General Grant’s Log Cabin Bank

Ulysses S. Grant graduated from West Point in 1843.  His first assignment was to the 4th U.S. Infantry Regiment stationed at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri. Ulysses’ roommate his last year at West Point was Fred Dent, who had grown up at a nearby plantation called White Haven. Grant was invited to visit the home, and during a visit in February 1844 he met one of Fred’s sisters, Julia Dent Grant. The two fell in love and became engaged before Ulysses was reassigned. During the Mexican War, Grant served in nearly every major battle of the war and was twice brevetted for bravery. Ulysses and Julia married in St. Louis in 1848 after the conclusion of the Mexican American war. Grant was assigned to several different posts before resigning from the army in 1854 to try his hand at farming in St. Louis, Missouri.  They settled at White Haven Plantation on 80 acres that were gifted by his father-in-law, Frederick Dent, as a wedding gift.

Grant planted crops of potatoes and wheat, corded wood, harvested fruit from the orchards, and tended a vegetable garden. He was so dedicated to this future that he commented to a friend, “whoever hears of me in ten years will hear of a well-to-do old Missouri farmer.”

Establishing himself as a successful, independent farmer included the construction of his own house. Grant selected an elevated location near his crops and in the fall of 1855, he began cutting, hewing, and notching logs for the cabin. Julia Grant, accustomed to the relative finery of the nearby stone home built by her brother Louis Dent, lamented Ulysses’ decision to build a log cabin. Grant completed much of the work himself, shingling the roof, building the stairs, and laying the floors.  Julia did her best to decorate the place, but even her standards of refinement could not conceal its rustic nature.  She recalled that it was “so crude and homely I did not like it at all, but I did not say so. I got out all my pretty covers, baskets, books, etc., and tried to make it look home-like and comfortable, but this was hard to do. The little house looked so unattractive that we facetiously decided to call it Hardscrabble.”

Even though Hardscrabble was the first house that the Grants ever owned, they lived there for only a short time. Julia remembered moving in during September 1856, and living there only three months. At the request of Colonel Dent, Julia and Ulysses returned to White Haven when her mother died in January 1857. The little cabin never again served as the Grants’ home.

Grant struggled on the farm, and in early 1860 the family moved to Galena, Illinois, where Ulysses worked as a clerk at his father’s general store. With the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, Grant offered his services to the U.S. military and quickly rose to fame following his victories at Forts Henry and Donelson. He rose through the ranks and was appointed by President Lincoln to become commanding general of all Union armies in March 1864.  The rest, as they say, is “history”.

But that is not the end of the story for the cabin Grant built called Hardscrabble, as the building acquired a history of its own. Due to its association with the famous General and President, it was later dismantled and moved three times.  Before its last move to the property of present day Grant’s Farm, adjacent to Ulysses S. Grant National Heritage Site, it was located on the grounds for the 1904 World Fair in St. Louis.  At the fair the C.F. Blanke Company had purchased and moved the cabin to use as a full-sized advertisement for their Grant’s Cabin Tea and Coffee.

The General Grant’s Log Cabin bank shown in the photos was made in Austria circa 1905.  It was likely made as a sales premium for Blanke’s Grant Cabin Tea and Coffee, or possibly as a souvenir from the 1904 Fair.  There is a note on the bottom in pencil that states “Yr 1906”, so it was more likely a sales premium than a souvenir from the 1904 Fair. 

Key dates in Hardscrabble history:

• Fall 1855 – Grant prepares logs for building the cabin.
• September 1856 – The Grants move into Hardscrabble.
• January 1857 – The Grants move out of Hardscrabble.
• 1888 – Luther H. Conn purchases the farm.
• December 2, 1889 – Luther Conn sells 132 acres to nurseryman Henry J. Weber for $10,175, but
• retains the rights to sell the cabin separately.
• 1891 – Conn sells the cabin for $5,000 to Edward and Justin Joy, two real estate developers. They
• carefully number each log, disassemble the structure, and rebuild it in Old Orchard, part of nearby Webster Groves, Missouri.
• March, 1903 – C. F. Blanke buys the cabin for $8,000 and uses it to attract crowds to his company’s coffee display at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Blank intends for the cabin to remain permanently in Forest Park, but fails to reach an agreement with city authorities concerning maintenance of the structure.
• 1907 – August A. Busch purchases Hardscrabble and rebuilds it upon his estate, which encompasses over 280 acres of the land once owned by Grant. The cabin, situated about one mile from its original site, remains there today.
• 1977 – Anheuser-Busch restores the cabin, replacing rotted wood and other structural elements, rebuilding it to its present-day appearance. The cabin is open to the public on a periodic basis.