1889 History - Biography - Nathaniel Grant

The Highland Scotch have ever been noted for personal courage, decision of character, determination, firmness, love of liberty, loyalty to friends and home, and strong religious convictions. For religious freedom they would shed their blood, or expatriate themselves to find on alien shores the blessings denied them in their native land. This did the ancestors of Dr. Grant, who, with other families, came to America, and settled as pioneers on the forest lands of what later became "Scotland Hill" in the town of Lebanon, Maine.

Dr. Nathaniel Grant is grandson of Joseph Grant the emigrant, and son of Edward Grant (born 1775; died in Ossipee, October, 1838) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Linscott) Leavitt. He was born on the ancestral acres in Lebanon, Maine, February 28, 1804, and is the only one living of the family of eight children, and, having been a resident of Ossipee so many years, interest in and friendship for the Grant family naturally centres in him. From lack of means and being of so large a family, his early life was one of almost continuous labor on his father's farm, with only occasional schooling. His ambition, however, prompted him to attain a good education and acquire a profession, and his struggles were constant and perplexing to obtain means to buy books, pay teachers and board, during the period of his study of medicine. He had a common-school education as a boy, and left the farm at the age of twenty-one; he had one academic term at Limerick, Maine, and studied medicine at Hanover and Brunswick medical schools, and was graduated from the latter in 1829. This was accomplished by his teaching school during the winter months, working a few weeks in each summer at haying, and diligent study while not at school. He had a serious attack of typhus fever and nearly died, but recuperated, and was enabled to teach school the following winter, and, in February, started on foot from Brunswick, with his slender wardrobe and a few books tied up in a handkerchief, tramped through Sanford, Alfred, and Waterborough to Portland, and then took stage to Brunswick. Having lost three months' study through his illness, he fell doubtful of undertaking an examination for a diploma, but, being of an observant nature and measuring his attainments with those of his fellows, he determined to compete with them. Alert for success, he put forth his best efforts, receiving as a result the verdict "done well" from the faculty, and the long-coveted and much-prized certificate in 1829. The granting of the diploma to Dr. Grant was the first token of intellectual worth or professional skill received by any resident of his native town.

[The difficulties that an aspiring young man had to contend with at that day can be best illustrated by the way in which Joseph Grant, brother of the doctor, bought his first grammar. He was about eighteen years of age. The schools of that day were-of little worth; many owned no books, some, very few, owned a book, some of the wealthiest pupils two or three. Joseph wished to obtain a grammar. One of the boys wanted to sell his, and Joseph gave his note for the price, fifty cents. The next March, to get funds to meet this, he took his father's team, cut a load of wood, drew it in the night fourteen miles to South Berwick, sold it for $2.50, mostly in trade, but got enough cash to take up his note. It is needless to say that such pains to acquire an education were amply rewarded. The son of Joseph, Claudius B., who also was compelled to struggle with adverse circumstances, worked his way through the University oi Michigan, and, after filling various positions of honor, is now judge of the supreme court of that state.]

Dr. Grant practised medicine at Norway, Maine, for two years, and married Charlotte S. Hobbs, daughter of William and Catherine (Weatherby) Hobbs, of Norway, who has been a partner of his joys and sorrows these many years, and to-day has a countenance radiant of the peace within, and a consciousness that she has been a worthy helpmate to a worthy man. From Norway he went to Guilford for the winter, and in 1832 came to Wakefield, remaining there in active and successful practice until November, 1836, when he came to Buswell's Mills, now Centre Ossipee, and attended to the ailments of suffering humanity in this vicinity for thirty-three years thereafter. He united to his professional duties the responsibility of merchant in 1836, with his brother Edward, who, one year thereafter, relinquished business, and Dr. Grant became the sole proprietor of the store which has dispensed supplies for a period of a half-century.

Formerly a Federalist in politics, he has been a Democrat since 1837. He represented Ossipee in the legislature of 1847; was selectman in 1862-64; has been town clerk; justice of the peace from 1847 until his hand lost the power to write; was an incorporator and president of the Pine River Bank and of the Fine River Lumber Company, and has been a member of Ossipee Valley masonic lodge since 1864. He brought the first carload of corn ever shipped from the West to this county, and the first carload shipped to this section on the Portsmouth, Great Falls, and Conway railroad.

The record of Dr. Grant's life exhibits points of character which have given him a good name among his large acquaintanceship, and to which they may well point with pride and emulation. As a boy he labored, with endurance, working tor the mutual interests of his family, patiently biding the time when he might with well-earned liberty endeavor to attain an education. Against obstacles which to many would have been insurmountable, he obtained not only a fair amount of learning, but a professional degree, a good start for a lucrative and honorable living. Dr. Grant has ever manifested the best traits of the hardy Scotch ancestry from which he sprang, is a man of intellectual power, has during his whole life been a diligent and reflecting reader of the best literature, thinks for himself, and holds tenaciously to the beliefs he has formulated. He expresses his ideas in clear and forceful language either vocally or in writing. Had his tastes led him in that direction, he would have made a most popular and effective lecturer. The reason that he did not attain prominence in political circles was that he was no time-server, was too out-spoken, and would not pay out money to secure either nomination or election. He is an honest man, a worthy citizen and a patriot, and now that he has attained so many years, and may be said to be on the verge of life, it is with pleasure that we write a sketch of this character.

[August 19, 1889, Dr. Grant had a fall which caused a serious fracture of the hip. He died October 5, and was buried with Masonic rites.]

The children of Dr. and Mrs. Grant were: —

(1) William Henry Grant, born in Wakefield, October 23, 1834. Educated in New Hampton and Phillips Exeter academies, he attended medical lectures at Brunswick (Maine) Medical School, where he was graduated, and began practice in Tamworth in 1859, soon, however, removing to Centre Ossipee. When the Civil War broke upon the country, he answered the call for educated, intelligent medical men, and for three years was surgeon in Carver (D. C.) and Point Lookout (Md.) hospitals. After this he returned to his home and resumed his practice later, for several years holding the office of examining surgeon in the department of invalid pensions. He is still in active practice. November 24, 1859, Dr. Grant married Louisa A., sister of Chaplain T. A. Ambrose; she died January 29, 1865. April 23, 1866, he married Fanny, daughter of Henry C. and Mehitable (Clement) Magoon. Mrs. Grant unites the Dana blood with the Magoon in her ancestry, and is a lady of worth, intellectual vigor, and executive ability. She is now president of the Carroll County Woman's Temperance Union. Their only child, Willie Clinton, born April 26, 1867, died December 2, 1869.

(2) John Gaspar Spurzheim Grant was born February 6, 1836, in Wakefield. He was educated at Hampton and Exeter academies and Dartmouth College, and received his medical diploma from Harvard University. After graduation he became a surgeon at Saratoga hospital, Washington, D. C., and died while in service, August 14, 1865.

Contributed 2022 Jul 09 by Norma Hass, extracted from History of Carroll County, New Hampshire by Georgia Drew Merrill, published in 1889, pages 640-643.