Ulysses S. Grant, Jr.

Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., né Buck, (July 22, 1852 – September 25, 1929) was an American attorney and entrepreneur. He is most famous for being the second son of General of the Army and President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant and Julia Grant.

Grant was born in Bethel, Ohio, Grant spent his early life following his father as he rose from an obscure officer to General of the Army.He attended the Emerson Institute, prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Harvard University in 1874. He entered the Law School at Columbia University. After graduation, he joined a law firm in New York City.

He was not interested in politics, but at his mother's urging, he worked as his father's secretary at the White House. He then accepted the job as an assistant United States Attorney in New York's Southern District.

In 1880, he married Fannie Josephine Chaffee (1857 - 1909), who was the daughter of Jerome B. Chaffee, the U.S. Senator from Colorado. They had five children: Miriam (born 1881), Chaffee (born 1883), Julia (born 1885), Fannie (born 1889), and Ulysses IV (born 1893). (Note: Ulysses III (born 1881) was the son of Frederick Dent Grant.)

Grant then worked in private practice and became wealthy. He partnered in a banking and brokerage firm with Ferdinand Ward. Grant and his father each put $100,000 in the firm and asked veterans and millionaires to invest.

The Grants thought that they would share one-half of the profits from the firm, but realized that Ward was only interested in using the Grant name for his own interests. The firm went bankrupt, and the Grants lost everything. Ward was convicted of fraud and served 10 years in prison.

When Buck was back on his feet financially, he bought Merryweather Farm in Salem Center, Westchester County, New York. His wife's health was failing. Grant's mother suggested moving to California. His younger brother, Jesse Root Grant, was already living in San Diego. The Grants moved in 1893.

The Grants moved into a three-story house in San Diego. Chaffee was sent to school in Ojai, California where he could have a pony. The girls went to school in San Diego.

Grant set up a law practice, then gave it up to invest in real estate. He purchased property throughout San Diego. In 1895, he bought the Horton House hotel. He wanted to run the hotel and name it after his father. In 1905, he razed the old hotel and built a new one, the U. S. Grant Hotel, in 1910.

Grant continued to speculate in real estate. He also became a leading citizen, who pushed for the creation of a city park, that would become Balboa Park. Grant was a delegate-at-large for California at the Republican National Conventions in 1896 and 1900. He was also an elector for California in the 1904 and 1908 presidential elections (see U.S. Electoral College).

His wife died in 1909. Four years later he married a widow, America Workman Will (1878 - 1942).

Grant and America traveled extensively. In his later years, they stayed closer to home and traveled in California.

Grant died at the Sandberg Lodge on the Ridge Route north of Los Angeles while on a road trip. He was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in San Diego.

References

* [http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/81winter/grant.htm Banning, Evelyn I. (1981) "U.S. Grant, Jr.: A Builder of San Diego." "Journal of San Diego History" Vol. 27, No. 1.]
*Black, Samuel T., "San Diego County California" vol. 2, pp. 14-15 (Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913). Biography
*Obituary Los Angeles "Times", September 27, 1929