Clymer Weir Cox Genealogy » Hannah Weir (OHIO) Simpson (1798-1884)

Persoonlijke gegevens Hannah Weir (OHIO) Simpson 

• Zij is geboren op 23 november 1798 in Leased farm in Whitemarsh, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
• Alternatief: Zij is geboren op 23 november 1798 in Leased farm in Whitemarsh, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
• Zij is gedoopt op 12 februari 1799 in By the Rev. Nathaniel Irwin at the Neshaminy Presbyterian Church, most likely witnessed by her grandparents, Samuel Weir and Mary.
• Alternatief: Zij is gedoopt op 12 februari 1799 in Neshaminy Presbyterian Church, Bucks County, PA.

  By the Rev. Nathaniel Irwin at the Neshaminy Presbyterian Church, most like witnessed by her grandparents, Samuel & Mary Weir.

• Woonachtig:
• Two-room log cabin in Point Pleasant, Ohio near Ohio River. Cabin still standing in 1953.
• United States.
• rond 1817: Clermont, Ohio, Verenigde Staten.

  Moved with her father to Ohio

• Zij is overleden op 11 mei 1884 in Jersey City, New Jersey, zij was toen 85 jaar oud.
• Alternatief: Zij is overleden op 11 mei 1883 in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, zij was toen 84 jaar oud.
• Zij is begraven in het jaar 1884 in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio.
• Een kind van John David Roberts (OHIO) Simpson en Rebeccah Alexander Weir
• Deze gegevens zijn voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 24 oktober 2022.

Gezin van Hannah Weir (OHIO) Simpson

Zij is getrouwd met Jesse Root (OHIO) Grant.

Zij zijn getrouwd op 24 juni 1821 te Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, zij was toen 22 jaar oud.

Rev. Moses Edwards A Moses C. Edwards was part of Regular Baptist Church of Bethel, Cermont County, Ohio . Not sure if it is same.

Kind(eren):

1. Hiram Ulysses Simpson Grant  1822-1885 
2. Samuel Simpson Grant  1825-1861
3. Rachel Clarissa (Clara Rachel) Simpson Grant  1828-1865
4. Virginia Paine Simpson Grant  1832-1881 
5. Orville Lynch Simpson Grant  1835-1881 
6. Mary Francis Simpson Grant  1842-1898 

Notities over Hannah Weir (OHIO) Simpson

ANCESTOR OF PRESIDENT ULYSSES S. GRANT

From newspaper article written by Edward Mathews about the time Grant was president

"Sixty years after the departure of the family to Ohio, Hannah Simpson was remembered by elderly people as a sprightly, agreeable girl, seventeen to twenty years of age, who went out in company and had already begun to receive the attentions of her admirers. Some of the old gallants living in the neighboring townships have related to the writer instances of their acquaintance with her in the long-past springtide of their youth. They told of seeing her at the old county line school house on the Warrington side on Sunday afternoons as an attendant of the religious meetings there, held by various clergymen. She in company with her parents also frequently attended the New Britain Baptist church, six miles distant to the north and also the Presbyterian church at Neshaminy. In the old school house above mentioned the children of Simpson obtained what education they received, as it was just opposite their father's property, though in another county."


A Special Consideration: Hannah Simpson Grant

http://saints.css.edu/mkelsey/hann.html
Mother of U. S. Grant
by Diane Meives, Ulysses S. Grant Network

Hannah Simpson Grant

November 23, 1798-May 11, 1883.

For well over a century, Hannah Simpson Grant, mother of U. S. Grant has been portrayed as cold and
unfeeling; an uncaring woman and mother. However, a recent search of several of the major Grant
biographies and several works of his closest friends raise the question of how Hannah Grant got this
reputation. The great majority of books and papers show a different version of the mysterious mother of U.
S. Grant.

Neighbors of the Grant family testified that she was a warm and pious woman, devoted to her husband and
family. Her family members speak of her in terms of strength, determination and calmness. Julia Grant
describes Hannah as "...the most self-sacrificing, the sweetest, kindest woman I ever met, except my own dear
mother." High praise certainly, for her mother-in-law. Ulysses' boyhood friend, Daniel Ammen, remembering
his childhood, described Hannah as a "cheerful woman, always kind and gracious to children." To be in
such high standing with little boys is a compliment on a plane of its own.

The ultimate compliment of course came from her famous son. A conversation with his brother-in-law, the
Reverend Michael Cramer, revealed Grant's feelings about his mother. Of her he said that "she was the best
woman he had ever known; unselfish, devoted to her family, thorougly good, conscientious, intelligent, never
meddling with other person's affairs, genuinely pious without any cant, with a strong sense of right and
justice; unobtrusive, kindhearted, and attached to her church and country." Rev. Cramer said, "General,
you have most of your mother's characteristics," to which Grant simply replied, "yes, I think so."

How then, did Hannah get such an undeserved reputation of being cold and unfeeling? If not from her
family or community, then where? Perhaps from a reporter sent to interview her after her son's rise to fame?
Perhaps he misunderstood her modesty as aloofness. Certainly he shouldn't have been surprised. After all,
the modesty and reticence of General Grant was nothing new to the press. Although Hannah enjoyed
reading about her famous son, whenever he was praised in her presence, she would blush and leave the
room. The compliments were too close to self-praise, which her upbringing had taught her to recoil from. On
many occasions when Ulysses invited his mother to the White House, she declined, but not from lack of
feeling. The throngs which would have surrounded her would have been too much for her sensitive
constitution. Indeed, all the adulation seemed at times to overwhelm Ulysses himself.

Like her son, Hannah was a victim of gossip and the press. But time has shed a new light on Hannah Grant.
The works and deeds of Ulysses S. Grant are a shining tribute to the mother whose examples he followed.


Hannah Simpson Grant (the mother of U.S. Grant) is the most nebulous person
in his life and very little is known about her. She was extremely reticent and
almost never discussed her son to anybody, least of all the press. Below is one of
the few (if not only) newspaper interviews she ever granted and it has never been
published since its original distribution.

San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 1879

GENERAL GRANT'S MOTHER

An Interview with Mrs. Jesse Grant at Jersey City
(From the New York Graphic, September 16, 1879).

T his morning a Graphic reporter called upon Mrs. Jesse Grant, the venerable
mother of the ex-President, who makes her home with her daughter, Mrs.
Corbin, in Jersey City. The Corbin residence is a pleasant frame house with a
broad veranda, looking down upon beds of brilliant salvia and scarlet geraniums.
It stands on Pavonia avenue, not far from the old courthouse. In response to a
card, Mrs. Grant soon entered the handsome parlor into which the reporter had
been ushered, and seated herself in an armchair of crimson velvet, which threw
into strong relief her slender figure draped in black, and the pale, rather delicate
features framed in puffs of silvery white hair, shaded by a dainty cap of lace.

In response to an inquiry as to when she expected her son, Mrs. Grant said:
"Indeed, the newspapers seem to know more about it than we do; at least, so
Mrs. Corbin says. For myself, I never read any paper but the Christian
Advocate, published in Cincinnati."

"And is that because the paper is religious or from Cincinnati?" the reporter
ventured to inquire. "Well" said the lady smiling, "principally because it is
religious, though I am very much inclined to like anything from Cincinnati. You
know I have lived in Ohio most of the time since I was a girl of twenty and so
many of my old friends live there that my heart clings to it," she concluded with
tear-dimmed eyes. "But most of your family is here?"

