Springfield-Greene
County LibraryEarly and Recent History and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Representative Citizens
WILLIAM W. GRANT. The people who constitute, the bone and sinew of this country are not those who are unstable and unsettled; who are always moving from one locality to another; who fly from this occupation to that; who do not know how to exercise the proper duties of citizenship, and who take no active and intelligent interest in affairs affecting schools, churches and public institutions. The backbone of this country is made up of the families that have made their homes; who are alive to the best interests of the community in which they reside; who are so honest that it is no trouble for their neighbors to know it; who attend to their own business and are too busy to attend to that of others; who work on steadily from day to day, taking the sunshine with the storm and who rear a fine family to a comfortable home and an honest life. Such people are always esteemed in any community and any country. They are wealth producers, and Greene county is blessed with many of them, among which is the Grant family of Murray township.
William W. Grant, one of the agriculturists and influential citizens of Murray township, Greene county, was born in the vicinity where he now lives February 12, 1863, and here he has been content to spend his life, all his active years being spent in one vocation. He is a son of Henry and Eliza (Williams-East) Grant. Henry Grant was born November 8, 1825, in Tennessee, and was a son of John and Catherine Grant, both natives of Tennessee, where they grew up, married and spent their lives, never leaving the state. Henry Grant grew to manhood in Tennessee, received such educational advantages as the early-day subscription schools afforded and there he was married in 1848, and subsequently removed with his family to Greene county, Missouri, settling in Murray township. Early in life he learned the blacksmith's trade and followed this in connection with farming here the rest of his days, being known as a very skilled mechanic and his shop drew customers from all over this part of the county. Here his first wife died in 1859 and he married, in 1860, Mrs. Eliza East, a daughter of Abner and Mary (Folden) Williams, and the widow of Sidney East, who had died previously. Mention of her parents is made in the sketch of Howard B. East on another page of, this work. Henry Grant was a successful farmer and at one time owned over eleven hundred acres of good land. He is deserving of a great deal of credit for what he accomplished, having begun life here on a small capital, renting land at first, in Cass township, then bought a farm which he later sold, and in 1870 bought two hundred acres in Murray township. He carried on general farming and stock raising on an extensive scale and ranked among the leading farmers of the county, was an exceptionally good judge of live stock. In the fall of 1871 he went south with twenty head of mules, which he sold to Southern planters. He was a man of influence and did much for the permanent good of his locality, throughout which he was highly respected. Here his death occurred on February 12, 1882. His widow has survived him thirty-two years, being now eighty-three years of age, and is still hale and hearty and capable of doing a good day's work. Her mind is keen and she is in possession of all her faculties, and she talks most interestingly of pioneer days in Greene county. She is greatly beloved by all who know her, and is a woman of fine Christian sentiment.
To Herry Grant and wife five children were born, namely: John Abner, of Murray township; William W., of this sketch; Henry Folden, of Springfield; one died in infancy; and Mary Eliza, who also died young. By her union with Sidney East our subject's mother had three children, namely: Alvin Monroe is deceased; Howard Bentley, president of the Bank of Willard, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work; and Tabitha Clementine, who died in infancy.
William W. Grant spent his boyhood days on his father's farm in Murray township, where he gained a thorough knowledge of the various phases of husbandry. He was nineteen years of age when his father died. He received a good practical education in the common schools of his district, which has later been supplemented by wide home reading and by contact with the world.
Mr. Grant was married February 24, 1884, to Dora E. Wadlow, who was born in Greene county, February 20, 1867, and here she grew to womanhood and was educated. She represents a prominent old family here, and is a daughter of John Wesley Wadlow and Mary Ann (Lethco) Wadlow, an extended mention of whom is made on another page of this volume in the sketch of Albert Sidney McLinn, to which the reader is respectfully directed.
After his marriage Mr. Grant rented a farm near his mother's home and there got a good start. He moved to his present farm in the fall of 1890, where he owns one hundred and sixty acres of finely improved, well-cultivated and productive land on which he has made a pronounced success as a general farmer and stock raiser. He has a commodious home in the midst of attractive surroundings and large and substantial outbuildings. Everything about the place denotes thrift, prosperity and good management. An excellent grade of well-kept live stock is always to be found at his place.
To Mr. and Mrs. Grant eight children have been born, namely: George Herman, who died in 1899 at the age of fourteen years; William Errick married Edna Jones, a native of Greene county, and they have three children. Manota, Irene and Lonzo; Clara married Ike Jennings, of Cave Spring and they have one child, Dora Margaret; Ralph, Emma Jane, Floyd died in 1912 at the age of eight years; the seventh child, a twin of Floyd, died in infancy, unnamed; and Arthur, who is the youngest.
Politically, Mr. Grant is a Republican and while he has taken an abiding interest in local public affairs, has never cared for public office, preferring to devote his attention to his farm and home. He is a member of the Masonic Order at Willard, also the Eastern Star and the Court of Honor of that town. He was reared in the faith of the Baptist church. Mrs. Grant belongs to the Methodist church. They are popular in Murray township and are regarded as good neighbors and worthy of every consideration.
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