak arch erected in honor of grant j return in INS V 44 aa A statue irl wow 6 rant park slam zot I 1 cai 1 4 1 Y r 4 0 11 illy adelic of Grant tile bustness bust ness aai IS p grave graye of 0 samuel el simpson giant he Is moving here from st SL louis was the reply captain grant took a couple of chairs in each hand and walked ashore with them his wife a small alert woman vroman followed him with her little flock four children frederick ulysses jesse and daughter nellie elble el lle the carrying of the chairs ashore signified that ulysses ulsses simpson grant had become a resident of galena so ulysses Sina paon grant the change from hiram ulys ulysses ulyses es to ulysses simpson had taken place during his west point days this army cap tain who at forty was a failure ct at everything he had attempted became a clerk in his broth era ers bather loather etore at the munificent salary of GOO a year apparently he made but little im breslon pr eslon in hia his new surroundings there was nothing about him to mark hl him as its a it man of oi but he be did make some strong friends among them ellhu B 11 ashburne state senator john A rawlins ns a farmer and self educated lawyer IV R rowley clerk of 0 the circuit court and dr edward l kittoe an englishman by birth but a naturalized american ei fi en when the event came which was to set his feet teet firmly on the ladder of fame arne grant was still pretty much of a nonentity in galena at the news of the firing on fort sumter a mass meeting was cel ed in the courthouse and at that meeting grant offered his vest point training and hs its mexican war experience for the service of his country la in the new crisis when some one criticized the offer because of the likelihood of grants grant s sympathy for the south since he camu came from st boull and it wa was reported that his wife owned two slaves immediately and rawling came to the defense with the cm em statement that any man who will try to stir tip up party prejudices at tit such ft a time aa as thia this is a traitor 1 so at tit a later meeting to raise volunteers grant was made chairman and within a few days he ie wee busy drilling troops on the braal lawn surrounded the southern colonial homp ot of washburne ue lie was offered the captaincy of the volunteer company that galena raised but refused it alth although nugh he be announced his in of going to springfield with the company his 1 departure from galena was almost as unmarked as bit arrival had bad been he ile simply walked from bli his home to thi the illinois central depot over a miserable pathway through the muddy streets ot of the town carrying a little satchel la in his hand ills leave taking was un an noticed and when the war was over and the victorious victori oue general returned to his home in galena the man who had slipped away eo to quietly in civilian clothes lothes in ISM was welcomed back with wild acclaim from ill all over the anest thousands came to join wim with galena in honoring her first citizen across uain street in front of the de soto house wag was an immense arch bearing the in script lon hall to the chief who mho in triumph ad vances 1 11 I galena further honored its returned hero b by y laying ft A fine ane brick house located on a hig hill east of the river and presenting it to him for his home there the grants established them selves and took a leading part in galena society antii his election to the presidency in again agala in ln 1870 1879 he be was given a great reception after his trip around the world at the slon of bis his two terms in the white mite house once more be settled down in galena only to find the quiet life which he be bad had anticipated disrupted by the insistence of his friends that he be a can cliate for a third term terra V grunt grant who was sitting in the omee of his friend rowley when the neva aas a brought to him that the republican contention had bad denied him the nomination and given it to garfeld had just lighted one of his famous cigars out to the sidewalk he stood for a moment in thought then tossed the tile cigar in the street turned and went back into the office 1 I cant can t tay ay that I 1 regret my own defeat he ile said quietly ly by it I 1 shall escape four years of hard w work ork and four yeara of abuse and gent gentlemen leme n we can all support the candidate across the street was vms a jewelry store finhen hen the son of the proprietor saw saly grant throw away his ills cigar he sent a cleric clerk to retrieve it that cagar Q tle e symbol of the end of grants grant public calvir if is one of the grant relics which is preserved in fit galena to this day but it Is only one of the many which sou find on every hand A modern paved highway leads you into galena but the moment you the town you realize the aptness ot of someone u s description of galena as a town n ii where here time stands still the crooked narrow streets wind in and out among the old stone and brick houses are the same fi streets along which walked the not notable A b lei of a century ago but the booming river town of those days bisno Is DO more the aher that was xa feet wide ulde in 1844 Is but a thin trickle now barely knee deep the levee where once scores of packet boats tied up lg Is gone for once you realize that the much overworked word words of sleepy and quaint as its applied to a little town are true because galena Is both there are innumerable landmarks which stand unc hinged by the years to take you back to another century they suggest innumerable interesting te stories of frontier times in illinois of the day days of the voyageur and the trader of nt tho baian ware wars of the old steamboat river day days but dominating them all Is the memory of one mana mn a late comer in the history of galena to whom galena cling sas stas giving it now its only claim to fame it Is the memory of grant caleb will show yon ott the tore store in which grant graut clerked and ind the fleet first lle methodist episcopal church in which grant and his family worshiped they will take you up along I 1 the street of the generals and point out to you the tho homes of rawlins and rowley who were general generals on grants staff during the war and that of big friend doctor kittoe who became medical dl rector ot of the army of 0 the tennessee with the rank of lieutenant colonel they will take you out to tte tt e cemetery and show you where rest rests I 1 the only grant who staled in galena samuel simpson amant ulysses brother who vrho died in september 1861 and Is burled there through the principal park in the town named untried for the general and dominated by a bronze statue of him they will lead you up the hill the brick house which galena once gave to her distinguished citizen and which bis his son gen frederick dent grant gave back to galna t to be preserved n as a grant memorial there you may look upon innumerable relic relics of the citizen the soldier and the president and his family for it Is furnished and kept ai as it was when the grants occupied occue ed it in fact there Is scar scarily scarcely cly a place in ho the town but that has its memento of him or can contribute some incident to the story of his career grant and galena galena ond and grant tha tho word words have become inseparable ills ashes may day reet rest la in the magnificent minn incent tomb on riverside drive la in new york city but the living lying memory of him can con be found only in 10 a little illinois town where time stand stands etilo I 1 S D by western lu alon |