US Grant Bicentennial Junior Ranger - Part 1: Grant's Early Life

Schoolhouse in Georgetown, Ohio where Ulysses S. Grant attended school as a boy.

Photo: U.S. Grant Homestead Assoc.

Biography Part 1 - Grant's Early Life

Hiram Ulysses Grant was born April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. He was the first child of Jesse and Hannah Grant. The family named him Hiram but called him by his middle name. When Ulysses was a baby, his family moved to the nearby town of Georgetown. His three sisters and two brothers were born there. Jesse Grant was a tanner. He worked animal skins into leather. Ulysses did not like working at the tannery. He did like working on the family farm and caring for the animals. He especially liked spending time with the horses. As a young boy he started riding horses and was able to train them easily. As a young boy he went to a one-room schoolhouse. He was not very interested in school. He preferred spending time with horses.

When Ulysses was seventeen years old, his father arranged to have him attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. By mistake, someone wrote "Ulysses S. Grant" instead of Hiram Ulysses Grant on the school’s paperwork. Ulysses tried to correct the mistake, but the Academy told him that it wasn’t possible. Ulysses decided to accept the change in his name. His classmates soon nicknamed him “United States” or “Uncle Sam Grant,” and then called him Sam Grant. While Grant didn’t like attending classes at the Academy, he did quite well in math. His classmates admired his excellent horsemanship. He was known for jumping his horse at great heights. One of his classmates said, “it was as good as any circus to see Grant ride.”

Use the audio player below to listen to this passage.

• US Grant Biography - The Early Years

  
  

  Audio recording of the short biography of Ulysses S. Grant for Junior Rangers

  Date created:

  06/21/2022

  Audio Transcript

  Hiram Ulysses Grant was born April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. /photo of Grant/ He was the first child of Jesse and Hannah Grant. The family named him Hiram but called him by his middle name.

  When Ulysses was a baby, his family moved to the nearby town of Georgetown. His three sisters and two brothers were born there. Jesse Grant was a tanner. He worked animal skins into leather. Ulysses did not like working at the tannery. He did like working on the family farm and caring for the animals. He especially liked spending time with the horses. As a young boy he started riding horses and was able to train them easily.

  As a young boy he went to a one-room schoolhouse. He was not very interested in school. He preferred spending time with horses.

  When Ulysses was seventeen years old, his father arranged to have him attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. By mistake, someone wrote “Ulysses S. Grant” instead of Hiram Ulysses Grant on the school’s paperwork. Ulysses tried to correct the mistake, but the Academy told him that it wasn’t possible. Ulysses decided to accept the change in his name. His classmates soon nicknamed him “United States” or “Uncle Sam Grant,” and then called him Sam Grant. While Grant didn’t like attending classes at the Academy, he did quite well in math. /drawing of Grant with horse/ His classmates admired his excellent horsemanship. He was known for jumping his horse at great heights. One of his classmates said, “it was as good as any circus to see Grant ride.”

Lesson teaching the use of the letter E from a schoolbook from 1838.

Image: The Union Spelling Book. American Sunday-School Union, 1838.

Activity - Grant's School Life

Ulysses S. Grant attended several schools while growing up in Georgetown, Ohio, but his schooling was in some ways much different from what students receive today.

"Both winters [at school] were spent going over the same old arithmetic which I knew every word of before, and repeating: ‘A noun is the name of a thing’.”
– Ulysses S. Grant

Try answering at least 3 of the following 5 questions that Grant would have probably had to answer in his classroom:

1. Reduce 12/16ths to its lowest common denominator.
2. What year was the U.S. Constitution ratified?
3. How many syllables are in the following words?

Washington Dangerously Author

4. Provide three examples of a noun (or “provide three examples of a verb”).
5. Memorize the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution and recite it to a parent/guardian:

“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”