THE PERIOD OF YOUTH
Of such ancestry General Grant was born April 27, 1822, in Point
Pleasant, Ohio, and was named Hiram Ulysses Grant. A picture of the
house in which he was born shows it to have been a small frame dwelling
of primitive character. Its roof, sloping to the road in front, inclosed
the two or three rooms that may have been above the ground floor. The
principal door was in the middle of the front, and there was one small
window on each side of it. Apparently there was a low extension in the
rear. This manner of house immediately succeeded the primal log cabins
of the Western States, and such houses have sufficed for the happy
shelter of large families of strong boys and blooming girls, as sound in
body and soul, if not so refined and variously accomplished, as are
reared in mansions of more pretension. Love, virtue, industry, and
mutual helpfulness made true homes and bred useful citizens.
In the next year his parents removed to the village of Georgetown, Ohio,
in Brown County, where the father continued his business of tanner.
There young Grant lived until he became a cadet in the Military Academy
at West Point. His life was that of other boys of like condition, with
few uncommon incidents. Being the eldest of an increasing family, it
naturally happened that he was required to perform a share of work for
its support, and to bear responsibilities. In his early youth his
employment was in the farm work, and this he always preferred. He had a
native liking for the open air, and enjoyed the smell of furrows and
pastures and woods more than that of reeking hides in their vats. He was
fond of all animals, and especially delighted in horses, early
demonstrating a surprising power in managing them. He was locally noted
for his success in breaking colts, and as a trainer of horses to be
pacers, those having this gait being esteemed more desirable for riding,
at a time when a large part of all traveling was done on horseback. As
General Grant became famous at a comparatively early age, a large crop
of stories of his early feats in the subjection and use of horses was
cultivated by persons who knew him as a boy. Many of these, doubtless,
are entirely credible; few of them are so extraordinary that they might
not be true of any clever boy who loved horses and studied their
disposition and powers.
He was a lad of self-reliance, fertile in resources, and of good
judgment within certain limitations. Before he was fairly in his teens
his father intrusted to him domestic and business affairs which required
him to go to the city of Cincinnati alone, a two-days' trip. His own
account of this period of his life is: "When I was seven or eight years
of age I began hauling [driving the team] all the wood used in the house
and shops.... When about eleven years old, I was strong enough to hold a
plow. From that age until seventeen, I did all the work done with
horses.... While still young, I had visited Cincinnati, forty-five
miles away, several times alone; also Maysville, Ky., often, and once
Louisville.... I did not like to work; but I did as much of it while
young as grown men can be hired to do in these days, and attended school
at the same time.... The rod was freely used there, and I was not exempt
from its influence."
But his knowledge of horses, of timber, and of land was better than his
knowledge of men. He had no precocious "smartness," as the Yankees name
the quality which enables one person to outwit another. His credulity
was simple and unsuspecting, at least in some directions. This is
illustrated by a story which he has told himself, one which he was never
allowed to forget:--
"There was a Mr. Ralston, who owned a colt which I very much wanted. My
father had offered twenty dollars for it, but Ralston wanted
twenty-five. I was so anxious to have the colt that ... my father
yielded, but said twenty dollars was all the horse was worth, and told
me to offer that price. If it was not accepted, I was to offer
twenty-two and a half, and if that would not get him, to give the
twenty-five. I at once mounted a horse and went for the colt. When I got
to Mr. Ralston's house, I said to him: 'Papa says I may offer you twenty
dollars for the colt, but, if you won't take that, I am to offer
twenty-two and a half, and if you won't take that, to give you
twenty-five.'" This naïve bargaining was done when he was eight years
old. Some persons have thought it betokens a defect in business acumen
which was never fully cured.
He learned his school tasks without great effort. His parents were alive
to the advantages of education, and required him to attend all the
subscription schools kept in the town. There were no free schools there
during his youth. He was twice sent away from home to attend higher
schools. It is not recorded that he especially liked study or disliked
it. Probably he took it as a part of life, something that had to be
done, and did it. He was most apt in mathematics. When he arrived at
West Point he was able to pass the not very severe entrance examination
without trouble. He seems to have had good native powers of perception,
reasoning, and memory. What he learned he kept, but he was never an
ardent scholar. He had no enthusiasm for knowledge, nor, indeed, so far
as appears, for anything else except horses. He used to fish
occasionally, but never hunted. The sportsman's tastes were not his, nor
were his social tastes demonstrative. Possibly they may have been
restrained in some measure by his mother's strictness of religious
principles. He was neither morose nor brooding,--not a dreamer of
destiny. He yearned for no star. No instinct of his future achievements
made him peculiar among his companions or caused him to hold himself
aloof. He exhibited nothing of the young Napoleon's distemper of gnawing
pride. He was just an ordinary American boy, with rather less boyishness
and rather more sobriety than most, disposed to listen to the talk of
his elders instead of that of persons of his own age, and fond of
visiting strange places and riding and driving about the country. His
work had made him acquainted with the subjects in which grown men were
interested. The family life was serious but not severe. Obedience and
other domestic virtues were inculcated with fidelity; but he said that
he was never scolded or punished at home.