Grant Brothers Lived In Many Spots On Cameron Hill

The Grant brothers - Marcus C. and Heman W. - lived in many different houses on Cameron Hill. One was known around town as Major and the other as Captain.

Major Marcus Grant was a "gallant, manly figure" who had served on the relief committee during the Yellow Fever epidemic in 1878. Born in New York in 1839, he was a school teacher before the war. He was in Michigan when he answered President Lincoln's first call for volunteers. After serving three months in the war, Marcus Grant went home and organized a company of engineers and mechanics. He rose to the rank of major.

Following the war, Marcus Grant married Maggie McCombs of Brooklyn, N.Y. They came south and he served at Nashville as the general freight agent for the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad. He took a railroad position in Chattanooga as general agent for the Alabama Great Southern Railroad. Afterward, he became involved in lumber, cotton compressing and other endeavors. He was at one time president of the Chamber of Commerce. He was active with the relief committee during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878. He and his brother, Heman, formed Grant Brothers, dealing in real estate and insurance.

Major Marcus Grant, known to his friends as "Maje," was "one of those bright, genial, kindly spirits." 

Heman Grant was three years younger than Marcus. He was born at Columbia, N.Y., in 1842. He was attending college in Michigan when the Civil War broke out. He joined at age 19 and rose to the rank of captain, while fighting at Chickamauga and elsewhere. It was said that at Chickamauga his company was one of the first on the field and one of the last to leave.

Heman Grant married Elizabeth Van Wagner, daughter of a pastor of the Congregational Church at Chattanooga. They were married in 1885. She was from Niagara County, N.Y. Their children included Mrs. Lapsley Hope, Leila and Heman Grant Jr.

The Grant brothers prized the certificate of discharge given by General George Washington (and signed by him) to their paternal grandfather, who served throughout the Revolution.

They were honored to be chosen as two of the 12 members of the Macrae Club. The club's headquarters was in the Central Block, and they also maintained a club on the Atlantic Ocean near St. Simons Island.

During moving ceremonies on top of Cameron Hill in 1881 involving veterans from both armies, Major Grant held the flag for the blue.

Marcus had arrived in town first and he was on West Sixth Street at the corner of Cypress for several years. He later moved away from Cameron Hill, living on Vine Street and then Carolina Street. He was back on Cameron Hill near the Ochs mansion at 411 W. Fifth St. by 1887. At the time, Heman was living at 122 East Terrace, which was in the line of mansions of H. Clay Evans, Washington Irving Crandall, John T. Wilder and H.S. Chamberlain.

Marcus Grant was living at 519 Poplar Street when he died in 1896 while in Denver. The body, accompanied by the Knights Templar, was brought back to Chattanooga for burial at the National Cemetery.

Heman Grant lived on E. Eighth Street after a year on the East Terrace. He afterward was a resident of Lookout Mountain. He was living in a pre-Civil War house at Blowing Spring just below St. Elmo when he died in 1912.