Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Grant, John A ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 29, 2008, 12:35 am Author: Past and Present of Will County, IL; 1907 John A. Grant was born at Reeds Grove in Jackson township, Will county, Illinois, July 21, 1850. His father, John Grant, was born in Banffshire, Scotland, in 1816, and came to America in 1834, the first of his father's family to seek a home across the sea, but in 1850 three of his brothers, James, Alexander and George, joined him in Will county. Prior to settling in Will county, the father of our subject had been prospecting in Canada and Louisiana, and had been a contractor on the Illinois and Michigan canal, then being excavated through Will county. In 1838 he bought a farm at Reeds Grove, which was the first farm opened in Jackson township, its original owner having been Charles Reed, the builder of the first house in Joliet. In politics John Grant was a whig and an abolitionist. In religion he was identified with the Methodist Episcopal church. During his short life he acquired a competency for those days, having at the time of his death in his own right six or seven hundred acres of farm lands in Will county. He held positions of trust, such as justice of the peace, school and church offices, up to the close of his life, dying September 12, 1854, with Asiatic cholera. John Grant was twice married and had by his first wife one son, William C., now residing in Elwood, this county. His second wife, Adeline Frazer, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Christ) Frazer, was born in Greenbrier county, now West Virginia, December 18, 1815, and came to Illinois with her mother, her father having previously died, and brothers, John and Alexander Frazer, and brothers-in-law, James and Joseph Kelly. They settled in Forked creek timber, in Wesley township, Will county, in 1834. In 1838 Adeline was married to Joseph C. Kelly, who died in 1841, leaving one son, who died in infancy, and another son by his former marriage with Hester Ann Frazer, William Thomas Kelly, who grew to manhood with his stepmother and stepfather and worked on the farm in Jackson. He later farmed in Wesley township, enlisted in the Yates Phalanx, Thirty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, and served to the close of the Civil war, in the eastern division, doing duty in and around Morris Island, Richmond, etc. Coming home, he engaged in the grain and milling business in Elwood. Later he removed to Nebraska, where he died in the spring of 1906. In 1844, Adeline (Frazer) Kelly married John Grant, the father of the subject of this sketch. Four children were born of this union, namely: Mary A., who died at the age of nine years, of Asiatic cholera; Margaret R., now the wife of Joshua Bush, of Elwood, Will county, Illinois; and John A. and James M., of Will county. Adeline (Frazer) Grant, the mother of the subject of this sketch, all through her long and useful life carried the idea of right living and right doing into her every- day dealings. Duty to her own family and the world at large was her guiding star to life's close, which came December 3, 1880, at the home of her son, John A., at Reeds Grove, Will county, Illinois. Although widowed for the last twenty-six years of her life, no needy one was turned unaided away. It will thus be seen that John A. Grant is a representative of two of the pioneer families of the county. He was educated in the common schools while spending his boyhood days under the parental roof and he became familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. On leaving home he carried on farming on his own account until 1882, when he established a meat market at Elwood. In 1891 he became foreman of a fence factory and occupied that position for six years, on the expiration of which period he accepted a position in connection with the county court. He was afterward appointed a keeper of the prison, acting in that capacity in the west wing for fifteen months, when, in June, 1898, he received the appointment from F. E. Coyne to the position of deputy internal revenue collector for the five counties of Will, Kankakee, La Salle, Grundy and Kendall, with headquarters at Joliet. In this capacity he travels all over the territory, looking after the business of the district, and is regarded as a most reliable and capable officer. He has also filled the position of town collector of Jackson township. Thus, in recent years his time and energies have been largely devoted to official services and in all connections he has made an excellent record. Mr. Grant was married in Wilmington township to Miss Cynthia Fishburn, who was also born in that township and was a daughter of John and Martha (Cox) Fishburn. Her father, a native of Ohio, came to Illinois at an early day and engaged in farming in Wilmington township, where he died in 1864, aged forty- five years. Mrs. Grant's mother was Martha Cox, a daughter of Thomas Cox, who laid out the town of Winchester, now Wilmington, in Will county, and in 1850 crossed the plains to Oregon, where he died at an advanced age. Mr. and Mrs. Grant have become the parents of four children, of whom three are living: Charles, a railroad man of the Alton railroad; Mrs. Lena Beebe; Edna; and Cynthia, who died in infancy. Mr. Grant has a home at Elwood and has improved a number of farms in the county. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church and is also a member of the Royal Arcanum. His entire life has been passed in this county and his many excellent qualities have gained him a large circle of warm friends. He has witnessed the growth and development of the county for fifty-seven years and has manifested those sterling traits of character which have won for him an ever-increasing circle of friends. Additional Comments: PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/grant2735nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 6.4 Kb