ning of the
Revolution. He served, off and on, through the war.

Regarding the circumstances of the removal to Pennsylvania little is
known. The home was in Westmoreland County, where Jesse R. Grant was
born. Soon afterwards the family went to Ohio. When Jesse was sixteen he
was sent to Maysville, Ky., and apprenticed to the tanner's trade, which
he learned thoroughly, and made the chief occupation of his life. Soon
after he reached his majority he started in business for himself in
Ravenna, Portage County, Ohio. In a short time he removed to Point
Pleasant, on the Ohio side of the Ohio River, about twenty miles above
Cincinnati. Here he lived and prospered for many years, marrying, in
1821, Hannah Simpson, daughter of a farmer of the place in good
circumstances. The Simpsons were also of Scotch ancestry, and of stout,
self-reliant, industrious, respectable character, like the Grants. Thus
in the parents of General Grant were united strains of one of the strong
races of the world,--sound in body, mind, and soul, and having in a
remarkable degree vital energy, the spirit of independence, and the
staying power which enables its possessors to work without tiring, to
endure hardships with fortitude, and to accumulate a competence by
patient thrift. This last ability General Grant lacked.

These parents, like those of the majority of Americans of the old stock,
thought it no dishonor to toil for livelihood, cultivating their souls'
health by performance of daily duty in fidelity to God, their country,
and their home. Jesse R. Grant had slight opportunities of schooling,
but he had no contempt for knowledge. Throughout his life he was a
diligent reader of books and newspapers, and was rated a man of uncommon
intelligence and of sound judgment in business. He was an entertaining
talker, and a newspaper writer and public speaker of local celebrity.
Through his early manhood, while he lived in Ohio, he was a farmer, a
trader, a contractor for buildings and roads, as well as a tanner. When
he reached the age of sixty, having secured a comfortable competence, he
retired from active business. In his declining years he removed to
Covington, Ky., near Cincinnati. Mrs. Grant was a true helpmate, a woman
of refinement of nature, of controlling religious faith, being from her
youth an active member of the Methodist Church, of strong wifely and
maternal instincts. Her life was centred in her home and family. Both
these parents lived to