"Yes," answered Mrs. Grant, brightening up, "and now I have ten
grandchildren, one great-grandchild and my own four children. Once I had six,
but the son next to Ulysses died a number of years ago, and when he was
prospering finely, and then my dear daughter Clara passed away. There is a
picture of her," continued the old lady pointing with pride to a portrait in oil of a
young girl, a perfect brunette, and though not beautiful in figure, having a strong,
expressive face. "Then," resumed Mrs. Grant, "there is my daughter, Mrs.
Cramer, who lives in Denmark; her husband occupies a government position,
you know. She has a lovely little daughter and here are some her of (Mrs.
Cramer's) paintings." The paintings were landscapes of foreign and home
scenery, some of them with considerable merit.

"You are very proud of your children?" remarked the reporter. "Yes," said
the old lady with a satisfied smile, "they are pretty good, take them on the
whole, but it's no easy thing to bring up a family." The writer, having only made
the experiment theoretically, agreed, and inquired what sort of baby Ulysses
was.

"Well, very fair, though I don't know as he was any different from the rest of
them, but people seem to think I'll say so now. He was always a steady, serious
sort of boy, who took everything in earnest; even when he played he made a
business of it." "You expect to see him too?" the reporter asked. "Yes, my
grandsons Ulysses and Jesse have gone to San Francisco to meet him. They
think he will arrive on Saturday. Then he is coming through East. I have that
they have got his house in Galena that the folks there gave him, all in readiness,
even to the servants, but," she continued, bridling up a little, "I know he will
come first to see his mother." (Note: he didn't.)

The reporter asked, "Where will he reside this winter?" "Maybe in
Washington, maybe in New York, maybe in Philadelphia, maybe - but dear me,
there are lots of places to live in, and there's no telling what he will do. One thing
I do know, though, and that is he and Mrs. Grant will be glad to have a rest. You
see, the Europeans like fighting men, and they have been feasting and dining
him until I expect the poor boy is clear worn out." "Then you won't approve of
any demonstrations here?" "No, indeed, we are not a demonstrative family,"
the sweet old lady said. "None of us care a penny for all the demonstrations in
the world."

Since Hannah Grant hardly ever spoke publicly, it is impossible to know how much of this
interview is actually truthful or how often the reporter put words into her mouth. The factual
information attributed to Hannah Grant in the article is all truthful, however.

Ulysses S. Grant Homepage

"In the letters written to his mother, especially those penned in his 'plebdom' at West Point, he opened
his heart and told her how firmly implanted were the lessons of truth, patience, self-sacrifice and of
reverence for religion that he had learned from her gentle lips. A rare woman was Hannah Simpson;
sweet and comely to look upon in youth, she gained in her maturity an added dignity of bearing. A
silent, observant nature was hers. Deeply religious in temperament, reared in the austere and solemn
tenents of the Methodist church she looked upon life with eyes that saw only its duties and
responsibilities. She had a smile for every one, but laughter with her was as rare as

anger. Soft of speech, just, gentle, yet firm and steadfast, she proved an admirable help and stay for
the sometimes erratic Jesse; but 'nagging' never, she watched over her little brood with the vigilance of
the mother partridge. Shielding them ever from that which menaced their innocence or their well being,
she reared her children pure of heart and pure of speech, and the best of her, because he had the
most of her, seems to have concentrated in Ulysses."

(The True Ulysses Grant, by Gen. Chas. King.)
Hannah Simpson was in person the very antithesis of her husband; a brunette with small, slender,
erect figure, delicately chiseled features and when young, Hannah Simpson must have been very
sweet to look upon; she had a modest air of refinement and that expression of moral beauty which
increases with years.

(Howes Hist. of Ohio, by Henry Howe, L. L. D.)
Hannah Simpson had no discoverable enemies; she was almost universally beloved as a Christian
woman and faithful wife and mother. But it took longer to know her. She was the most reticent of
persons. "Ulysses got his reticence, his patience, his equable temper from his mother," is the verdict of
those who knew both father and mother. Others go further and say: "He got his sense from his
mother. In truth the Simpsons were a fine old family. They were quite as marital as the Grants; were
as genuinely American in their history, and were possessed apparently of greater self-control. Hannah
Simpson was the daughter of John Simpson, a man with the restless heart of a pioneer, who had left
his ancestral home in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia, and had settled in Clermont county a few years
before. He had built a brick house and opened a large farm, and his position was most honorable in
his town of Bantam. Hannah Simpson, his daughter, seems to have gathered up and carried forward
to her son Ulysses the best qualities of her people. That she was a remarkable woman all her
neighbors bear testimony. She never complained of any hardship or toil or depression. She seldom
laughed, and her son Ulysses once said: "I never saw
her shed a tear in my life." She was as proud of her family history as her husband was of his, but she
said nothing about it. She never argued, never boasted, and never gossiped of her neighbors. Her
husband bore testimony of her character in words well chosen: "Her steadiness and strength of
character have been the stay of the family through life." Her neighbors called her "a noble woman."

"Ulysses Grant, His Life and Character."
By Hamlin Garland.

"Gen. Grant's mother is one of those sedate, sensible, serious women whose households are fit
nurseries for heroes. Industry, economy, patience, temperance and religion were the lessons of his
early days."

"Men of Our Times," Stowe.

The ancestry of General Grant is most distinguished; many Colonial and Revolutionary heroes there
are in the line back to Noah who was born in 1718; Captain Noah Grant was at the seige of Crown
Point under General Lyman; was also doing scout duty with Putnam and Rogers at Lake George (see
official report signed by the three, Doc. Hist. New York IV, 17-177); served with great distinction
and was killed at Lake George September 20, 1756. It remained for General Ulysses Simpson Grant
to win laurels in two decisive wars fighting under the Stars and Stripes, after which he was chosen by
popular vote to rule over the land he had fought to save; his military career, as we all know, was most
brilliant, and his reign as chief magistrate was wise and just, earning for him the love and gratitude of a
nation torn and scarred by four years of civil strife, safely piloted by his military genius and masterly
guidance through this bloody conflict to the fulfillment of Lincoln's cherished dream of a Reunited
Republic.

Ulysses Simpson Grant was born at Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822; died at Mt. McGregor, N.
Y., July 23, 1885; graduated from West Point in 1843; fought in the war with Mexico; was
commander in chief of the United States army in the war of the Rebellion during

Jessie Root Grant married Hannah Simpson; she is described as comely, modest, unselfish, full of
good sense, a woman of strong religious convictions, a devout Methodist; her ancestors were noted
for their regard for integrity, veracity and independence; Gen. Grant never ceased to reverance the
religion of his mother; her firmness and strength of character were inherited to a marked degree by her
gifted son. E. S. W.From newspaper article written by Edward Mathews aout the time Grant was president

"Sixty years after the departure of the family to Ohio, Hannah Simpson was remembered by elderly people as a sprightly, agreeable girl, seventeen to twenty years of age, who went out in company and had already begun to receive the attentions of her admirers. Some of the old gallants living in the neighboring townships have related to the writer instances of their acquaintance with her in the long-past springtide of their youth. They told of seeing her at the old county line school house on the Warrington side on Sunday afternoons as an attendant of the religious meetings there, held by various clergymen. She in company with her parents also frequently attended the New Britain Baptist church, six miles distant to the north and also the Presbyterian church at Neshaminy. In the old school house above mentioned the children of Simpson obtained what education they received, as it was just opposite their father's property, though in another county."


