Grants House

We joined a local homeschool group to Tour Ulysses Grant's home, which isn't too far from us.  This is the home Grant lived in with his wife and it belonged to her parents.  The Grants did build a log cabin not far from here on what is now Grants Farm (a mini safari park owned by Bush Beer company) However Grant and his wife only lived there a few short months before returning the her parents home after her mother died.  While the kids didn't exactly know who he was, I did. There was  a great museum and introductory film to better explain his life and his history, some I knew and some I didn't.  We will definitely be going back once we study the Civil War era and can apply it directly to our studies in History.  Next time I will my husband will join us as I think this would really interest him.

The park ranger first had us watch the introductory film on Grants life before he became President

The home is called White Haven even tho it is painted green and the green is the original color of the home.

All of the furniture in the house was ruin while Grant and his family were in the White House due to being stored in a barn and it being burnt down.

I was surprised to learn that Grant'w wife family owned about 30 slaves.  While Grant was consider to be a just to the slaves in his inlaws home, it was one area of great tension between his wife and her family.  There are stories that report that Grant could often be found working side by side with the slaves in the farm which embarrassed his inlaws.  This is the door in which the slaves used to enter the home, they were not allowed to use any other door to enter or exit the home.

The Park ranger talked about the home's construction

Looking at an old wood burning stove and oven.  This was probably added after the Grants left the home

This is one of the outside protected parts of the house with the original paint which has lead and asbestos in it.  The National Park service has match the original paint.

Just outsider the main house but attached by a porch is the office

Here the kids looked at the ledger of the Grant's farm 

and saw Grants original handwriting.  We heard lots of stories about how hard Grant work to succeed.  He had many jobs some that were successful and some that were failures.

There was an old railroad the runs thru the property at one time.  We also looked at the map to see other important people who lived near Grants, such as the Sappington family (whose home we will be visiting later this month)

This was the slave area the laundry room and summer kitchen...it was very sparse and bare in there

A lecture about how tough washing clothes would have been in this period.  I am very thankful for my washing machine

Down below using an outside entrance was the winter kitchens used by the slaves.  This was done to help heat the home above

Again very sparse and you can see not well lit and even the wooden roof beams are heavily coated with black soot.  We were told they are original to the house 

During excavation of the kitchen they found some items that can be traced back to Africa which is believed to be items that were handed down through the generations of the slaves that lived at the home.

Also on the property was an ice house and a hen house both were painted red.  

The barn on the property has been converted into a museum celebrating the life of Grant and his family

Grants had four children 3 boys and a daughter

I had always heard that Grant had a slight drinking problem having been the told of the quote from Lincoln when told Grant drinks 'if he keeps winning battles I will keep supplying whiskey'  Sounds like it wasn't so bad

This sign was a new one for me and I will need to further investigate this 

Grant died of throat cancer and was nearly broke when he died.  He finished his book about his legacy just a few weeks before he dies ensuring he wife would be taken care of.  Grant was a very complex man of the time and I look forward to learning about him more.  I definitely want to tour this museum again as there is so much inside that I probably missed.

Kids swearing in to get their first junior badge here in the states.  I had forgotten about this program while we were away.