Russell County AlArchives Photo Person.....Grant, James Benton 
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Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 June 2, 2007, 8:17 pm

Source:             Sesquicentennal Supplement IV, Col. Ledger-Enquirer
Name:               James Benton Grant
Photo can be seen at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/russell/photos/grant6534gph.jpg
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                        J.B. Grant Became Governor
                              By Clason Kyle 
                          Sesquicentennial Editor 

  The builder of a mansion  that is a landmark in  Colorado's mile-high city of 
Denver was a native of  Russell County. Not only was the Alabamian a successful 
businessman, but he was that state's first Democratic governor! 
  In fact, a successful businessman is a understatement. This miner, founder of 
one of the first smelters, governor and banker was one of the "captains of 
industry" invited by J. Pierpont Morgan to a banquet given in honor of Prince 
Henry of Battenburg on the occasion of that Royal guest's visit to the United 
States.
  James Benton Grant was born in Russell County on Jan. 2, 1848, son of Mary 
Benton and Thomas McDonough Grant, a physician and cotton planter. His 
grandfather had imigrated from Scotland and settled in Norfolk, Va. in 1746. 
Before then, the Scotch Grants had fought the Pretenders in the Jacobite wars, 
many times being in the thick of the hardest campaigns. His mother was a niece 
of Col. John Crowell, Indian agent.
  It was said that Grant was "favored by nature and circumstances, in a lineage 
of purposeful, hard-headed ancestors and possessing advantage of education and  
opportunity." Like many other Southern families, the Alabama Grants were left 
virtuously penniless after the War Between the States. However, through the 
generosity of a wealthy uncle in Davenport, Iowa, who, being childless himself, 
undertook to provide an education for some 15 or 20 nieces and nephews, Grant 
attended Iowa Agricultural college, Cornell University and later, studied 
mining and  metallurgy at Freiburg in Germany.
 Grant's boyhood had  been spent on the plantation at Sand Fort, an earthen 
fortification just  west of Ft. Mitchell, where his father taught him to make 
every kind of farm implement and to know its  practical use in the cultivation 
of crops. He also learnred woodcraft and the use of the axe in felling trees 
and splitting rails. Although he alternated school work with farming, before 
the age of 15 he had read in Virgil and had commenced to read in Sallust.
  However, this peaceful learning experience was interrupted by the dark clouds 
of civil war and, while only 17, he enlisted in January of 1865 as a member of 
Waddell's battalion. Yet, he did not so much "go to war" as to have war come to 
him. Only three months later, his battery unit was engaged in the last land 
battle of  the Civil War, an military action in defense of Columbus and fought 
mainly in Russell County, not many miles from his home. 
  After Freiburg, Grant  returned to the United States in 1877 via Australia, 
New Zealand and the Sandwich Islands - and located at once in Colorado where he 
was an assayer. Illustrated Weekly in 1900 said, "Always genial, always 
hopeful, always the miner's friend, he made himself so popular  among the 
fraternity that when he went into the smelting business, he found  the apple of 
success already half ripened - all that  remained for doing was to  handle the 
shipments as they poured into the new works for treatment." That same 
publication said of the Grant Smelter that "one of the great smoke stacks in 
the Denver  plant is the largest in the United States and the third largest in 
the world, having a foot in height for every day in the year." It 
continued: "Some appreciation of the vastness of this enterprise is conveyed by 
the statement of the fact that during the past 15 years (1885-1900), the Omaha 
and Grant smelters have produced buillion in value amounting to something over 
$23O.OOO.OOO." (Later, this firm became American Smelting and Refining Company.)
  Therefore, it is not surprising that such a tycoon of business would 
ultimately build such a palatial residence, a showplace of its day and one that 
continues to be part of Denver's life today as a park. In its basement was a 
ballroom and theater where amateur presentations were held.
  His wife was Mary Goodell of Leadville, one of the famous five Goodell 
sisters, all noted for their  handsome and fashionable  appearances, social and 
civiC leadership and as wives of five successful and  prominent Coloradans. Not 
only was Mrs. Grant a granddaughter of a governor of Illinois, she was 
descended through her maternal ancestors from Mary Pabodie of Duxbury, Mass,who 
in turn was the great granddaughter of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins of 
Mayflower fame.
  Another source, Sketches of Colorado, 1911, said of Grant that his Southern 
birth and training placed him "in the Democratic Party and although politics 
was with him only an incident of his  busy life, he consented to  the party's 
demand and accepted the nomination in 1882. Although his candidacy was regarded 
as a forlorn hope, the people  rallied to his support and he  was triumphantly 
elected. During his administration,  from 1883 to 1885, peace  prevailed and 
the state prospered."  
  Governor Grant suffered  a heart attack in 1902, causing him to curtail many 
of his business and social activities, spent a large  part of his remaing life  
until his death on Nov. 1, 1911 - in the outdoors, hunting, fishing and 
supervising his ranch at Littleton, Colorado. The Grants, who had two sons, are 
buried in Fairmount  Cemetery, Denver.


Special Sesquicentennal Supplement IV
Ledger - Enquirer, Sunday, May 7, 1978, S-26


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