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Grant, Heber J. (Heber Jeddy), 1856-1945

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1856 - 1945

Biography

Heber J. Grant (1856-1945) was an ecclesiastical leader in Utah. He served as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1918 to 1945.

Heber Jeddy Grant was born on November 22, 1856, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to parents Jedediah Morgan and Rachel Ridgeway Ivins Grant. Heber's father, Jedediah, died nine days after Heber was born, so his mother, Rachel, moved them to a widow's cabin several blocks away. This move put the small family in one of the most culturally diverse congregations in the territory.

Rachel found the means to send Heber to a good private school, but following frontier practice, he left school at age sixteen. However, he continued learning and stretching his knowledge throughout his life, including a literary group and reading of every kind.

Grant worked to peddle books, found local retailers for a Chicago grocery house, performed tasks for the Deseret National Bank, taught penmanship, became the assistant cashier of Zion's Savings and Trust Company, sold insurance, and became owner of Ogden Vinegar Works.

At the unusually young age of fifteen, Heber was ordained to the office of Seventy in the priesthood. When Heber was nineteen, his ward organized the first Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, and Heber was called to serve as a counselor to its president. Just prior to his twenty-fourth birthday, Grant was called as a Stake President of the Tooele Stake, which he served for two years and ten months. At that time, in 1882, when he was only twenty-six years old, Grant was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Grant eventually married three wives, Hulda Augusta Winters, Emily Harris Wells, and Lucy Stringham. Each wife bore six children.

In 1916, Grant became the seventh President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

During his time as an Apostle and as President of the Church, Grant served two missions--Japan (1901-1903) and Europe (1903-1905). He also worked to improve areas in the church such as Church Education, the Genealogical Society, and the Church magazine. Church members grew familiar with the hardy, pioneer themes of President Grant's leadership. He repeatedly spoke of the need for charity, duty, honor, service, and work, and admonished the Saints to live modestly and to observe the prohibitions of the Church's health code, the Word of Wisdom. For Saints disoriented by the century's rapid social and cultural changes, President Grant's firm voice, ramrod-straight posture, and forceful-and sometimes sharp-tongued-delivery conveyed strength and resolution. He personified time-tested values.

In 1936, under Grant's leadership, the Church sought to assist impoverished Latter-day Saints by establishing the Church Security Program, later renamed the Church Welfare Program, one of the major accomplishments of his administration. To help the new Church Security Program, President Grant gave the program his large dry farm in western Utah, in which he had invested more than $80,000.

During his time as president, he dedicated three new temples: Laie, Hawaii (1919), Cardston, Canada (1923), and Mesa, Arizona (1927). Several hundred chapels were constructed, many in areas outside the Utah heartland. The Washington, D.C., chapel, dedicated in 1933, symbolized Church growth nationally.

During President Grant's administration Church membership doubled. He traveled more than 400,000 miles, filled 1,500 appointments, gave 1,250 sermons, and made 28 major addresses to state, national, civic, and professional groups. His greatest achievements, however, cannot be measured statistically. During almost sixty-five years of Church service, he helped transform the Church from a sequestered, misunderstood, pioneer faith to an accepted, vibrant religion of twentieth-century America.

In 1940, while visiting Southern California, he suffered a series of strokes that slowed his pace and forced him to delegate active administration of the Church. President Grant died on May 14, 1945, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Citation:
Author's Improvement era (1919-20)

LDS.org, via WWW, Feb. 13, 2006 (Heber J. Grant; b. Nov. 22, 1856, in Salt Lake City; d. May 14, 1945 in Salt Lake City; served as the 7th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1918 to 1945)

UPB files, Feb. 13, 2006 (hdg.: Grant, Heber Jeddy, 1856-1945; usage: Heber J. Grant; H. J. Grant; Heber Jeddy Grant)

FamilySearch.org, via WWW, October 9, 2014 (Heber J. Grant was born on November 22, 1856, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to parents Jedediah Morgan and Rachel Ridgeway Ivins Grant; married three wives, Hulda Augusta Winters, Emily Harris Wells, and Lucy Stringham; each wife bore six children; died on May 14, 1945, at Salt Lake City, Utah)