A Special Consideration: Hannah Simpson Grant

http://saints.css.edu/mkelsey/hann.html
Mother of U. S. Gra
by Diane Meives, Ulysses S. Grant Network

Hannah Simpson Grant

November 23, 1798-May 11, 1883.

For well over a century, Hannah Simpson Grant, mother of U. S. Grant has been portrayed as cold and
unfeeling; an uncaring woman and mother. However, a recent search of several of the major Grant
biographies and several works of his closest friends raise the question of how Hannah Grant got this
reputation. The great majority of books and papers show a different version of the mysterious mother of U.
S. Grant.

Neighbors of the Grant family testified that she was a warm and pious woman, devoted to her husband and
family. Her family members speak of her in terms of strength, determination and calmness. Julia Grant
describes Hannah as "...the most self-sacrificing, the sweetest, kindest woman I ever met, except my own dear
mother." High praise certainly, for her mother-in-law. Ulysses' boyhood friend, Daniel Ammen, remembering
his childhood, described Hannah as a "cheerful woman, always kind and gracious to children." To be in
such high standing with little boys is a compliment on a plane of its own.

The ultimate compliment of course came from her famous son. A conversation with his brother-in-law, the
Reverend Michael Cramer, revealed Grant's feelings about his mother. Of her he said that "she was the best
woman he had ever known; unselfish, devoted to her family, thorougly good, conscientious, intelligent, never
meddling with other person's affairs, genuinely pious without any cant, with a strong sense of right and
justice; unobtrusive, kindhearted, and attached to her church and country." Rev. Cramer said, "General,
you have most of your mother's characteristics," to which Grant simply replied, "yes, I think so."

How then, did Hannah get such an undeserved reputation of being cold and unfeeling? If not from her
family or community, then where? Perhaps from a reporter sent to interview her after her son's rise to fame?
Perhaps he misunderstood her modesty as aloofness. Certainly he shouldn't have been surprised. After all,
the modesty and reticence of General Grant was nothing new to the press. Although Hannah enjoyed
reading about her famous son, whenever he was praised in her presence, she would blush and leave the
room. The compliments were too close to self-praise, which her upbringing had taught her to recoil from. On
many occasions when Ulysses invited his mother to the White House, she declined, but not from lack of
feeling. The throngs which would have surrounded her would have been too much for her sensitive
constitution. Indeed, all the adulation seemed at times to overwhelm Ulysses himself.

Like her son, Hannah was a victim of gossip and the press. But time has shed a new light on Hannah Grant.
The works and deeds of Ulysses S. Grant are a shining tribute to the mother whose examples he followed.


Hannah Simpson Grant (the mother of U.S. Grant) is the most nebulous person
in his life and very little is known about her. She was extremely reticent and
almost never discussed her son to anybody, least of all the press. Below is one of
the few (if not only) newspaper interviews she ever granted and it has never been
published since its original distribution.

San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 1879

GENERAL GRANT'S MOTHER

An Interview with Mrs. Jesse Grant at Jersey City
(From the New York Graphic, September 16, 1879).

T his morning a Graphic reporter called upon Mrs. Jesse Grant, the venerable
mother of the ex-President, who makes her home with her daughter, Mrs.
Corbin, in Jersey City. The Corbin residence is a pleasant frame house with a
broad veranda, looking down upon beds of brilliant salvia and scarlet geraniums.
It stands on Pavonia avenue, not far from the old courthouse. In response to a
card, Mrs. Grant soon entered the handsome parlor into which the reporter had
been ushered, and seated herself in an armchair of crimson velvet, which threw
into strong relief her slender figure draped in black, and the pale, rather delicate
features framed in puffs of silvery white hair, shaded by a dainty cap of lace.

In response to an inquiry as to when she expected her son, Mrs. Grant said:
"Indeed, the newspapers seem to know more about it than we do; at least, so
Mrs. Corbin says. For myself, I never read any paper but the Christian
Advocate, published in Cincinnati."

"And is that because the paper is religious or from Cincinnati?" the reporter
ventured to inquire. "Well" said the lady smiling, "principally because it is
religious, though I am very much inclined to like anything from Cincinnati. You
know I have lived in Ohio most of the time since I was a girl of twenty and so
many of my old friends live there that my heart clings to it," she concluded with
tear-dimmed eyes. "But most of your family is here?"

"Yes," answered Mrs. Grant, brightening up, "and now I have ten
grandchildren, one great-grandchild and my own four children. Once I had six,
but the son next to Ulysses died a number of years ago, and when he was
prospering finely, and then my dear daughter Clara passed away. There is a
picture of her," continued the old lady pointing with pride to a portrait in oil of a
young girl, a perfect brunette, and though not beautiful in figure, having a strong,
expressive face. "Then," resumed Mrs. Grant, "there is my daughter, Mrs.
Cramer, who lives in Denmark; her husband occupies a government position,
you know. She has a lovely little daughter and here are some her of (Mrs.
Cramer's) paintings." The paintings were landscapes of foreign and home
scenery, some of them with considerable merit.

"You are very proud of your children?" remarked the reporter. "Yes," said
the old lady with a satisfied smile, "they are pretty good, take them on the
whole, but it's no easy thing to bring up a family." The writer, having only made
the experiment theoretically, agreed, and inquired what sort of baby Ulysses
was.

"Well, very fair, though I don't know as he was any different from the rest of
them, but people seem to think I'll say so now. He was always a steady, serious
sort of boy, who took everything in earnest; even when he played he made a
business of it." "You expect to see him too?" the reporter asked. "Yes, my
grandsons Ulysses and Jesse have gone to San Francisco to meet him. They
think he will arrive on Saturday. Then he is coming through East. I have that
they have got his house in Galena that the folks there gave him, all in readiness,
even to the servants, but," she continued, bridling up a little, "I know he will
come first to see his mother." (Note: he didn't.)

The reporter asked, "Where will he reside this winter?" "Maybe in
Washington, maybe in New York, maybe in Philadelphia, maybe - but dear me,
there are lots of places to live in, and there's no telling what he will do. One thing
I do know, though, and that is he and Mrs. Grant will be glad to have a rest. You
see, the Europeans like fighting men, and they have been feasting and dining
him until I expect the poor boy is clear worn out." "Then you won't approve of
any demonstrations here?" "No, indeed, we are not a demonstrative family,"
the sweet old lady said. "None of us care a penny for all the demonstrations in
the world."

Since Hannah Grant hardly ever spoke publicly, it is impossible to know how much of this
interview is actually truthful or how often the reporter put words into her mouth. The factual
information attributed to Hannah Grant in the article is all truthful, however.

Interview Index

Ulysses S. Grant Homepage




(1033) HANNAH Simpson, the mother of Grant.

