Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Grant, John A 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com October 4, 2007, 9:26 pm

Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County 

JOHN A. GRANT, who has spent his entire life in this county, was in June, 
1898, appointed deputy internal revenue collector for the twelfth division of 
the first district of Illinois, embracing Lee, Dekalb, Kendall, Dupage and 
that part of La Salle, Grundy and Will Counties lying north of the Illinois 
River. For some years he has been an active factor in the politics of his  
county, and a local Republican leader. While residing in Jackson Township he
served as collector, and also held the office of police magistrate of Elwood 
for one term. In 1886 and again in 1890 he served as secretary of the county 
central committee, and in other positions he has assisted in promoting the 
welfare of his party.

Mr. Grant was born in Jackson Township, this county, July 21, 1850, a son of 
John and Adeline (Frazer) Grant, and a grandson of John Grant, Sr., a farmer  
of Scotland, and Thomas Frazer, a lifelong resident of West Virginia. His 
father, who was born at Banfshire, Scotland, in 1816, a member of an old Scotch
Presbyterian family, crossed the ocean in 1834, being the first of his family 
to seek a home in America, although about 1850 three of his brothers joined 
him in Will County. After traveling in search of a location for a few months
he came to Illinois, where he was employed as a sub-contractor on the Illinois 
and Michigan canal. In 1838 he bought property at Reed's Grove, which was the 
first farm opened in Jackson Township, its original owner having been Charles 
Reed. There he began farming and stock-raising. In later years he became the
owner of several farms, and at the time of his death was in very comfortable 
circumstances. In politics he was a Whig and an Abolitionist, and among the 
offices which he held was that of justice of the peace. In religion he was 
identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He died of the cholera in 
1854, at the age of thirty-eight years and six months.

Twice married, John Grant had by his first wife a son, William C., who is  
engaged in the implement business at Elwood. His second wife, Adeline, was 
born in Greenbrier County, W. Va., and after the death of her father, in 1834, 
accompanied her mother and the other children to Illinois, settling at Forked 
Creek, Wesley Township, this county, where her mother died in 1880. Four 
children were born to Mr. Grant's second marriage, namely: Mary A., who died 
of cholera in 1854, aged nine years; Mrs. Margaret R. Bush, of Elwood; John
A.; and James M., of Joliet. The boyhood days of our subject were passed on 
the home farm, and his education was secured in district schools. He remained 
with his mother until he was twenty-one years of age, when he settled one mile 
south of Elwood and improved a farm of ninety acres, making this place his 
home from 1871 to 1883. His next business was as proprietor of a meat market 
in Elwood. In 1891 he entered the employ of the Lambert & Bishop Wire Fence 
Company, becoming foreman in the plain wire department, where he remained for
six years. In January, 1897, he accepted a position as keeper in the state 
penitentiary, where he remained for eighteen months. He resigned that position 
to accept the appointment of deputy internal revenue collector, which he has  
since filled with efficiency.

Fraternally Mr. Grant is connected with the Royal Arcanum and the Court of 
Honor. In religious faith he is a Methodist. He was married in Wilmington, 
this county, to Miss C. A. Fishburn, who was born in that place, daughter of 
John Fishburn, a pioneer farmer there. Four children have blessed the home 
life of Mr. and Mrs. Grant, namely: Cynthia, who died at the age of two and 
one-half years; Charles, who is a baggageman on the Chicago & Alton Railroad;
Lena E. and Edna, who reside at home.

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

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