Lemuel Pratt Grant was born in Frankfort, Me., on August 11, 1817. His early life, to the age of twelve, was spent on a farm, and from that period until his nineteenth year he alternated between the farm and in learning the rudiments of merchandising in village stores. His educational opportunities were embraced mainly in attendance at the district school in the village, near the farm homestead, during winter months, and a few months in the higher schools known as academies. The story of his youth would be simply a repetition of that of thousands of boys of our country, who have struggled up through poverty and hardships to early manhood, looking with longing eyes toward the coveted advantages of a liberal education without the means of attaining it.

At the age of nineteen he was appointed to the place of rodman in the engineer corps of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, which was then being constructed. The position of rodman was the lowest in rank in the corps, and that was assigned to young men entering the profession of civil engineering. This was the school and service best adapted to the best of Mr. Grant's mind and physical wants. By dint of earnest application he won his promotion, within the space of one year, to the rank of assistant engineer. In January, 1840, on the completion of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, between the two cities named, he accepted the offer of an assistant in the engineer corps of the Georgia Railroad, of which J. Edgar Thomson was chief. The party of which he was a member located the line of the road between Madison and the present side of Atlanta in the spring and summer of 1840. Financial depression prevented the prosecution of the work of construction beyond Madison.

In March, 1841, Mr. Grant was engaged as assistant in the engineer corps of the Central Railroad of Georgia, of which L. O. Reynolds was chief. In the early part of 1843 he was recalled to the Georgia Railroad, where he served until the grading was completed to Atlanta, then known as Marthasville. In April, 1845, he accepted the appointment of chief engineer and superintendent of the Montgomery and West Point Railroad, of which forty miles from Montgomery to Chehaw was in operation. He remained in charge of this road until April, 1948, during which time the track was extended to Opelika. He then accepted the place of resident engineer of the Georgia Railroad, which position he filled until 1853, during two years of this time was also holding the place of chief engineer of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad, which office he resigned in 1853. For five years following he engaged in construction of railroads in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In June, 1858, he was elected president of the new Southern Pacific Railroad Company of Texas, the old company having been sold out under judicial decree. In June, 1859 he was succeeded as president by J. Edgar Thomson, as a compromise of pending litigation between the old and new companies.

In 1859 and 1860 he was chief engineer of surveys and location of proposed roads in Georgia and Alabama, the most prominent of which was the Georgia Western, then aiming toward Decatur, via Gaddson and Gunter's Landing, operations on all of which were suspended at the close of 1860, by reason of impending war between the States.

In October, 1862, soon after the organization of the engineer bureau at Richmond, Mr. Grant received a commission of "Captain Engineers C.S.A.", which he accepted. In May 1863, he was appointed "Lieutenant-Colonel Engineers", which he declined. He served as captain to the end of the war, mainly in charge of construction of defense of Atlanta and Augusta, and in the repair and reconstruction of raided railways. In all of this work, by his long experience and great engineering skill, he rendered valuable assistance to the Confederacy.

From October, 1866 to July, 1881, Mr. Grant was in charge of the operations of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad as general superintendent. He was also elected president of the Georgia Western (now Georgia Pacific) Railroad Company in June, 1873, but resigned the office in August of the same year.

He was appointed in March, 1875, receiver of that portion of the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad lying in the State of Georgia, being one hundred miles. The receivership of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad Company, and in March, 1883 president of the Western Railway of Alabama, holding the former position until July, 1887 and the latter until November, 1887.

Mr. Grant’s interest in Atlanta commented until the embryo city was known as Marthasville. In 1844 he purchased land lot No. 52, bounded now by Fair, Fort and Foster streets, and Capitol Avenue, Fair and Glenn streets and land lot No. 44. In 1847 he purchased lot No. 44, bounded now by South Boulevard on the east, by Fair and Glenn Streets on the north and south, and by lot No. 53 on the west. These together contained six hundred acres, now wholly within the city limits. The most valuable portion of this area was subdivided and sol at low rates in the early history of the city. In 1883, Mr. Grant donated to the city, to be used for park purposes, one hundred acres of a tract of land, subsequently acquired, adjoining the city limits on the southeast, which has since been handsomely laid out and is known as the L. P. Grant Park. A considerable area of his original land purchase is still owned by Mr. Grant, and contains many eligible sites for residences.

Mr. Grant was an early advocate of the free school system, and lent the full force of his influence in securing its establishment in Atlanta. He was elected a member of the first board of education in 1869, and for several years took an active and leading part in the work of building up the admirable system of free schools in Atlanta. He was also among the original promoters of the Young Men’s Library, and was made the first life member of the library association.

In all of the enterprises of a public character which have advanced the material interest of Atlanta, Mr. Grant has been a co-worker with the city’s most liberal and progressive citizens. His name, his influence and money have never been withheld from any project for which had for its aim the moral, spiritual or temporal good of his fellow men. He has been successful in business, but his success has been achieved in legitimate public enterprises such as have promoted the common good. Never a man of robust health, he has nevertheless been a hard worker, and by a proper husbandry of his strength and correct habits, has been enabled to accomplish a large amount of work. He is naturally conservative, but when a course has been decided upon he pursues it with a determination, and cannot be moved by any consideration of policy. Through all the eventful days in the history of Atlanta, from a small settlement to its present greatness – through disaster, days of doubt, peril and ruin – seasons of sunshine and storm, the city has had no more warm nor more sincere friend. For nearly have a century his history has been a part of Atlanta’s history, and during this long period no man has maintained a better record for business probity, nor a more unsullied reputation as a high minded Christian gentleman. He has been a member of the Central Presbyterian Church since 1860, and has always taken an active part in church work. At the present time Mr. Grant is retired from active participation in business affairs, beyond the supervision of his large private estate. He has honestly earned the right to rest, and now in the eventide of life, secure in the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens, it is to be hoped that many years of peaceful comforts may be in store for him.

Mr. Grant was married at Decatur in December, 1843, to Miss Laura L. Williams, daughter of Ammi Williams. Mrs. Grant died in May, 1879, having borne her husband four children – two sons and two daughters. Their eldest son, John A. Grant, is a well-known and successful railroad manager, at present residing at Dallas, Tex., being general manager of the Texas and Pacific Railway system. Mr. Grant’s present wife was Mrs. Jane L. Crew, of Atlanta, whom he married in July, 1881.