"In the letters written to his mother, especially those penned in his 'plebdom' at West Point, he opened
his heart and told her how firmly implanted were the lessons of truth, patience, self-sacrifice and of
reverence for religion that he had learned from her gentle lips. A rare woman was Hannah Simpson;
sweet and comely to look upon in youth, she gained in her maturity an added dignity of bearing. A
silent, observant nature was hers. Deeply religious in temperament, reared in the austere and solemn
tenents of the Methodist church she looked upon life with eyes that saw only its duties and
responsibilities. She had a smile for every one, but laughter with her was as rare as

anger. Soft of speech, just, gentle, yet firm and steadfast, she proved an admirable help and stay for
the sometimes erratic Jesse; but 'nagging' never, she watched over her little brood with the vigilance of
the mother partridge. Shielding them ever from that which menaced their innocence or their well being,
she reared her children pure of heart and pure of speech, and the best of her, because he had the
most of her, seems to have concentrated in Ulysses."

(The True Ulysses Grant, by Gen. Chas. King.)
Hannah Simpson was in person the very antithesis of her husband; a brunette with small, slender,
erect figure, delicately chiseled features and when young, Hannah Simpson must have been very
sweet to look upon; she had a modest air of refinement and that expression of moral beauty which
increases with years.

(Howes Hist. of Ohio, by Henry Howe, L. L. D.)
Hannah Simpson had no discoverable enemies; she was almost universally beloved as a Christian
woman and faithful wife and mother. But it took longer to know her. She was the most reticent of
persons. "Ulysses got his reticence, his patience, his equable temper from his mother," is the verdict of
those who knew both father and mother. Others go further and say: "He got his sense from his
mother. In truth the Simpsons were a fine old family. They were quite as marital as the Grants; were
as genuinely American in their history, and were possessed apparently of greater self-control. Hannah
Simpson was the daughter of John Simpson, a man with the restless heart of a pioneer, who had left
his ancestral home in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia, and had settled in Clermont county a few years
before. He had built a brick house and opened a large farm, and his position was most honorable in
his town of Bantam. Hannah Simpson, his daughter, seems to have gathered up and carried forward
to her son Ulysses the best qualities of her people. That she was a remarkable woman all her
neighbors bear testimony. She never complained of any hardship or toil or depression. She seldom
laughed, and her son Ulysses once said: "I never saw
Page 317

her shed a tear in my life." She was as proud of her family history as her husband was of his, but she
said nothing about it. She never argued, never boasted, and never gossiped of her neighbors. Her
husband bore testimony of her character in words well chosen: "Her steadiness and strength of
character have been the stay of the family through life." Her neighbors called her "a noble woman."

"Ulysses Grant, His Life and Character."
By Hamlin Garland.

"Gen. Grant's mother is one of those sedate, sensible, serious women whose households are fit
nurseries for heroes. Industry, economy, patience, temperance and religion were the lessons of his
early days."

"Men of Our Times," Stowe.

The ancestry of General Grant is most distinguished; many Colonial and Revolutionary heroes there
are in the line back to Noah who was born in 1718; Captain Noah Grant was at the seige of Crown
Point under General Lyman; was also doing scout duty with Putnam and Rogers at Lake George (see
official report signed by the three, Doc. Hist. New York IV, 17-177); served with great distinction
and was killed at Lake George September 20, 1756. It remained for General Ulysses Simpson Grant
to win laurels in two decisive wars fighting under the Stars and Stripes, after which he was chosen by
popular vote to rule over the land he had fought to save; his military career, as we all know, was most
brilliant, and his reign as chief magistrate was wise and just, earning for him the love and gratitude of a
nation torn and scarred by four years of civil strife, safely piloted by his military genius and masterly
guidance through this bloody conflict to the fulfillment of Lincoln's cherished dream of a Reunited
Republic.

Ulysses Simpson Grant was born at Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822; died at Mt. McGregor, N.
Y., July 23, 1885; graduated from West Point in 1843; fought in the war with Mexico; was
commander in chief of the United States army in the war of the Rebellion during

Jessie Root Grant married Hannah Simpson; she is described as comely, modest, unselfish, full of
good sense, a woman of strong religious convictions, a devout Methodist; her ancestors were noted
for their regard for integrity, veracity and independence; Gen. Grant never ceased to reverance the
religion of his mother; her firmness and strength of character were inherited to a marked degree by her
gifted son. E. S. W.

US Grant: President's Mother Grew Up in Horsham
(from the Daily Intelligencer page 68 - undated - by William G Shuster) . Framed copy of this article was donated to HPHA by Alvin E Outland, Pastor of the Prospectville United Methodist Church 7/18/2003.
The fate of the Union in the Civil War was largely decided by a man whose ancestors lived for generations in the Bucks-Mont.

