Ulysses Grant McQuary

Submitted by Arlene Gabriel Washington (great-granddaughter of John Edmund McQuary) and Bob Sewell (great-grandson of Ulysses Grant McQuary)

Humphrey and Catharine Buster McQuary, with their one-year old daughter Sarah Ann, moved to Macon County, MO, from Pulaski County, KY, about 1841. Humphrey sold the farm he had inherited from his father, William, which gave him money to buy his first parcel of land along the present- day road between Atlanta and Mt. Tabor Baptist Church. Catharine's parents, Michael and Charlotte Black Buster, had also moved to Macon County with their children about the same time, purchasing land about 1 mile north of the McQuarys.

Ten more children were born to Humphrey and Catharine in Macon County - James Allen (1842), William M. (1844), Mary Ellen "Mollie" (1847), John Edmund (1848), Charles B. (1851), Frances Elizabeth "Lizzie" (1853), Charlotte "Lottie" (1856), Harvey L. (1857) and Harriette "Hattie" (1860).

In 1863 their oldest son, Allen, was one of many Macon County boys serving in the Tenth Missouri Infantry in Mississippi during Grant's courageous campaign to take the important river port city of Vicksburg. When Allen heard of the impending birth of another sibling, he wrote home asking that the new baby, if a boy, be named after the great Union general, Ulysses S. Grant.

Ulysses Grant McQuary was born June 29, 1863 - six weeks after Allen had been wounded at Champion Hill on May 16th . Five weeks after Grant's birth, Allen died on August 4th at Lawson General Hospital in St. Louis. Humphrey was probably with his oldest son when he died, because he signed for Allen's effects on August 5th.

As was typical for farm boys of that era, Grant started working on the farm at an early age. Unlike his brothers, John Edmund and Harvey, Grant would continue to make a living from farming - in Macon County, Canada, Montana, and Washington.

Grant married a neighbor girl, Harriet Margaret Grady, on April 22, 1883. A girl and four boys were born to them in Macon County - Mollie Claire (1886), Allen Roscoe (1887), Joseph Henry (1888), Harvey Irl (1891) and Claude Humphrey (1893).

In 1905 Grant's daughter, Mollie, married Arthur Perl Montgomery who lived on a nearby farm. Arthur had applied for a homestead in 1902 near Estevan in southeast Saskatchewan, Canada. Shortly after their marriage, the young couple moved north.

Grant, too, decided to apply his farming skills to the growing of wheat on the upper plains. He sold his land in Macon County and moved his family to the windswept plains of Saskatchewan, homesteading near the Montgomerys. His oldest son Allen evidently stayed in Macon County for three years, because he married a Macon County girl, Ruby Grace Sheetz in 1908. Their first child was born in Canada in December of that year.

In 1889 Grant's brother, Charles, had died of typhoid fever at the age of 38. He left a wife, Mary Elizabeth "Lillie" (Shepherd) and three young children. Lillie remarried a man named Broeffle, but by 1900 Lillie was a widow once again. In 1908 Lillie and her youngest son, Gilbert, moved to Saskatchewan, homesteading south of Estevan, where 20 year old Gilbert farmed for his mother.

In 1911 the McQuarys left their Canadian homesteads and headed further west, settling near Havre, MT. The Montgomerys followed in 1913. Grant and three of his sons (Allen, Iryl and Humphrey), and the Montgomerys each had homesteads near each other in Hill County.

Grant stayed in Montana long enough to "prove" his claim. About 1914 Grant and Harriet moved to Dayton, WA where their youngest son, Humphrey, graduated from high school.

Grant retained his Montana land until after 1923. Oil had been discovered in Hill County, and according to his brother John, Grant was holding onto the land to get a good price from an oil company.

Grant's decision to move to the wheat growing area of southeast Washington, was undoubtedly due to the fact that his brother, Dr. Harvey L. McQuary was living there. Harvey had left farming to attend the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, MO. Upon graduation in 1903, Harvey and Amanda (Ryther) and their five children moved to Tacoma, WA and a year later to Dayton.

Grant's sons, Allen and Iryl, remained in Montana after their parents left. Their younger brother Humphrey joined them in 1915 with his new bride, Naomi (Hanger).

Tragedy struck the McQuarys with Allen's untimely death in 1919. Allen's widow, Grace, and their four children returned to Macon County. She would subsequently marry William Wells and move to Portland, OR by 1930.

Humphrey and Iryl left their Montana homesteads to live near their parents. Humphrey returned to Dayton in 1919 and Iryl a few years later, after serving as deputy sheriff of Hill County. After farming for 18 years in Canada, Joe brought his family to Dayton in 1923. The Montgomerys remained in Montana until 1935 when they moved to the Dayton area. There they operated Monty's Berry Farm until 1956.

Grant and Harriet owned one of the largest houses in Dayton and were visited often by their sons and grandchildren who lived close by. Grant farmed his nearby land until Harriet's death in 1924. After Harriet's death, Grant returned to Macon County where he renewed a childhood friendship with Olive Winkler, and they were later married.

According to Grant's granddaughter, Marjorie Jean Emery, Grant's children idolized their father. Jean's father, Iryl, owned a Dodge dealership in Bremerton, WA, and on his trips to and from Detroit he would stop to visit his father in Macon County.

Jean remembers that her grandfather Grant was very strict, but also very loving to his many grandchildren. As a child, she was always impressed by his gentlemanly manner.

Grant was in poor health the summer of 1939, so his three sons made a trip to Macon County to see him. The following January - January 17, 1940 - Ulysses Grant McQuary died at his home in Atlanta. Grant was buried near his parents and grandparents at Mt. Tabor Cemetery. In the distance to the west could be seen the land where he had been born and raised.