Julia Dent Grant and the Fight for Women's Property Rights in Missouri

Julia Dent Grant before the Civil War

Library of Congress

Julia Dent Grant was not a member of the women’s rights movement that advocated for voting rights and equal citizenship with men in the 19th century. She largely refrained from politics while First Lady of the United States and cherished her roles as homemaker and mother. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Julia considered it her patriotic duty as a woman to “give all my care to [my husband Ulysses’] little ones, which I faithfully did.” She nevertheless played an unexpected role in securing property rights for women in Missouri during the Civil War era.

The story begins with her husband’s “Hardscrabble” log cabin. Seeking independence and a place to call his own as he worked as a St. Louis farmer, Ulysses S. Grant began constructing a log cabin on his father-in-law’s White Haven property in 1855. After a year and a half of hard labor (with assistance from neighbors and enslaved African Americans), the log cabin was completed in October 1856. Julia’s distaste for the home, combined with her mother’s death in January 1857, prompted the Grants to move back to White Haven only three months later.

After giving up farming two years later, Grant decided to seek employment in downtown St. Louis. He found a suitable house at the intersection of Ninth and Barton streets that was owned by Joseph W. White, a telegraph operator in the city. Grant and White came up with an arrangement to trade houses; Grant would move to the Ninth and Barton street home while White would take ownership of Hardscrabble and the adjacent eighty acres surrounding the property. Because the value of Hardscrabble and the surrounding acreage exceeded the value of the city home, White established a deed of trust to secure a promissory note of $3,000 to be paid back over the next five years. White initially made his payments on time. However, during the Civil War he stopped making payments and eventually defaulted on the promissory note. Tied up in Mississippi with the Vicksburg campaign in early 1863, General Grant wrote to Julia asking that she go to St. Louis and purchase Hardscrabble at an upcoming courthouse sale.

The Hardscrabble Log Cabin

NPS

Julia Dent Grant purchased Hardscabble and the adjacent property for $1,000 on February 12, 1863. Perhaps feeling bad for White, Julia arranged for him to stay at Hardscrabble as a tenant and to make rent payments to Julia. When the lease expired on March 1, 1865, White had failed to make his regular payments and now refused to vacate the property. The Grants sued White in June, but the initial court ruling went against Ulysses and Julia. Refusing to give up, they filed an appeal with the St. Louis Circuit Court that went to trial in January 1867. Julia offered a deposition from her home in Washington, D.C. in which she discussed the terms of her lease with White and denied his claim that all promissory notes would be returned to him at the end of the lease. Julia’s deposition played a major role in the Grants winning a reversal of judgement and a $470 reward for damages.

White still refused to surrender the property, however, and filed his own appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. His primary claim was that because Julia Grant was a woman, she had no authority to sign the lease that had been written in 1863. On March 30, 1868, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously decided in favor of the Grant family. Rejecting Joseph White’s arguments, the court found that women in Missouri—regardless of whether they were married or single—had the legal right to sign contracts either in their own name or as agents of their husband, and that they held the right to own property. In the end, Julia Dent Grant’s fight for ownership of Hardscrabble proved to be a victory for women’s rights in Missouri.