Lemuel Pratt Grant (1817 - 1893)

Born 11 Aug 1817 in Frankfort, Waldo, Maine, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Jane Louisa (Killian) Grant — married 27 Jul 1881 in Fulton, Georgia, United States

Died 11 Jan 1893 at age 75 in Atlanta, Fulton, Georgia, United States

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Biography

Grant Park was established in 1883 when Lemuel P. Grant gave the City of Atlanta 100 acres. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

BURIAL Westview Cemetery Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, USA

Lemuel Pratt Grant was Atlanta's quintessential railroad man as well as a major landowner and civic leader. In railroads, he served a a laborer, chief engineer, speculator and executive all over the South. As part of his speculation, he owned enormous tracts of land in strategic areas. At one point, he owned more than six hundred acres in what is now Atlanta. He designed and built Atlanta's defenses during the American Civil War and afterwards became an important civic leader. He donated land for Grant Park, Atlanta's first large park, and serving as councilman and was also on various boards and committees.

He was born in Frankfort, Maine. He had come south by the 1840's to work on the Georgia Railroad where he started as a laborer. By 1844, he was buying large tracts of Atlanta real estate, mainly in the Third Ward. He and John T. Grant worked for Augusta, Georgia-based Fannin, Frant and Company, which contracted to build all or parts of the Georgia, the Central, the Macon & Western, the Western & Atlantic and the Atlanta & West Point Railroads. Soon after, he worked under engineer J. Edgar Thomson as a rod man assisting in surveying where he worked closely then with a man who would become a lifelong friend and business associate, Richard Peters.

See Find A Grave Source for Further Biography.

Lemuel Pratt Grant was Atlanta's quintessential railroad man as well as a major land owner and civic leader. In the railroad industry he served as a laborer, chief engineer, speculator and executive all over the South. As part of his speculation he owned enormous tracts of land in strategic areas. At one point he owned more than 600 acres in what is now Atlanta Georgia.

He designed and built Atlanta's defenses during the American Civil War and after the War became an important civic leader.

He donated land for Grant Park, Atlanta's first park, served as councilman and was also on various boards and committees.

Born in Frankfort Maine, Lemuel went south in the 1840's to work on the Georgia Railroad where he started as a laborer. By 1844 he was buying large tracts of Atlanta real estate, mainly in the Third Ward.

Married twice:

First wife Laura Loomis Williams, the daughter of Ammo and Laura (Loomis) Williams, December 1843 Atlanta Georgia

When Laura died in 1879 Lemuel wrote: "My house escaped the torch which was so generally applied by Sherman's hosts when leaving Atlanta. The surroundings are rather attractive, especially the lawn and Grove in front. But the light of the household has left us for a better country, where wars and suffering shall never come. My dear wife died on the 25th of May last year....the house is so desolate to me though filled with children and grandchildren who vie with each other in kindness."

Second wife Jane Louisa Killian, the daughter of David and Cynthia Ann (Moore) Killian, July 21, 1881 Fulton Georgia

Burial Westview Cemetery Atlanta Georgia

Sources

1. ↑ Grant Park, Atlanta - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Park,_Atlanta
2. ↑ Grant Park Historic District, The National Park Service - https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/atlanta/ghd.htm
3. ↑ Grant Park Neighborhood History - https://www.grantpark.org/history/neighborhood

• Obituary of Mrs. Laura Loomis Grant. The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, GA, Tuesday, 27 May 1879, p. 4, col. 3. Digital image at Newspapers.com

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/40598629/lemuel-pratt-grant
• Find a grave Westview Cemetery Atlanta Georgia Find A Grave: Memorial #40598629 - expansive biography written there