Catherine Barr Grant

Adam G. Grant’s name is well-known in Grove City history but his grandmother often doesn’t get the credit she deserves as an early pioneer woman. Her husband, Hugh Grant Sr., is usually credited as being the first white settler in the area. He purchased acreage in what was then Franklin Township (Jackson Township in 1815) but upon the journey from Pittsburgh via Chillicothe, he was unable to identify his property. Instead, he constructed a temporary shelter on the banks of the Scioto River where the family lived. After his untimely death, it was up to Catherine Barr Grant and their children to search and finally identified the property, a feat she accomplished. A log structure provided a new, permanent home for the family until around 1830 when a son, Hugh Grant Jr., built the brick house identified today as the Grant-Sawyer House now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.