About 1150 the hermits, being compelled to leave Muret, settled in the neighbouring desert of Grandmont, whence the order derived its name. Louis VII. founded a house at Vincennes near Paris, and the order had a great vogue in France, as many as sixty houses being established by 1170, but it seems never to have found favour out of France; it had, however, a couple of cells in England up to the middle of the 15th century. The system of lay brothers was introduced on a large scale, and the management of the temporals was in great measure left in their hands; the arrangement did not work well, and the quarrels between the lay brothers and the choir monks were a constant source of weakness. Later centuries witnessed mitigations and reforms in the life, and at last the order came to an end just before the French Revolution. There were two or three convents of Grandmontine nuns. The order played no great part in history.
See Helyot, Hist. des ordres religieux (1714), vii. cc. 54, 55; Max Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen (1896), i. § 31; and the art. in Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexicon (ed. 2), and in Herzog, Realencyklopädie (ed. 3). (E. C. B.)
GRAND RAPIDS, a city and the county-seat of Kent county,
Michigan, U.S.A., at the head of navigation on the Grand river,
about 30 m. from Lake Michigan and 145 m. W.N.W. of Detroit.
Pop. (1890) 60,278; (1900) 87,565, of whom 23,896 were
foreign-born and 604 were negroes; (1910 census) 112,571.
Of the foreign-born population in 1900, 11,137 were Hollanders;
3318 English-Canadians; 3253 Germans; 1137 Irish; 1060 from
German Poland; and 1026 from England. Grand Rapids is
served by the Michigan Central, the Lake Shore & Michigan
Southern, the Grand Trunk, the Père Marquette and the Grand
Rapids & Indiana railways, and by electric interurban railways.
The valley here is about 2 m. wide, with a range of hills on
either side, and about midway between these hills the river flows
over a limestone bed, falling about 18 ft. in 1 m. Factories and
mills line both banks, but the business blocks are nearly all
along the foot of the E. range of hills; the finest residences
command picturesque views from the hills farther back, the
residences on the W. side being less pretentious and standing
on bottom-lands. The principal business thoroughfares are
Canal, Monroe and Division streets. Among the important
buildings are the United States Government building (Grand
Rapids is the seat of the southern division of the Federal judicial
district of western Michigan), the County Court house, the city
hall, the public library (presented by Martin A. Ryerson of
Chicago), the Manufacturer’s building, the Evening Press
building, the Michigan Trust building and several handsome
churches. The principal charitable institutions are the municipal
Tuberculosis Sanatorium; the city hospital; the Union Benevolent
Association, which maintains a home and hospital for the
indigent, together with a training school for nurses; Saint
John’s orphan asylum (under the superintendence of the
Dominican Sisters); Saint Mary’s hospital (in charge of the
Sisters of Mercy); Butterworth hospital (with a training school
for nurses); the Woman’s Home and Hospital, maintained
largely by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union; the
Aldrich Memorial Deaconess’ Home; the D. A. Blodgett
Memorial Children’s Home, and the Michigan Masonic Home.
About 1 m. N. of the city, overlooking the river, is the Michigan
Soldiers’ Home, with accommodation for 500. On the E.
limits of the city is Reed’s Lake, a popular resort during the
summer season. The city is the see of Roman Catholic and
Protestant Episcopal bishops. In 1907–1908, through the
efforts of a committee of the Board of Trade, interest was aroused
in the improvement of the city, appropriations were made for
a “city plan,” and flood walls were completed for the protection
of the lower parts of the city from inundation. The large
quantities of fruit, cereals and vegetables from the surrounding
country, and ample facilities for transportation by rail and by
the river, which is navigable from below the rapids to its mouth,
make the commerce and trade of Grand Rapids very important.
