Description: This image shows the front exterior of the school that Ulysses S. Grant attended as a boy living in Georgetown, Ohio. The view of the one-story structure, located at 508 South Water Street, shows two front entrances and two chimneys at either end Hiram Ulysses Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, in April 1822. In 1823 his parents moved twenty miles east to Georgetown, where his father opened a tannery. Ulysses worked in his father's tannery, and from the ages of about six to thirteen, he attended classes in the little schoolhouse on Water Street. The building, built in 1829, consisted of only one room at that time. The teacher was John White, whom Grant mentioned in his memoirs. Later Grant attended an academy in Maysville, Kentucky, for a year, and then John Rankin's academy at Ripley for a year. His father then succeeded in getting him appointed to West Point where, through a bureaucratic error, his name was listed as Ulysses Simpson Grant. The information written on the back of the original photograph reads: "Caption. Ulysses S. Grant Schoolhouse, Georgetown, Photograph by Gertrude Shockey. This photo must be returned to OHIO WRITERS' PROJECT #8 E. Chestnut St., Columbus, Ohio." The old Grant Schoolhouse at Georgetown O. as it looks today, having been erected in 1804 as nameplate verifies. Gen. and Pres. Grant once attended school in this building now [number crossed out] years old, and proudly commemorated to his memory. Photo by Gertrude Shockey Georgetown, O." Note the discrepancy concerning the date of the school's construction as reported in the photocaption. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06455
Subjects: Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885; School buildings; Schools--Ohio; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Georgetown (Ohio); United States. Work Progress Administration
Places: Georgetown (Ohio); Brown County (Ohio)