“WILLIAM CUTTING GRANT, of the firm of Grant & Brady, attorneys and counselors at law, is the son of Peter and Dolly (Ware) Grant, and was born at Lyme, N.H., on October 8, 1829 . His grandfather, John Grant, with William W. Cutting, and others of Lyme, Conn., went up the Connecticut River in 1767, where they founded and settled the town of Lyme, naming it after the old Lyme in Connecticut. Here, Peter Grant was born, and in 1825 married Dolly Ware, daughter of Joseph and Sarah Ware, of Thetford Bow, Vt., nearly opposite Lyme, N.H.
When he was two yeas of age the family removed to a farm in Troy, Orleans Co, Vt., where he remained until twelve years of age, his father dying during that time, in 1835. Upon the marriage of his mother to Raymond Hale, the removed to Chelsea, Vt., where young Grant worked on the farm and attended school in the winter. At sixteen years of age he secured a license as teacher, which vocation he followed until 1847, when he entered Dartmouth College, graduating in the class of 1851. During the following year, he filled the position of principal of the Andover Academy, N.H., for two terms and during the next four years was principal of the Howe School, Billerica, Mass., devoting all his leisure to the study of law. In 1855, he bean reading law in the office of Hon. William B. Hebard, of Chelsea, and was admitted to the Bar the following year, and subsequently entered the law school of Harvard College, where he remained until the spring of 1857, when he located in Chicago, and shortly afterward became a member of the firm of Williams, Woodbridge & Grant. In 1863, Mr. Williams retired from the firm upon his election to the bench of the Circuit Court, and Mr. Grant was associated with Mr. John Woodbridge until 1867. From 1871 to 1880, he was connected with William H. Swift when Matthew P. Brady was admitted as a partner in of the firm of Grant, Swift & Brady. This firm continued until May, 1883, when Mr. Swift retired, since which time he has been associated with Mr. Brady.
Mr. Grant has always been engaged in general practice, the chief feature of which has been real-estate and chancery business, together with commercial and corporation law. He is recognized as one of the ablest lawyers of the Chicago Bar, and is held in high esteem by both Bench and Bar as a thoroughly educated lawyer, a successful advocate and a most reliable counselor.
Mr. Grant was married, in 1861, to Jennie A. McCallum, daughter of Mrs. Rebecca M. Seymour, for many years a resident of Chicago. They have two children, both sons.”
Source: History of Chicago, Vol. 3, by A.T. Andreas, The A.T. Andreas Co. Publisher, Chicago, 1886, page 250
Source: Daily Inter Ocean, September 26, 1887, p.1