The mother of General Ulysses S Grant grew up in Horsham Township, near the Montgomery Township border and her relatives had lived in Horsham and Bucks County for three generations.
Grant‘s great-grandfather John Simpson was born in the north of Ireland in 1738. In the 1750s he and is brother William immigrated to the new world where they hoped to find success and adventure in America.
They achieved both.
William met and married a New Britain Township girl named Nancy Hines, daughter of Matthew and Ann Hines.
John fell in love with another New Britain girl, Hannah Roberts.
He purchased 164 acres of land in Horsham at a sheriff‘s sale on November 30, 1763 on what is now Limekiln Pike between Chestnut Lane and Lower State Road. Here he built, or likely, expanded a log cabin on the site for his bride and family to be.
The Simpsons didn‘t have long to wait for a famly. Within five years they had 3 children œ William, who died young; John Jr, grandfather of Grant‘s mother and Hannah, who later married Benjamin Hough of Warrington.
Both John (Grant‘s great-grandfather) and Hough played important roles in the American Revolution.
By 1776, Simpson had been appointed Horsham Township Tax Collector. That appointment is indicative of of both his political sentiments and his standing in the community. Such roles were given to men who were trusted by the community. In addition, in that year of the Declaration of Independence, the Pennsylvania executive council wasn‘t appointing anyone who didn‘t share the rebel beliefs of separation from England.
Simpson, like his brother William, left his farm in Horsham with his wife to tend the estate and family while he went and fought for his freedom.
Grant‘s great-grandfather fought for independence at Chadd‘s Ford, Trenton, Brandywine Germantown and shared the bitter winter at Valley Forge with Washington and the other rebel troops.
He and his wife instilled in their children a love of liberty and country that seeped through the generations to Grant. A century later when he was fighting to preserve the Union, he may have thought often of his (great-) grandfather who had helped to bring it to birth.
One momento from those Revolutionary War years stayed for generations in the Simpson family It was the old flint-lock which John Simpson carried with him into battle and took back home again in peace.
The five and a half foot long rifle was still being used by Simpson‘s descendants in the 19th century and one of them wrote, —It will shoot as far and kick as hard as any gun“.
It became a treasured relic of Simpson‘s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. When young Ulysses touched the stock and barrel, he knew he was touching a small piece of American history.
If John‘s wife, Hannah, didn‘t share in the fighting, she shared in his sentiments and in anxiety for her husband and his comrades.
There is one legend, reported by several sources but not completely verifiable, concerning her during the War for Independence.
It happened on October 4, 1777, the day of the disastrous battle of Germantown.
Hannah Simpson had been working in the bake house of the Simpson homestead. In the distance, she could hear what sounded like rumbling thunder œ but it was the roar of cannon and the blast of rifles.
She kneaded the bread she was making faster, almost in time with the sporadic cannon booms, her anxiety translated into tight squeezes of the dough.
She left it to rise and came back later to bake it.
That evening, she saw defeated, exhausted - and hungry œ soldiers of the rebel forces passing by the homestead.
Grant‘s great grandmother quickly grabbed the hot loaves of bread she had made for her family and ran to the road. There she fed the tired citizen œsoldiers.
From them she learned of the battle‘s outcome and may also have been reassured of her husband‘s safety.
The rebel victory at Yorktown, VA brought independence for the colonies and peace for Simpson and his family
He returned to his farm to raise his family and crops .
His son John Jr. married Rebecca Weir, daughter of a Bucks County farmer in 1793. The following spring he bought a farm about 2 miles southwest of his father‘s homestead. It was here that their 1st two chidren œ Mary and Samuel œ were born.
In 1798, he sold the farm and moved to a homestead he rented in Whitemarsh Township. It was here that Hannah Simpson, later mother of Ulysses S Grant, was born.
It was in the old Neshaminy Presbyterian Church in Warwick, where the Simpson family had long worshiped, that the children (including Sarah, the last) were chistened.
But by 1800, John Jr. was back in Horsham again, probably living on his father‘s farm which he over saw when his father died in 1804.
Even at that late date, according to an early historian , it wasn‘t a farm as one sees today in the Bucks-Mont. —The land was principly uncleared , primitive forest and the small clearings (were) generally tilled by old fashioned methods of manual labor“.
Shortly after the birth of Sarah, Rebecca Weir Simpson died. She was buried in the Warwick church graveyard and Simpson began looking for another wife ad mother for his children He found her in another Bucks County girl, Sarah Hare, whose parents were friends of Simpson‘s parents. He married her on June 4, 1803.
It was she who helped mold the character of Hannah and her influence was so strong that hers was the voice that determined the name for Grant when he was born years later in Ohio.
Tradition commonly assumes that —Ulysses“ was somehow linked to Grant‘s father‘s new England heritage.
But the family themselves left an account of what happened in Ohio. At that time, Hannah and one aunt wanted to name the boy Albert Gallatin, in honor of a famous financier. Another aunt wanted to call him Theodore. Grandfather John Simpson wanted to name the boy Hiram.
But grandmother Sarah Hines Simpson‘s will carried the day. She was, wrote one historian, —a woman of considerable intelligence and education and an ardent admirer of Homer‘s warrior hero Ulysses.“
She wanted her first grandchild to be named for him.
The parents of the baby finally agreed to the grandparents wishes and named the boy Ulysses Hiram Grant.
Sarah Ware, wrote one of her other grandsons —had a commanding and attractive presence and was mentally and morally above the average. Her mind was liberal, sympathetic, and well-improved by wide acquaintance with books and intelligent minds. She was of plain, domestic tastes and graceful winning manners.
These were traits she passed on to her step-daughter, Hannah, as she grew up to become a young woman in Horsham.
She was known as a girl with common sense and religious.
Jesse Grant, who married her shortly after the Simpsons moved to Bethel, Ohio later described her —handsome but not vain.“ She had by then joined the Methodist Church and it —never had a more consistent member“.
—Her steadiness, firmness and strength of character have been the stay of the family through life. She was always careful and most watchful over the children but not austere.“
Grant himself later recalled that in spite of primitive conditions then in Ohio, his mother Hannah never complained of hardship, toil, or depression. He recalled he never saw her shed a tear and that while she never boasted, she was very proud of her ancestry and family history.
These were traits that Hannah developed while a girl in the Bucks-Mont. In addition to working wit her parents on the farm, she also visited with other branches.
One place she probably visited often was the home of her aunt Hannah and uncle Benjamin Hough, who was postmaster of Warrington (PA). The Houghs lived in the large stone house (in what is now the Hatboro Federal Savings and Loan Association) at the corner of Easton and Bristol Roads (HPHA note - think this is Street Rd, not Bristol Rd)
The house itself was famous. It had been built by John Barclay, a member of General John Lacey‘s guerillas who roamed the Bucks-Mont in the Revolution. Barclay became a justice of the peace in Bucks County and was appointed President Judge of the county courts in 1789. In 1790 he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention and later served as mayor of Philadelphia.
He was one of the founders of the Insurance Company of North America (now Cigna).
The large and substantial house which he built he sold to Benjamin Hough in 1803. It was here that the Simpson family probably moved after John Simpson sold his farm before 1817 in preparation to move to Point Pleasant, Ohio.
It was there that Hannah married Jesse Root Grant in 1820 and raised a family of 6 children, one of them being Ulysses Hiram Grant.
By the time young Grant went to West Point, though, the name Hiram had been dropped and replaced with the name of Simpson.
There are several explanations for this One is that he didn‘t care for the name which his grandparents had chosen for him. As a child, friends mocked his first name and called him —Useless“. In addition, the initials of the three names Ulysses Hiram Grant produced —UGH“ œ a word of which others switched to —HUG“.
Some historians say, therefore, that Grant himself dropped the Hiram and substituted Simpson. Others say that the congressman who appointed him assumed the middle name was Simpson and so called him in the appointment.
In any case, Grant preferred it to the name he was christened with.

In 1843, young Lt Grant came to Bucks County to visit the home of his aunt and uncle Hough. He probably also visited the homestead on which his mother grew up in Horsham. He returned for another visit to the home of his ancestors in 1854.
Jesse Grant believed his son was a —child of destiny“ especially after a phrenologist predicted he would have a distinguished future after reading the bumps on his head.
Hannah Grant was less vocal than her husband but confident in her child‘s eventual success.
She was unable to attend his inauguration as president in the 1870s, her age prohibiting the journey. By then she was living in Kentucky. She never went to the capital during his administration, possibly because her moral nature was offended by the reported corruption of the Grant administration.
But she remained proud of her son himself and his role in preserving the Union, She knew the Simpsons of Bucks-Mont would also have been proud.

Name: West with her family from /Horsham/ Montgomery Co
From newspaper article written by Edward Mathews aout the time Grant was president

"Sixty years after the departure of the family to Ohio, Hannah Simpson was remembered by elderly people as a sprightly, agreeable girl, seventeen to twenty years of age, who went out in company and had already begun to receive the attentions of her admirers. Some of the old gallants living in the neighboring townships have related to the writer instances of their acquaintance with her in the long-past springtide of their youth. They told of seeing her at the old county line school house on the Warrington side on Sunday afternoons as an attendant of the religious meetings there, held by various clergymen. She in company with her parents also frequently attended the New Britain Baptist church, six miles distant to the north and also the Presbyterian church at Neshaminy. In the old school house above mentioned the children of Simpson obtained what education they received, as it was just opposite their father's property, though in another county."


A Special Consideration: Hannah Simpson Grant

http://saints.css.edu/mkelsey/hann.html
Mother of U. S. Grant
by Diane Meives, Ulysses S. Grant Network

Hannah Simpson Grant

November 23, 1798-May 11, 1883.

For well over a century, Hannah Simpson Grant, mother of U. S. Grant has been portrayed as cold and
unfeeling; an uncaring woman and mother. However, a recent search of several of the major Grant
biographies and several works of his closest friends raise the question of how Hannah Grant got this
reputation. The great majority of books and papers show a different version of the mysterious mother of U.
S. Grant.

Neighbors of the Grant family testified that she was a warm and pious woman, devoted to her husband and
family. Her family members speak of her in terms of strength, determination and calmness. Julia Grant
describes Hannah as "...the most self-sacrificing, the sweetest, kindest woman I ever met, except my own dear
mother." High praise certainly, for her mother-in-law. Ulysses' boyhood friend, Daniel Ammen, remembering
his childhood, described Hannah as a "cheerful woman, always kind and gracious to children." To be in
such high standing with little boys is a compliment on a plane of its own.

