Midwestern Presidential Pathway: Where Grant worked as a clerk

After resigning from the army, Ulysses S. Grant moved to Missouri and became a farmer--he failed, then worked as a bill collector, he failed at that too.

His father owned a leather goods business in Galena, Illinois, which was run by one of his younger brothers, his youngest brother worked there too. Grant was hired as a clerk in 1860, worked there for a year until volunteering for the Illinois State Militia when the Civil War broke out. When the war ended, we was the commanding officer of the United States Army. Quite a reversal of fortune for this clerk.

The leather goods store, Grant & Perkins, closed in 1864, but the structure sill remains, and can be found roughly in the center of downtown Galena, on Main Street, a popular thoroughfare for shoppers and tourists.

Galena Teddy Bear...and Friends is there now. Little Marathon Pundit and I tookd a walk inside, and found quite a few adorable stuffed animals.

Stuffed bears existed then, but it was Theodore Roosevelt, as you'll read below, who as the inspiration of the Teddy Bear.

As I noted below, there is a Roosevelt-Grant connection. The 18th president's son, Frederick Dent Grant, succeeded the future 25th president as New York City's police commissioner.

Related posts:

My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Teddy Bear

Midwestern Presidential Pathway: Mrs. Butterworth

Midwestern Presidential Pathway: Ulysses S. Grant Home

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