History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/James Grant

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For works with similar titles, see Grant, James.

[James Grant]

County, May 31, 1816, and when twelve years of age his father removed to Rochester where the son entered the printing office of the Cortland Advocate. Young Granger worked at his trade in New York, New Haven, Cleveland and Detroit. He finally went to Albany and was for a long time engaged on State work, where he made the acquaintance of the famous New York politicians and statesmen in the days of Martin Van Buren, Thurlow Weed and Horace Greeley. Later he went south and accepted a position on the Charleston Courier. In 1847 he came West, obtaining a position on the St. Louis Republican. In 1848 he came to Iowa and, having studied law in New York, he began to practice in Des Moines, also carrying on real estate business. Finding no newspaper in the place he, at the urgent request of Judge Bates, purchased a printing outfit at Iowa City and transporting it by wagon to Des Moines issued the first number of the Iowa Star in July, 1849, using for a printing office a double log cabin on the banks of the Raccoon River, formerly one of the fort buildings. He served on the staff of Governor Hempstead, with the rank of colonel from 1850 to 1854, when he was elected Prosecuting Attorney. In 1855 he was elected county judge; and has been mayor of Des Moines.

CHARLES T. GRANGER was born in Monroe County, New York, on the 9th of October, 1835. His parents removed to Waukegan, Illinois, while he was a child, where he received his education. He was reared on a farm and as he reached manhood decided to study law. In 1854 he came to Iowa stopping in Allamakee County where he pursued his law studies, teaching school winters. In 1860 he was admitted to the bar and entered upon practice in the town of Mitchell, Mitchell County. In August, 1862, he was elected captain of Company K, of the Twenty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, serving for three years. He was in the battles of Yellow Bayou, Tupelo, Nashville and Mobile, doing excellent service. Upon retiring from the army he located at Waukon, Allamakee County. He was elected District Attorney in 1869, serving four years, when he was elected judge of the Circuit Court and served in that position until January, 1887, when he was chosen judge of the District Court, serving until January, 1889. He was elevated to the position of Judge of the Supreme Court, and was Chief Justice in 1894 and 1895 and Associate Judge until January, 1901. In 1874 he was the Republican candidate for Congress in the Third District but failed of election. Judge Granger has been a Republican since the organization of that party.

JAMES GRANT was born in Halifax County, North Carolina, on the 12th of December, 1812. He was prepared to enter college at fourteen years of age and graduated at eighteen. After teaching in Raleigh for three years he went west and in 1834 opened a law office in Chicago. He was soon after appointed Prosecuting Attorney of the Sixth District and in 1838 removed to Davenport, settling on a farm near the little village. In 1841 he was chosen to represent Scott County in the Legislative Assembly. In 1844 he was elected a delegate to the first Constitutional Convention and took an active part in framing the Constitution, which was rejected. In 1846 he was a member of the second convention and was the author of the “bill of rights” in that instrument under which Iowa became a State. In 1847 he was elected judge of the District Court, serving five years. In 1852 he was again elected to the Legislature and chosen Speaker of the House. When a young man he began to acquire a law library and continued to add to it through mature life until he had secured the largest and best selected collection of law books in the West. He became one of the great lawyers of the country and was employed in some of the most important land and bond cases in the West. In one railroad case he won for his clients a million dollars and received for his services $100,000. In politics he was a life-long Democrat.