The ultimate compliment of course came from her famous son. A conversation with his brother-in-law, the
Reverend Michael Cramer, revealed Grant's feelings about his mother. Of her he said that "she was the best
woman he had ever known; unselfish, devoted to her family, thorougly good, conscientious, intelligent, never
meddling with other person's affairs, genuinely pious without any cant, with a strong sense of right and
justice; unobtrusive, kindhearted, and attached to her church and country." Rev. Cramer said, "General,
you have most of your mother's characteristics," to which Grant simply replied, "yes, I think so."

How then, did Hannah get such an undeserved reputation of being cold and unfeeling? If not from her
family or community, then where? Perhaps from a reporter sent to interview her after her son's rise to fame?
Perhaps he misunderstood her modesty as aloofness. Certainly he shouldn't have been surprised. After all,
the modesty and reticence of General Grant was nothing new to the press. Although Hannah enjoyed
reading about her famous son, whenever he was praised in her presence, she would blush and leave the
room. The compliments were too close to self-praise, which her upbringing had taught her to recoil from. On
many occasions when Ulysses invited his mother to the White House, she declined, but not from lack of
feeling. The throngs which would have surrounded her would have been too much for her sensitive
constitution. Indeed, all the adulation seemed at times to overwhelm Ulysses himself.

Like her son, Hannah was a victim of gossip and the press. But time has shed a new light on Hannah Grant.
The works and deeds of Ulysses S. Grant are a shining tribute to the mother whose examples he followed.


Hannah Simpson Grant (the mother of U.S. Grant) is the most nebulous person
in his life and very little is known about her. She was extremely reticent and
almost never discussed her son to anybody, least of all the press. Below is one of
the few (if not only) newspaper interviews she ever granted and it has never been
published since its original distribution.

San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 1879

GENERAL GRANT'S MOTHER

An Interview with Mrs. Jesse Grant at Jersey City
(From the New York Graphic, September 16, 1879).

T his morning a Graphic reporter called upon Mrs. Jesse Grant, the venerable
mother of the ex-President, who makes her home with her daughter, Mrs.
Corbin, in Jersey City. The Corbin residence is a pleasant frame house with a
broad veranda, looking down upon beds of brilliant salvia and scarlet geraniums.
It stands on Pavonia avenue, not far from the old courthouse. In response to a
card, Mrs. Grant soon entered the handsome parlor into which the reporter had
been ushered, and seated herself in an armchair of crimson velvet, which threw
into strong relief her slender figure draped in black, and the pale, rather delicate
features framed in puffs of silvery white hair, shaded by a dainty cap of lace.

In response to an inquiry as to when she expected her son, Mrs. Grant said:
"Indeed, the newspapers seem to know more about it than we do; at least, so
Mrs. Corbin says. For myself, I never read any paper but the Christian
Advocate, published in Cincinnati."

"And is that because the paper is religious or from Cincinnati?" the reporter
ventured to inquire. "Well" said the lady smiling, "principally because it is
religious, though I am very much inclined to like anything from Cincinnati. You
know I have lived in Ohio most of the time since I was a girl of twenty and so
many of my old friends live there that my heart clings to it," she concluded with
tear-dimmed eyes. "But most of your family is here?"

"Yes," answered Mrs. Grant, brightening up, "and now I have ten
grandchildren, one great-grandchild and my own four children. Once I had six,
but the son next to Ulysses died a number of years ago, and when he was
prospering finely, and then my dear daughter Clara passed away. There is a
picture of her," continued the old lady pointing with pride to a portrait in oil of a
young girl, a perfect brunette, and though not beautiful in figure, having a strong,
expressive face. "Then," resumed Mrs. Grant, "there is my daughter, Mrs.
Cramer, who lives in Denmark; her husband occupies a government position,
you know. She has a lovely little daughter and here are some her of (Mrs.
Cramer's) paintings." The paintings were landscapes of foreign and home
scenery, some of them with considerable merit.

"You are very proud of your children?" remarked the reporter. "Yes," said
the old lady with a satisfied smile, "they are pretty good, take them on the
whole, but it's no easy thing to bring up a family." The writer, having only made
the experiment theoretically, agreed, and inquired what sort of baby Ulysses
was.

"Well, very fair, though I don't know as he was any different from the rest of
them, but people seem to think I'll say so now. He was always a steady, serious
sort of boy, who took everything in earnest; even when he played he made a
business of it." "You expect to see him too?" the reporter asked. "Yes, my
grandsons Ulysses and Jesse have gone to San Francisco to meet him. They
think he will arrive on Saturday. Then he is coming through East. I have that
they have got his house in Galena that the folks there gave him, all in readiness,
even to the servants, but," she continued, bridling up a little, "I know he will
come first to see his mother." (Note: he didn't.)

The reporter asked, "Where will he reside this winter?" "Maybe in
Washington, maybe in New York, maybe in Philadelphia, maybe - but dear me,
there are lots of places to live in, and there's no telling what he will do. One thing
I do know, though, and that is he and Mrs. Grant will be glad to have a rest. You
see, the Europeans like fighting men, and they have been feasting and dining
him until I expect the poor boy is clear worn out." "Then you won't approve of
any demonstrations here?" "No, indeed, we are not a demonstrative family,"
the sweet old lady said. "None of us care a penny for all the demonstrations in
the world."

Since Hannah Grant hardly ever spoke publicly, it is impossible to know how much of this
interview is actually truthful or how often the reporter put words into her mouth. The factual
information attributed to Hannah Grant in the article is all truthful, however.

Interview Index

Ulysses S. Grant Homepage




(1033) HANNAH Simpson, the mother of Grant.

"In the letters written to his mother, especially those penned in his 'plebdom' at West Point, he opened
his heart and told her how firmly implanted were the lessons of truth, patience, self-sacrifice and of
reverence for religion that he had learned from her gentle lips. A rare woman was Hannah Simpson;
sweet and comely to look upon in youth, she gained in her maturity an added dignity of bearing. A
silent, observant nature was hers. Deeply religious in temperament, reared in the austere and solemn
tenents of the Methodist church she looked upon life with eyes that saw only its duties and
responsibilities. She had a smile for every one, but laughter with her was as rare as

anger. Soft of speech, just, gentle, yet firm and steadfast, she proved an admirable help and stay for
the sometimes erratic Jesse; but 'nagging' never, she watched over her little brood with the vigilance of
the mother partridge. Shielding them ever from that which menaced their innocence or their well being,
she reared her children pure of heart and pure of speech, and the best of her, because he had the
most of her, seems to have concentrated in Ulysses."

(The True Ulysses Grant, by Gen. Chas. King.)
Hannah Simpson was in person the very antithesis of her husband; a brunette with small, slender,
erect figure, delicately chiseled features and when young, Hannah Simpson must have been very
sweet to look upon; she had a modest air of refinement and that expression of moral beauty which
increases with years.