The manufacturing interests are greatly promoted by the fine
water-power, and as a furniture centre the city has a world-wide
reputation—the value of the furniture manufactured within its
limits in 1904 amounted to $9,409,097, about 5.5% of the value
of all furniture manufactured in the United States. Grand
Rapids manufactures carpet sweepers—a large proportion of
the whole world’s product,—flour and grist mill products,
foundry and machine-shop products, planing-mill products,
school seats, wood-working tools, fly paper, calcined plaster,
barrels, kegs, carriages, wagons, agricultural implements and
bricks and tile. The total factory product in 1904 was valued
at $31,032,589, an increase of 39.6% in four years.
On the site of Grand Rapids there was for a long time a large Ottawa Indian village, and for the conversion of the Indians a Baptist mission was established in 1824. Two years later a trading post joined the mission, in 1833 a saw mill was built, and for the next few years the growth was rapid. The settlement was organized as a town in 1834, was incorporated as a village in 1838, and was chartered as a city in 1850, the city charter being revised in 1857, 1871, 1877 and 1905.
GRAND RAPIDS, a city and the county-seat of Wood county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on both sides of the Wisconsin river, about
137 m. N.W. of Milwaukee. Pop. (1900) 4493, of whom 1073
were foreign-born; (1905) 6157; (1910) 6521. It is served
by the Minneapolis, St Paul & Sault Ste Marie, the Green Bay &
Western, the Chicago & North-Western, and the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St Paul railways. It is a railway and distributing
centre, and has manufactories of lumber, sash, doors and blinds,
hubs and spokes, woodenware, paper, wood-pulp, furniture and
flour. The public buildings include a post office, court house, city
hall, city hospital and the T. B. Scott Free Public Library (1892).
The city owns and operates its water-works; the electric-lighting
and telephone companies are co-operative. Grand Rapids was
first chartered as a city in 1869. That part of Grand Rapids on
the west bank of the Wisconsin river was formerly the city of
Centralia (pop. in 1890, 1435); it was annexed in 1900.
GRANDSON (Ger. Grandsee), a town in the Swiss canton of
Vaud, near the south-western end of the Lake of Neuchâtel,
and by rail 20 m. S.W. of Neuchâtel and 3 m. N. of Yverdon.
Its population in 1900 was 1771, mainly French-speaking and
Protestant. Its ancient castle was long the home of a noted race
of barons, while in the very old church (once belonging to a
Benedictine monastery) there are a number of Roman columns,
&c., from Avenches and Yverdon. It has now a tobacco factory.
Its lords were vassals of the house of Savoy, till in 1475 the castle
was taken by the Swiss at the beginning of their war with Charles
the Bold, duke of Burgundy, whose ally was the duchess of Savoy.
It was retaken by Charles in February 1476, and the garrison
put to death. The Swiss hastened to revenge this deed, and in
a famous battle (2nd March 1476) defeated Charles with great
loss, capturing much booty. The scene of the battle was between
Concise and Corcelles, north-east of the town, and is marked by
several columns, perhaps ancient menhirs. Grandson was thenceforward
till 1798 ruled in common by Berne and Fribourg, and
then was given to the canton du Léman, which in 1803 became
that of Vaud.
See F. Chabloz, La Bataille de Grandson (Lausanne, 1897).
GRANET, FRANÇOIS MARIUS (1777–1849), French painter, was born at Aix in Provence, on the 17th of December 1777; his father was a small builder. The boy’s strong desires led his parents to place him—after some preliminary teaching from a passing Italian artist—in a free school of art directed by M. Constantin, a landscape painter of some reputation. In 1793 Granet followed the volunteers of Aix to the siege of Toulon, at the close of which he obtained employment as a decorator in the arsenal. Whilst a lad he had, at Aix, made the acquaintance of the young comte de Forbin, and upon his invitation Granet, in the year 1797, went to Paris. De Forbin was one of the pupils of David, and Granet entered the same studio. Later he got possession of a cell in the convent of Capuchins, which, having served for a manufactory of assignats during the Revolution, was afterwards inhabited almost exclusively by artists. In the changing lights and shadows of the corridors of the Capuchins, Granet found the materials for that one picture to the painting of which, with varying success, he devoted his life.