Encyclopedia, via WWW, October 13, 2014 (Heber J. Grant was born on November 22, 1856, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to parents Jedediah Morgan and Rachel Ridgeway Ivins Grant; Jedediah died nine days after Heber was born, so his mother, Rachel, moved them to a widow's cabin several blocks away, which put the small family in one of the most culturally diverse LDS congragations in the territory; Rachel found the means to send Heber to a good private school, but following frontier practice, he left school at age sixteen; he continued learning and stretching his knowledge throughout his life, including a literary group and reading of every kind; worked to peddle books, found local retailers for a Chicago grocery house, performed tasks for the Deseret National Bank, and taught penmanship, became the assistant cashier of Zion's Savings and Trust Company, sold insurance, and became owner of Ogden Vinegar Works; at fifteen, Heber was ordained to the office of seventy in the priesthood; at nineteen, his ward organized the first Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, and Heber was called to serve as a counselor to its president; prior to his twenty-fourth birthday, Grant was called as a Stake President of the Tooele Stake, which he served for two years and ten months; in 1882, when he was only twenty-six years old, Grant was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; married three wives, Hulda Augusta Winters, Emily Harris Wells, and Lucy Stringham; in 1916, Grant became the seventh President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; served two mission - Japan (1901-1903) and Europe (1903-1905), then served Church Education, the Genealogical Society, and the Church magazne, the Improvement Era; Church members grew familiar with the hardy, pioneer themes of President Grant's leadership. He repeatedly spoke of the need for charity, duty, honor, service, and work, and admonished the Saints to live modestly and to observe the prohibitions of the Church's health code, the Word of Wisdom. For Saints disoriented by the century's rapid social and cultural changes, President Grant's firm voice, ramrod-straight posture, and forceful-and sometimes sharp-tongued-delivery conveyed strength and resolution; personified time-tested values; his leadership sought to assist impoverished Latter-day Saints by establishing the Church Security Program, later renamed the Church Welfare Program, one of the major accomplishments of his administration; gave the program his large dry farm in western Utah, in which he had invested more than $80,000. ; he dedicated three new temples: Laie, Hawaii (1919), Cardston, Canada (1923), and Mesa, Arizona (1927). Several hundred chapels were constructed, many in areas outside the Utah heartland. The Washington, D.C., chapel, dedicated in 1933, symbolized Church growth nationally; during President Grant's administration Church membership doubled; traveled more than 400,000 miles, filled 1,500 appointments, gave 1,250 sermons, and made 28 major addresses to state, national, civic, and professional groups; during almost sixty-five years of Church service, he helped transform the Church from a sequestered, misunderstood, pioneer faith to an accepted, vibrant religion of twentieth-century America; in 1940, while visiting Southern California, he suffered a series of strokes that slowed his pace and forced him to delegate active administration of the Church; Grant died on May 14, 1945, at Salt Lake City, Utah) http://eom.byu.edu/

Found in 57 Collections and/or Records:

George Edward Anderson photographs of the Alberta Temple

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 3238
Abstract The photograph collection, originally consisting of 39 nitrocellulose negatives and 14 gelatin dry plate negatives, totaling 53 negatives, now consists of only 27 nitrocellulose and 13 gelatin dry place negatives, totaling 40 negatives. Due to severe emulsion damage, these 40 negatives were salvaged from the collection, and many of them still have considerable emulsion damage. 25 of the photographs are images of the Alberta Temple, with 15 portraits of families and individuals in the...
Dates: approximately 1923-1924

Willard Washington Beans papers

 File — Folder 1: [Barcode: 31197230321710]
Identifier: MSS SC 2271
Scope and Contents

Photocopies of a typewritten autobiography, a newspaper clipping, a Mormon Church blessing, and an essay. Also included are photocopies of handwritten letters received by Bean. These items include letters received from Mormon Church leaders Heber J. Grant and J. Golden Kimball. Bean was a missionary to the Southern States and lived in Palmyra, New York from 1915 to 1939.

Dates: 1893-1978

Book of revelations

 File — Folder 1: [Barcode: 31197230236587]
Identifier: MSS SC 214
Scope and Contents

Includes eight revelations relating to individuals and Mormon doctrine, written in the hand of Annie Taylor Hyde.

Dates: 1882-1884

John H. Brailsford film of Brigham Young University graduation footage

 File — Folder 1: [Barcode: 31197235222426]
Identifier: UA 5681
Scope and Contents

Collection contains a DVD of footage of a Brigham Young University graduation ceremony and graduate march, taken from the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on the BYU campus by John H. Brailsford. Includes shots of David O. McKay and Heber J. Grant. Focus of footage appears to be an unnamed female graduate and her family. Dated approximately 1941.

Dates: approximately 1941

Sheldon Brewster photographs

 Collection — Folder 1: [Barcode: 31197233620027]
Identifier: MSS P 749
Scope and Contents

Sheldon Brewster photographs, 1890s-1960s collection contains 14 photographs and 11 postcards of Salt Lake City, Utah, President and Sister Heber J. Grant, and President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy.

Dates: approximately 1890-1969

Bush family papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 2217
Abstract

This collection, containing letters, journals, newspaper articles, and other family correspondence, has been organized into folders by year, starting in 1846 and ending in 1960.

Dates: 1846-1960

Cannon and Willis families papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 2216
Abstract Boxes 1 and 2 being mostly manuscript material and booklets (as well as a few photographs), and boxes 3-5 being diaries and a folder of photocopies from a scrapbook and an autobiography. Most the manuscript material is typescript in form, coming from various persons. Boxes 3, 4, and the first folder of 5 contain all 33 of Lucy Grant Cannon's diaries. Some of her diaries overlap, meaning she apparently kept, sometimes, two or even three diaries at the same time. Her last six diaries, black in...
Dates: 1891-2003

The case against the little white slaver

 File — Folder 1: [Barcode: 31197230311059]
Identifier: MSS SC 1333
Scope and Contents

Printed pamphlet on the dilatory effects of cigarette smoking. The cover was autographed by Heber J. Grant in 1915 as a gift to John L. Herrick.

Dates: 1857-1914

Henry L. A. Culmer insurance document

 File — Folder 1: [Barcode: 31197231023661]
Identifier: MSS 6827
Abstract

The Henry L.A. Culmer insurance document consists of an agreement in 1889 between the Home Fire Insurance Company of Utah and Henry and Susan Culmer.

Dates: 1889

Ida Smoot Dusenberry papers

 Collection — Box 1: [Barcode: 31197232535960]
Identifier: MSS 1432
Scope and Contents

Collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, writings and notes, newspaper clippings and mementos relating mainly to her personal and family history. Includes funeral guest register and transcript of funeral.

Dates: 1881-1955