(Howes Hist. of Ohio, by Henry Howe, L. L. D.)
Hannah Simpson had no discoverable enemies; she was almost universally beloved as a Christian
woman and faithful wife and mother. But it took longer to know her. She was the most reticent of
persons. "Ulysses got his reticence, his patience, his equable temper from his mother," is the verdict of
those who knew both father and mother. Others go further and say: "He got his sense from his
mother. In truth the Simpsons were a fine old family. They were quite as marital as the Grants; were
as genuinely American in their history, and were possessed apparently of greater self-control. Hannah
Simpson was the daughter of John Simpson, a man with the restless heart of a pioneer, who had left
his ancestral home in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia, and had settled in Clermont county a few years
before. He had built a brick house and opened a large farm, and his position was most honorable in
his town of Bantam. Hannah Simpson, his daughter, seems to have gathered up and carried forward
to her son Ulysses the best qualities of her people. That she was a remarkable woman all her
neighbors bear testimony. She never complained of any hardship or toil or depression. She seldom
laughed, and her son Ulysses once said: "I never saw
Page 317

her shed a tear in my life." She was as proud of her family history as her husband was of his, but she
said nothing about it. She never argued, never boasted, and never gossiped of her neighbors. Her
husband bore testimony of her character in words well chosen: "Her steadiness and strength of
character have been the stay of the family through life." Her neighbors called her "a noble woman."

"Ulysses Grant, His Life and Character."
By Hamlin Garland.

"Gen. Grant's mother is one of those sedate, sensible, serious women whose households are fit
nurseries for heroes. Industry, economy, patience, temperance and religion were the lessons of his
early days."

"Men of Our Times," Stowe.

The ancestry of General Grant is most distinguished; many Colonial and Revolutionary heroes there
are in the line back to Noah who was born in 1718; Captain Noah Grant was at the seige of Crown
Point under General Lyman; was also doing scout duty with Putnam and Rogers at Lake George (see
official report signed by the three, Doc. Hist. New York IV, 17-177); served with great distinction
and was killed at Lake George September 20, 1756. It remained for General Ulysses Simpson Grant
to win laurels in two decisive wars fighting under the Stars and Stripes, after which he was chosen by
popular vote to rule over the land he had fought to save; his military career, as we all know, was most
brilliant, and his reign as chief magistrate was wise and just, earning for him the love and gratitude of a
nation torn and scarred by four years of civil strife, safely piloted by his military genius and masterly
guidance through this bloody conflict to the fulfillment of Lincoln's cherished dream of a Reunited
Republic.

Ulysses Simpson Grant was born at Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822; died at Mt. McGregor, N.
Y., July 23, 1885; graduated from West Point in 1843; fought in the war with Mexico; was
commander in chief of the United States army in the war of the Rebellion during

Jessie Root Grant married Hannah Simpson; she is described as comely, modest, unselfish, full of
good sense, a woman of strong religious convictions, a devout Methodist; her ancestors were noted
for their regard for integrity, veracity and independence; Gen. Grant never ceased to reverance the
religion of his mother; her firmness and strength of character were inherited to a marked degree by her
gifted son. E. S. W.From newspaper article written by Edward Mathews aout the time Grant was president

"Sixty years after the departure of the family to Ohio, Hannah Simpson was remembered by elderly people as a sprightly, agreeable girl, seventeen to twenty years of age, who went out in company and had already begun to receive the attentions of her admirers. Some of the old gallants living in the neighboring townships have related to the writer instances of their acquaintance with her in the long-past springtide of their youth. They told of seeing her at the old county line school house on the Warrington side on Sunday afternoons as an attendant of the religious meetings there, held by various clergymen. She in company with her parents also frequently attended the New Britain Baptist church, six miles distant to the north and also the Presbyterian church at Neshaminy. In the old school house above mentioned the children of Simpson obtained what education they received, as it was just opposite their father's property, though in another county."


A Special Consideration: Hannah Simpson Grant

http://saints.css.edu/mkelsey/hann.html
Mother of U. S. Gra
by Diane Meives, Ulysses S. Grant Network

Hannah Simpson Grant

November 23, 1798-May 11, 1883.

For well over a century, Hannah Simpson Grant, mother of U. S. Grant has been portrayed as cold and
unfeeling; an uncaring woman and mother. However, a recent search of several of the major Grant
biographies and several works of his closest friends raise the question of how Hannah Grant got this
reputation. The great majority of books and papers show a different version of the mysterious mother of U.
S. Grant.

Neighbors of the Grant family testified that she was a warm and pious woman, devoted to her husband and
family. Her family members speak of her in terms of strength, determination and calmness. Julia Grant
describes Hannah as "...the most self-sacrificing, the sweetest, kindest woman I ever met, except my own dear
mother." High praise certainly, for her mother-in-law. Ulysses' boyhood friend, Daniel Ammen, remembering
his childhood, described Hannah as a "cheerful woman, always kind and gracious to children." To be in
such high standing with little boys is a compliment on a plane of its own.

The ultimate compliment of course came from her famous son. A conversation with his brother-in-law, the
Reverend Michael Cramer, revealed Grant's feelings about his mother. Of her he said that "she was the best
woman he had ever known; unselfish, devoted to her family, thorougly good, conscientious, intelligent, never
meddling with other person's affairs, genuinely pious without any cant, with a strong sense of right and
justice; unobtrusive, kindhearted, and attached to her church and country." Rev. Cramer said, "General,
you have most of your mother's characteristics," to which Grant simply replied, "yes, I think so."

How then, did Hannah get such an undeserved reputation of being cold and unfeeling? If not from her
family or community, then where? Perhaps from a reporter sent to interview her after her son's rise to fame?
Perhaps he misunderstood her modesty as aloofness. Certainly he shouldn't have been surprised. After all,
the modesty and reticence of General Grant was nothing new to the press. Although Hannah enjoyed
reading about her famous son, whenever he was praised in her presence, she would blush and leave the
room. The compliments were too close to self-praise, which her upbringing had taught her to recoil from. On
many occasions when Ulysses invited his mother to the White House, she declined, but not from lack of
feeling. The throngs which would have surrounded her would have been too much for her sensitive
constitution. Indeed, all the adulation seemed at times to overwhelm Ulysses himself.

Like her son, Hannah was a victim of gossip and the press. But time has shed a new light on Hannah Grant.
The works and deeds of Ulysses S. Grant are a shining tribute to the mother whose examples he followed.


Hannah Simpson Grant (the mother of U.S. Grant) is the most nebulous person
in his life and very little is known about her. She was extremely reticent and
almost never discussed her son to anybody, least of all the press. Below is one of
the few (if not only) newspaper interviews she ever granted and it has never been
published since its original distribution.

San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 1879

GENERAL GRANT'S MOTHER

An Interview with Mrs. Jesse Grant at Jersey City
(From the New York Graphic, September 16, 1879).

T his morning a Graphic reporter called upon Mrs. Jesse Grant, the venerable
mother of the ex-President, who makes her home with her daughter, Mrs.
Corbin, in Jersey City. The Corbin residence is a pleasant frame house with a
broad veranda, looking down upon beds of brilliant salvia and scarlet geraniums.
It stands on Pavonia avenue, not far from the old courthouse. In response to a
card, Mrs. Grant soon entered the handsome parlor into which the reporter had
been ushered, and seated herself in an armchair of crimson velvet, which threw
into strong relief her slender figure draped in black, and the pale, rather delicate
features framed in puffs of silvery white hair, shaded by a dainty cap of lace.

