ANOTHER STANDARD-BEARER FALLEN
By A. J. Breed
ELDER HARRISON GRANT died at the home of his son-in-law, Elder W. B. White, at Missoula, Mont., March 1, 1901. He was born at Hillsboro Bridge, N. H., April 2, 1821, which would make him eighty years old, lacking one month and one day. He was the eldest of eight children, seven sons and one daughter. When he was two years old, his father moved to Vermont, and engaged in farming and blacksmithing. Elder Grant worked with his father until he was of age; and at the age of twenty-two, in 1843, he attended a series of meetings held by Wm. Miller, and accepted the advent faith. He passed through the bitter experiences and disappointment of 1844, but firmly believed the positions taken were correct, although his hopes of meeting the Saviour were not realized. When, after the passing of the time, the believers more carefully examined the positions taken, he with others saw the mistake, and gladly accepted the Sabbath and all the truths connected with it—the Third Angel’s Message. He walked in all the light as fast as it was made known to him. In 1845 he was married to Chloe Pearson, of Roxbury, Vt. He erected the family altar, and in 1858 his wife accepted the truth, and for forty-three years they walked together in the service of the Lord. In 1862, with two children, they left Vermont for Minnesota. They traveled by team to Ogdensburg, N. Y., and there took the boat for Milwaukee, Wis. From there he drove to Minnesota, settling at Deerfield, on eighty acres of new land, and supported himself and family by farming and blacksmithing. In 1873 he was ordained to the work of the ministry. He served as president of the Minnesota Conference for sixteen successive years, bearing burdens and responsibilities in the work until he saw it grow from a small beginning to what it now is—one of the leading Conferences in America. He continued laboring in Minnesota until 1892, when, by recommendation of the General Conference, he moved to College View, Neb., where he labored as pastor of the church until the spring of 1898. He then went to Colorado, where he spent a few months, and in the fall moved to Montana, and settled at Missoula, with his son-in-law, Elder W. B. White. Being of an active disposition, and never idle, he engaged in labor at Missoula, and was elected elder of the church at that place. He attended a few general meetings in Montana, relating his early experiences of 1844, which were of much interest to those who had so newly come to the faith. There were no railroads in Minnesota for many years, except nine miles from St. Paul to St. Anthony, now Minneapolis, and he traveled from place to place by team. It was my privilege to be associated with him for a time, and I look back upon that time as a season spent with an earnest, devoted servant of the Lord. During his sickness he suffered but little pain, telling those who called to see him, “If it is mine to fall, I will fall toward heaven.” His aged wife, now nearly eighty, and two daughters, survive him. Thus another of the old standard-bearers has passed away, and the work he loved so much is left in the hands of others; and may it be said of us, as it has been of him, He died the “death of the righteous.” He was laid to rest in the cemetery at Missoula, March 5, Elder J. H. Behrens preaching the funeral sermon, from 2 Tim. 4:6-8, a text of Brother Grant’s choice. A. J. BREED.