[In the months preceding the wedding of the granddaughter of President Grant to a Russian Prince in 1899, the New York Tribune printed a fitting tribute to her distinguished American family with an impressive heritage of its own.]

We are apt to think, said Colonel Treetor, the genealogist, that when an American girl weds a titled man that she must necessarily be inferior in birth to her husband. If Miss Julia Dent Grant marries into one of the princely houses of Russia, she can feel assured that in her own veins runs the blood of a noble and worthy ancestry, to trace which has proved a fascinating study.

The lineage of the Grant family, briefly told, is as follows: a celebrated manuscript in Scotland bears the title, An Account of the Rise and Offspring of Grant and the author shows a great deal of ancestral pride in his attempt to trace the origin of the Clan of Grant to a certain prince named Wodine. This prince came out of Asia about the year 600 and settled in Norway, where he built a great city and where prayer and sacrifices were made by the Norsemen.

Coming down to the ninth century, history records that name of Hacken, third of that name from Wodine and Earl of Trondelagen, one of the most renowned men for courage and strength in the Kingdom of Norway. Because of an unusual feat accomplished over his enemies he was called Hacken Grant, the latter word being used in the sense of great, and all descended from this Hacken were called Grants.

It is said that Heming, son of Hacken, having become converted to Christianity through the influence of his wife, a daughter of Adelstein, the first Christian king of Denmark, was banished from Norway.

Whether the Grants came from Norway to Scotland by the way of the Hebrides or as followers of Rolf the Ranger, ancestor of the dukes of Normandy, they wree undoubtedly Normans. They did not rise to the proportion of a clan until about the beginning of the fourteenth century. Richard LeGrant was Archbishop of Canterbury in 1228. About the same time William Le Grant married Albreda Byset, of the baronial family of that name, and he went as a crusader to the Holy Land in 1270.

Sir Lawrence Le Grant was High Sheriff of Invernesshire in 1258. Sir Duncan Grant was the first owner of what is now the castle and barony of Grant, chartered to him as heir of his mother Matilda of Glencairne. Sir Ludovic Grant is the fifteenth in descent from Sir Lawrence, and was the first to be called Grant of Grant. He was the son of James Grant of Grant, borony member of Parliament for many years, who died in 1747.

Castle Grant, shown in the accompanying cut, has been the home of the chiefs of the clan since the fourteenth century, and is cherished and venerated accordingly by all who bear the name of Grant. Among the features of the castle is the magnificent dining hall 47 feet in length and 27 feet in width and of proportionate height. The walls are adorned with numerous and rare works of art and ninety-nine ancestral portraits.

The possessions of the Grants, as the chief dwellers of Strathspey, were situated between the two Craig Elachies--two great rocks on the River Spey. A mountain in flame is the Grant crest taken from it. The name means rock of alarm and in the time of danger huge fires were kindled on the craig as a signal for the clan to assemble. 'Stand Fast, Craig Elachie' was the war cry, and is today the motto of the clan.

The oldest, stateliest and most formidable dwelling place of the clan chiefs is Castle Urquhart built upon a rocky promontory on the west side of Loch Ness. It was founded in the Norman period. It was besieged and taken by Edward I in 1303 and was chartered to A Grant of Grant in 1509 by King James IV. It is the lordly seat of the Grants as Earls of Seafield, and is a mouldering ruin of eight centuries of Scottish history and four hundred years of the annals of the family of Grant.

Matthew Grant, forty years town clerk and surveyor of Windsor, Conn., was a lineal descendant of this old Norse race, called in Scotland a Highland clan. He came to this country from Plymouth, England landing at Nantasket, Mass. on May 30, 1630. General U. S. Grant was the seventh in the line of the descent from Matthew Grant.

Sir William Frazer, of Edinburgh, met General Grant upon the occasion of his being accorded the freedom of that city, while making the tour of the world, and he said the resemblance between the distinguished descendant of Matthew Grant and Sir James Grant, Earl of Scafield, was so striking as to be generally noticed and commented upon.

[While on his world tour the Grants visited Scotland and toured the country. Accompanying the Grants on their trip was John Russell Young who related in his book Around the World With General Grant, "At Granttown the General was welcomed to the home of the Grants. It was his intention to have paid a visit to Castle Grant, the home of the Earl of Seafield, the head of the Grant clan, but circumstances would not permit."]

Julia Grant agreed with Young's account stating that she regretted being unable to visit the castle due to a conflict in invitations.

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