BIO Pen Pictures 
SURNAMES: RICHARDS, SHAW


GRANT BROTHERS. Theodore F. Grant was born in Boston, Massachusetts, February 22, 1828. His faher, Charles Grant, was a native of Boston, and his grandfather, Moses Grant, was one of the Colonials who went out in the Boston harbor, where they boarded the English ships and threw the cargo of tea overboard. Charles Grant and his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Richards, afterward moved to Roxbury, which is now Boston, where they died, the former in 1856 and the latter in 1871. They reared a family of five children, of whom four are living -- three sons and one daughter. The boys were reared in Boston, educated at the high schools, and grew to manhood. In 1846 Theodore went to Maine and located at Portland, where he kept a lamp store. He furnished the people with lamps and camphene, which at that time was the principal mode of producing light. He remained there three years, when he closed his business and started for California. He sailed from Portland in the schooner Ortolan, a sixty-five-ton vessel, which is probably the smallest vessel that ever made the trip to the Pacific Coast. The vessel left Portland in November, 1849, sailed through the Strait of Magellan and Smith's Channel, and arrived at San Francisco in June, 1850. The trip was a rough and dangerous one for so small a vessel; she was reported in San Francisco to be lost the day before she arrived. The first thing Mr. Grant did was to take charge of a store-ship belonging to Hawley & Stirling, where he remained until fall. He then entered the Montomery House as clerk, where he remained until August, 1851, when he came to the town of Santa Clara. Here he clerked for Fletcher Cooper in general merchandise business until 1857. He then hired the post-office from another man, who had received the appointment, and in connection with it opened a stationery and periodical depot. Thus Mr. Grant was virtually postmaster of Santa Clara during his residence there up to 1858; also was Treasurer of the town. He removed from there to San Jose, and was Treasurer of that city and Deputy Recorder, which position he filled two years. In the fall of 1859 he came to his present place, where he and his brother have since resided. Theodore F. Grant was married in 1865 to Margaret Shaw, a native of Ireland, who came to this country in 1859. They have two children--- a son and a daughter.

George H. Grant was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts (now Boston), July 2, 1826. When he was fourteen years old he entered the auction store of Horatio Harris & Co., one of the largest auction houses in Boston, where he served as chief clerk until January, 1851, after being there eleven years. He then started for California, sailing from New York to Chagres, a port on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama, and from there crossed the isthmus on mules, and up the Chagres River in canoes to where he took a steamer for San Francisco. He entered the wholesale commission store of George Shaw & Co., and was with them one year. He then went into the grocery business with S. C. Bradshaw, under the firm name of Bradshaw & Co., which partnership lasted a little over a year. At this time he bought 200 acres of land at Point Reyes, in Marin County, and invested in a small fishing smack, in which he put in a year's provisions, farming implements, etc., and started for the fishing place. On the way there he was wrecked during a heavy storm, in what is called Drake's Bay, and lost everything he had on board. This disaster to him discouraged the enterprise. He returned to San Francisco as soon as possible and then came to this valley, where he has since remained, having first come to the place about six years previous to his brother's arrival. The ranch contains 357 acres, with about 100 acres under cultivation. It is siturated in the foothills in Fremont Township, about four miles southwest of Mountain View. 

en Pictures From The Garden  of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H.S. 
Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888. 271-272 transcribed by Carol Lackey-



SANTA CLARA COUNTY HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES


SANTA CLARA COUNTY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY