William L. Grant (1822-1914)
Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Monongalia, Marion and Taylor Counties, West Virginia
Rush, West & Company, Publishers; Philadelphia, PA.; 1895
pages 4-5 (in the Taylor County section)
WILLIAM L. GRANT, M.D., of Grafton, whose successful career as a professional man has spanned nearly half a century, is a physician of ability and skill, and a man of education and culture. He is a son of Chapman and Mary (Jett) Grant, and was born in Harrison county, Virginia (now West Virginia), July 23, 1822. Chapman Grant was of English descent, and a native of Culpeper county, in the middle section of the great valley of Virginia. He was born in 1776, and his earliest childhood memories were of the closing struggles of the Revolutionary War upon the soil of his native state, where the sword and the torch of the British and tories swept through many a fair district, and left desolation and ruin. He received his education in the excellent private and select schools for which Virginia was then noted a century ago, and grew to manhood in his native county, where he married and lived until 1806. In that year he joined the tide of emigration which was pouring over the Blue Ridge and the Alleghenies into the northwestern part of trans-Alleghenian Virginia, and came to Harrison county, where he purchased a farm ten miles south of Clarksburg, and spent the remaining years of his life. He died at the advanced age of about eighty-two years. Living in the age when Virginia's statesmen were prominent and leading spirits in the political affairs of the Nation, he was a firm advocate of the principles of Jeffersonian democracy, in which he had been reared. He was a polished gentleman of the old school, and possessed that high spirit and generous hospitality that are predominant traits of character of the descendants of the old and cultured families of Virginia.
Chapman Grant married Mary Jett, and had a family of nine children, of whom three sons and five daughters grew to manhood and womanhood. Mrs. Grant was a daughter of ___ Jett, and passed away in 1840, when in about the sixty-fifth year of his age.
William L. Grant grew to manhood in his native county, and received his education in the ordinary schools of his neighborhood and the old Clarksburg Academy, then one of the leading educational institutions of Western Virginia. After completing his academical education, he studied medicine with Dr. William U. Smith, a leading physician of Clarksburg, and entered Jefferson Medical college, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which famous and time-honored institution he was graduated in the class of 1856. Immediately after graduation he commenced the practice of medicine at Rockford, in Harrison county, but soon removed to a favorable location in Lewis county, where he remained for eight years. At the end of that time he returned to Harrison county, and in 1871 removed to Grafton, where he has a large and remunerative practice, built up by years of active, earnest and skillful professional services. He entered the Federal service, in 1861, as surgeon of the Ninth West Virginia infantry, but was compelled to resign before a year on account of ill health. He is a member of the West Virginia State Medical Association, and takes a deep interest in the advancement of his profession.
On the 16th of September, 1841, Dr. Grant was united in marriage to Mary E. Lyons, a daughter of David Lyons, of Clark county, Virginia. To their union have been born five children: Horace W., who died at twenty years of age; James A., a druggist of Grafton; Adolphus S., a railroad superintendent, who has resided for several years in Texas; Dr. William Lucian, who is now a practicing physician of Colorado; and Henry L., engaged in the general mercantile business in Grafton.
Dr. William L. Grant is an old-time democrat of the Jeffersonian school, and has always taken an intelligent part and interest in state and national politics. He is a member of the Methodist Protestant church and Mystic Lodge, No. 75, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Grafton, West Virginia. He is well preserved for his years, and is a man of fine personal appearance and manners. The greater part of the time of Dr. Grant is devoted to his profession, and he never neglects an opportunity to widen his knowledge of medicine, or to study closely the most successful methods of treating diseases.
Additional Information:
Taylor, WV - Death Register page 67, line 4
Laurence Wm. Grant - died 1 Jun 1914 in Grafton, WV; age 91 years
Taylor, WV - Death Register page 51, line 52
Mary E. Grant - died 3 Sep 1890 in Taylor, WV; age 68-years
daughter of: David & Harriet Lyons