Cayuga County NyArchives Biographies.....Grant, Justus Lewis 1799 - 1878
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Author: Elliot G. Storke (1811-1879)

History of Cayuga County, New York 1879
Elliot G. Storke (1811-1879)
page 152a

Justus Lewis Grant was descended from New England ancestors. His father, Justus
Fales Grant, was born at Wrentham, Mass., July 4th, 1799. The maiden name of his
mother was Hannah Hale, and they were married at Dunstable, now Nashua, New
Hampshire, about 1816. Mr. Grant's father was an edge tool manufacturer, and a
superior mechanic. Justus Lewis was born at Nashua, N. H.. November 4th, 1818.
When he was eleven years of age, in 1839. his father located in Auburn, and 
engaged in the establishment of Joseph Wadsworth, in the manufacture of scythes,
hoes, &c., with whom, and his sou Samuel, he continued until his death, iu 1845.
He died suddenly of paralysis. The writer of this sketch has often heard Mr.
Grant, when referring to the sudden death of his father, express the fear that
he too might die suddenly and of a similar disease. J. Lewis Grant was twice
married. His first wife was Miss Betsey Allen, whom he married Dec. 5th, 1835.
They settled in Michigan where, in the fall of 1838, his wife died, and the same
year he returned to Auburn. On Oct. 37tb, 1839, he married Abbey Janette Mills.
 
Mr. Grant was systematic and methodical in his habits. He kept a diary, from
which we take the following extract; 

"During the four years succeeding our arrival in Auburn, I passed most of ray
time at school, under the kind and intelligent teaching of Mr. Jonah J.
Underbill. At the age of fourteen, my father desired me to assist him in the
support of his family. With assurances from him that I might choose any other
trade or profession in the spring, I entered the trip hammer shop under his
instruction. My proficiency was even greater than I had dared to hope. I was
well pleased with the business, and was satisfied to adopt that trade in
preference to any other." 

Here he continued until he was twenty-three years of age. 

Mr. Grant was a natural mechanic, and rapidly became an expert worker in metals.
His subsequent successes as a railroad man are largely due to the practical
knowledge thus obtained, which supplemented and perfected his natural genius.
His first railroad experience was on the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad, in
September, 1841, under the superintendency of E. P. Williams, as freight
conductor. His capabilities as a mechanic were soon so manifest that he was
appointed locomotive engineer of that road, and was afterwards entrusted with
the charge of its entire motive power, a very responsible trust, but one which
he discharged with singular acceptance and success. 

In August, 1850, he was appointed "Superintendent of motive power" of the Rome
and Watertown Railroad and took up his residence in Rome, where he remained some
six years; when, in February, 1856, he was called to Toronto, Canada, to take
charge, as General Superintendent, of the Northern Railway of Canada. Here he
remained and successfully discharged his duties until December 31st, 1868, when
the bitterness of feeling which grew out of our civil war led to the demand that
he should take the oath of allegiance to the British Crown. This he refused to
do, and resigned his position and returned to Auburn, purchasing  the Van Tuyl
farm, intending to devote his life to rural quiet. 

But that was not to be. He was too thorough an expert in railroad affairs and
the value of his services as such too widely known, to permit his retirement. On
the importunity of the late Dean Richmond, he consented to take the
Superintendency of the Buffalo & Erie Railroad, on May 6th. 1864. That position
he was induced to resign in August of that year, to assume the General
Superintendency of the Merchants' Union Express Company, whose business was then
widely extended. This position, chiefly office work, and very different from his
previous experience, was not congenial to "him, and he resigned to enter again
his chosen field, as President of the Southern Central Railroad, an enterprise
which had engaged, from its inception, his liveliest interest, and to the
success of which he had devoted his time and means. His next and last railroad
experience was as Superintendent of the Cayuga Lake Shore Road. He was at the
time of his death, and for some time previously had been, Superintendent of the
Auburn Water Works Company.

The death of Mr. Grant was sudden and sad. He was returning from the west
accompanied by his wife and daughter, Mrs. Parish. He was apparently in his
usual health and geniality of spirits. The train had passed Rochester, and,
expecting his son Herbert, and son-in-law, Mr. Parish, to pass them, was
standing in the rear doorway to greet them. He was there stricken with apoplexy,
and immediately expired, Oct, 19th, 1878, aged 60 years. 

Mr. Grant left a widow, three sons, Julius Herbert, J. Lewis and Albert Edward
and one daughter, Ivola Janette. Mrs. Parish. He had lost by death one son and
two daughters. 

It was in his social relations in his home and the community, that the beauty
and excellence of his character conspicuously shone. He was eminently social,
kind and generous. No one could know him intimately, who had a mind to perceive
and a heart to feel, and not be impressed with his kind and genial spirits.
Blessed with a peculiarly happy temperament himself, it was his delight to make
others happy, and few if any of our citizens had more or warmer friends. For one
who through life had been engrossed with other pursuits, he possessed and
cultivated in an unusual degree a literary taste. He was fond of poetry and has
written and published many pieces of merit. To the interests of the Universalist
Church, of which he was a member, he devoted all the activities of his generous
nature, and there his loss will be more deeply felt than anywhere else outside
of his own family. It is rare indeed that we find united in one person the same
business capacity, and the same genial and happy social temperament that
distinguished J. Lewis Grant. 


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