Lemuel P. Grant
| L.P. Grant | |
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| Born | August 11, 1817 |
| Died | January 11, 1893 (aged 75) |
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Lemuel Pratt Grant (1817–1893) was an American engineer and businessman. He was Atlanta's quintessential railroad man as well as a major landowner and civic leader. In railroads he served as a laborer, chief engineer, speculator and executive all over the South. As part of his speculation, he owned enormous tracts of land in strategic areas. For example, at one point he owned more than 600 acres (240 ha) in what is now Atlanta. He designed and built Atlanta's defenses during the American Civil War and afterwards became an important civic leader: donating the land for Grant Park, Atlanta's first large park, and serving as councilman and on various boards and committees. His mansion is one of only four remaining original antebellum houses in the city of Atlanta.
Lemuel Pratt Grant was born at Frankfort, Maine, on August 11, 1817. He grew up on a farm and between twelve and nineteen years of age worked on the farm and in a village store. When nineteen years old, he became a rodman in the Engineer Corps of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, then under construction. By study and hard work, he made his way and in one year became assistant engineer.
In 1840, he was given the position of assistant engineer of the Georgia Railroad, under J. Edgar Thompson, the chief engineer. His part of engineers located the line between Madison and Atlanta in 1840. In 1841, he became assistant in the engineer corps of the Central Railroad, of which L.O. Reynolds was the chief engineer, but in 1843 returned to the Georgia Railroad and served it until the grading was completed to Marthasville.
By 1844 he was buying large tracts of Atlanta real estate, mainly in the Third Ward. Two of LP's grandsons Laurel and Bryan, Sr. were successful real estate brokers and developers.
In 1845, L.P. Grant became the chief engineer and superintendent of the Montgomery and West Point Railroad and remained with that road until 1848, when its track was laid as far as Opelika, Alabama. He then again returned to the services of the Georgia Railroad, this time as resident engineer, which position he held until 1853. for two years of that period he was also chief engineer of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad.
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