Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/380

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GRANT


GRANT


addressed the conference of the Wesleyan Meth- odist church, at Plymouth, and was entertained by Gladstone and Canon Wilberforce. He pre- sided over a missionary conference at Sierra Leone and one in Liberia in 1899. He was i^resi- dent of the publication board of the A.M.E. church and a member of the executive committee of the ecumenical conference held at London in 1900.

GRANT, Asahel, missionary, was born in Mai'shall, N.Y., Aug. 17, 1807. He was a prac- tising physician in Utica, N.Y., 1838-34, and a missionary in Urumiah, Persia, on the frontier of Turkey, 1835-40. He was aided in his field of labor by the friendshii) of the Persian governor of the place and the Nestorian bishop and priests whose great church had once shaped the religious thought of the region. His wife died in 1840 and he returned to the United States, but after a year's rest took up his work again among the JJestorians of Kurdistan. He was laboring among this sect in 1843 and when, contrary to his advice, they refused to make terms with the Turks, about 6000 were massacred and the mission - aries were obliged to flee for their lives. Dr. 'Grant went to Mosul to care for the Nestorians refugeed in that city and died there in the inidst of his labors. He published 77je Nestorians (1841). See memoir of his life and work (1847); also Grant and the Kcstorians (1853). He died at Mosul, Turkey in Asia, April 25, 1844.

GRANT, Claudius Buchanan, jurist, was born at Lebanon, Maine, Oct. 35, 1835; son of Joseph and Mary Ambrose (Merrill) Grant. He was graduated from the University of Michigan, A.B., 1859, A.M., 1862, and was principal of the Ann Arbor high school, 1859-63. He was commissioned a cap- tain in the 30th Mich- igan infantry, July 29, 1863, and rose to the rank of lieuten- ant-colonel. He re- ceived a commission as colonel in 1864, but the regiment had 1 ecome so reduced in luimbers by disease md death that he could not be mus- tered in as colonel. He participated in the battles of Jack- son, Miss. , Camp- bell's Station, Blue Springs, and Knoxville, Tenn., Wilderness, Spottsylv^inia, Cold Harbor, and North Anna, Va., and in the sieges of Vicks- burg and Petersburg. After the close of the war he studied law at the University of Michigan, was


admitted to the bar in June, 1866, and practised at Ann Arbor. He was elected recorder of Ann Arbor in 1866; was postmaster, 1867-70; was a rep- resentative in the state legislature, 1871-73, and 1873-74; speaker pro tern., 1873-74; a regent of the University of Michigan, 1873-80, and alter- nate comniissioner of the state of Michigan in 1872-76, for the Centennial exposition of 1876 at Philadelphia. He moved to Houghton in 1873 and engaged in the practice of law; was elected prosecuting attorney of Houghton county, 1876- 78; was elected judge of the 35th Michigan judi- cial circuit in 1883, and re-elected in 1887; was elected to the supreme bench of the state in 1889, and in 1899 was re elected by a plurality of 53,000. He was married in 1863 to Caroline, daughter of Gov. Alpheus Felch of Ann Arbor. The University of Michigan conferred on him the lionorary degree of LL.D. in 1891.

GRANT, Frederick Dent, soldier, was born in St. Louis, Mo., May 30, 1850; son of Ulysses ■ S. and Julia (Dent) Grant. He attended school at Covington, Ky., and in 1863 joined his father at Young's Point, accompanied him on the gun- boat Benton, Admiral Porter's flagship, and with the fleet passed the batteries at Vicks- burg and was an eye-witness to the bombardment and subsequent siege. He was wounded in the thigh while pursuing the retreating Confed- erates near the Black river, and reported to a staff oflBcer that he was "killed." Hesub- sequently took part in five battles and skirmishes and did not leave the army

headquarters until after the fall of Vicksburg. He was graduated at the U.S. military academy in 1871 and was assigned to the 4th U.S. cavalry, being employed in 1871 as engineer on the Union Pacific and Colorado Central railroads. Later the same year he visited Europe with General Sherman and in 1872 commanded the escort to the surveying party employed on the Southern Pacific railroad. He was assigned to the staff of General Sherman in 1873 with the rank of lieu- tenant-colonel and served on the frontier eight years. He joined his father in his tour around the world at Alexandria, Egypt, in 1879, and in 1881 resigned his commission in the army and engaged in business in New York city. Presi- dent Harrison appointed him U.S. minister to Austria in 1885 and Mayor Strong made him a



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