In response to an inquiry as to when she expected her son, Mrs. Grant said:
"Indeed, the newspapers seem to know more about it than we do; at least, so
Mrs. Corbin says. For myself, I never read any paper but the Christian
Advocate, published in Cincinnati."

"And is that because the paper is religious or from Cincinnati?" the reporter
ventured to inquire. "Well" said the lady smiling, "principally because it is
religious, though I am very much inclined to like anything from Cincinnati. You
know I have lived in Ohio most of the time since I was a girl of twenty and so
many of my old friends live there that my heart clings to it," she concluded with
tear-dimmed eyes. "But most of your family is here?"

"Yes," answered Mrs. Grant, brightening up, "and now I have ten
grandchildren, one great-grandchild and my own four children. Once I had six,
but the son next to Ulysses died a number of years ago, and when he was
prospering finely, and then my dear daughter Clara passed away. There is a
picture of her," continued the old lady pointing with pride to a portrait in oil of a
young girl, a perfect brunette, and though not beautiful in figure, having a strong,
expressive face. "Then," resumed Mrs. Grant, "there is my daughter, Mrs.
Cramer, who lives in Denmark; her husband occupies a government position,
you know. She has a lovely little daughter and here are some her of (Mrs.
Cramer's) paintings." The paintings were landscapes of foreign and home
scenery, some of them with considerable merit.

"You are very proud of your children?" remarked the reporter. "Yes," said
the old lady with a satisfied smile, "they are pretty good, take them on the
whole, but it's no easy thing to bring up a family." The writer, having only made
the experiment theoretically, agreed, and inquired what sort of baby Ulysses
was.

"Well, very fair, though I don't know as he was any different from the rest of
them, but people seem to think I'll say so now. He was always a steady, serious
sort of boy, who took everything in earnest; even when he played he made a
business of it." "You expect to see him too?" the reporter asked. "Yes, my
grandsons Ulysses and Jesse have gone to San Francisco to meet him. They
think he will arrive on Saturday. Then he is coming through East. I have that
they have got his house in Galena that the folks there gave him, all in readiness,
even to the servants, but," she continued, bridling up a little, "I know he will
come first to see his mother." (Note: he didn't.)

The reporter asked, "Where will he reside this winter?" "Maybe in
Washington, maybe in New York, maybe in Philadelphia, maybe - but dear me,
there are lots of places to live in, and there's no telling what he will do. One thing
I do know, though, and that is he and Mrs. Grant will be glad to have a rest. You
see, the Europeans like fighting men, and they have been feasting and dining
him until I expect the poor boy is clear worn out." "Then you won't approve of
any demonstrations here?" "No, indeed, we are not a demonstrative family,"
the sweet old lady said. "None of us care a penny for all the demonstrations in
the world."

Since Hannah Grant hardly ever spoke publicly, it is impossible to know how much of this
interview is actually truthful or how often the reporter put words into her mouth. The factual
information attributed to Hannah Grant in the article is all truthful, however.

Interview Index

Ulysses S. Grant Homepage




(1033) HANNAH Simpson, the mother of Grant.

"In the letters written to his mother, especially those penned in his 'plebdom' at West Point, he opened
his heart and told her how firmly implanted were the lessons of truth, patience, self-sacrifice and of
reverence for religion that he had learned from her gentle lips. A rare woman was Hannah Simpson;
sweet and comely to look upon in youth, she gained in her maturity an added dignity of bearing. A
silent, observant nature was hers. Deeply religious in temperament, reared in the austere and solemn
tenents of the Methodist church she looked upon life with eyes that saw only its duties and
responsibilities. She had a smile for every one, but laughter with her was as rare as

anger. Soft of speech, just, gentle, yet firm and steadfast, she proved an admirable help and stay for
the sometimes erratic Jesse; but 'nagging' never, she watched over her little brood with the vigilance of
the mother partridge. Shielding them ever from that which menaced their innocence or their well being,
she reared her children pure of heart and pure of speech, and the best of her, because he had the
most of her, seems to have concentrated in Ulysses."

(The True Ulysses Grant, by Gen. Chas. King.)
Hannah Simpson was in person the very antithesis of her husband; a brunette with small, slender,
erect figure, delicately chiseled features and when young, Hannah Simpson must have been very
sweet to look upon; she had a modest air of refinement and that expression of moral beauty which
increases with years.

(Howes Hist. of Ohio, by Henry Howe, L. L. D.)
Hannah Simpson had no discoverable enemies; she was almost universally beloved as a Christian
woman and faithful wife and mother. But it took longer to know her. She was the most reticent of
persons. "Ulysses got his reticence, his patience, his equable temper from his mother," is the verdict of
those who knew both father and mother. Others go further and say: "He got his sense from his
mother. In truth the Simpsons were a fine old family. They were quite as marital as the Grants; were
as genuinely American in their history, and were possessed apparently of greater self-control. Hannah
Simpson was the daughter of John Simpson, a man with the restless heart of a pioneer, who had left
his ancestral home in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia, and had settled in Clermont county a few years
before. He had built a brick house and opened a large farm, and his position was most honorable in
his town of Bantam. Hannah Simpson, his daughter, seems to have gathered up and carried forward
to her son Ulysses the best qualities of her people. That she was a remarkable woman all her
neighbors bear testimony. She never complained of any hardship or toil or depression. She seldom
laughed, and her son Ulysses once said: "I never saw
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her shed a tear in my life." She was as proud of her family history as her husband was of his, but she
said nothing about it. She never argued, never boasted, and never gossiped of her neighbors. Her
husband bore testimony of her character in words well chosen: "Her steadiness and strength of
character have been the stay of the family through life." Her neighbors called her "a noble woman."

"Ulysses Grant, His Life and Character."
By Hamlin Garland.

"Gen. Grant's mother is one of those sedate, sensible, serious women whose households are fit
nurseries for heroes. Industry, economy, patience, temperance and religion were the lessons of his
early days."

"Men of Our Times," Stowe.

The ancestry of General Grant is most distinguished; many Colonial and Revolutionary heroes there
are in the line back to Noah who was born in 1718; Captain Noah Grant was at the seige of Crown
Point under General Lyman; was also doing scout duty with Putnam and Rogers at Lake George (see
official report signed by the three, Doc. Hist. New York IV, 17-177); served with great distinction
and was killed at Lake George September 20, 1756. It remained for General Ulysses Simpson Grant
to win laurels in two decisive wars fighting under the Stars and Stripes, after which he was chosen by
popular vote to rule over the land he had fought to save; his military career, as we all know, was most
brilliant, and his reign as chief magistrate was wise and just, earning for him the love and gratitude of a
nation torn and scarred by four years of civil strife, safely piloted by his military genius and masterly
guidance through this bloody conflict to the fulfillment of Lincoln's cherished dream of a Reunited
Republic.

Ulysses Simpson Grant was born at Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822; died at Mt. McGregor, N.
Y., July 23, 1885; graduated from West Point in 1843; fought in the war with Mexico; was
commander in chief of the United States army in the war of the Rebellion during

Jessie Root Grant married Hannah Simpson; she is described as comely, modest, unselfish, full of
good sense, a woman of strong religious convictions, a devout Methodist; her ancestors were noted
for their regard for integrity, veracity and independence; Gen. Grant never ceased to reverance the
religion of his mother; her firmness and strength of character were inherited to a marked degree by her
gifted son. E. S. W.

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Tijdbalk Hannah Weir (OHIO) Simpson

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