Years back I remember hearing a rumor that Ulysses Grant, the Union general of the Civil War and two-time president of the U.S. spent time playing cards and drinking with St. Johns’ early farmers. Although it seemed an incredulous story, the part about playing cards and drinking sounded so like St. Johns, it had a ring of truth.
I had to investigate further. One of the most interesting aspects of Grant’s life I learned, was the unlikelihood of his being a hero. He did not come from an extremely wealthy or high-status family as did most of his West Point classmates. Many of them later became leaders in the Confederate and Union armies. Grant eschewed boastfulness and was usually quiet. He was a teetotaler unless separated from his wife.
Ron Chernow, author of the biography, Grant, reports that the future president was assigned to Fort Vancouver from 1852 to 1854 around the age of 30. It was early in his career, after having served in the Mexican War in the 1840s, where he was a Regimental Quartermaster officer. Although the role required him to stay behind the lines, in one battle he rode to the front without orders and charged with his regiment, distinguishing himself for bravery.
After the Mexican War, there was a “need to protect the newly acquired Oregon Territory.” In the spring of 1852, Grant’s regiment was ordered west to Fort Vancouver. The journey was a dangerous one that required the infantry to cross the Isthmus of Panama to reach the West Coast. He was forced to leave his family behind in St. Louis and take up a post that must have seemed like the U.S. equivalent of Siberia.
It might have been a letdown to Grant to again be appointed quartermaster. In the 1850s U.S. Army, the quartermaster role was not a glamorous position in the traditional military hierarchy. Quartermasters oversaw the acquisition of a wide range of items, from uniforms and weapons to food, tents, and even horses for the cavalry and artillery. They also established systems for distributing goods to the troops. Grant’s understanding of the supply chain and knowledge about how to creatively get goods, supplies and men quickly to the front line proved to be a strength later when he was general. While some peers concentrated on glory, Grant had a grounding in practical knowledge.
In the 1850’s, Fort Vancouver was a major trading post. There Grant learned Chinook, the language of the local natives. Referring to the conflict between natives and white settlers Grant wrote in a letter to his wife in 1853, “My opinion is that the whole race would be harmless and peaceable if they were not put upon by the whites.”
with their sons Frederick, and Ulysses
Grant’s ability to speak Chinook came into play later when as a Union general he had to make supply requests from an unfriendly superior, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a political appointee jealous of Grant’s success, who often turned down his requests. Grant managed to get around the obstacle by communicating his requests in Chinook to a requisitions staffer who understood the language.
Humans, both white and native, were sparse in North Portland and the Fort Vancouver area in the 1850s, according to historians. White settlers knew each other. “Based on historical accounts, it is very likely that North Portland pioneers interacted with Ulysses S. Grant during his time stationed at Fort Vancouver… from 1852 to 1853,” writes Frank Kohl, author of Grant at Fort Vancouver. Grant’s personal memoirs also mention taking long horseback rides down the Willamette River to Portland.
He surely knew prominent settlers such as James John, founder of the town of St. Johns, James Bybee of Sauvie Island, and one of the more colorful pioneers, Fred Ramsey, whose land claim lay near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. Ramsey also owned property in Portsmouth but chose to live in the Rivergate area along the waterfront, where uncontaminated water would be readily available for his whiskey still.
“Ramsey was best described by Starr Southmayd who remembered him riding about the area at full gallop, and who, after halting his horse, saluted his acquaintance like a calvary soldier.” Jonathan James reports on the North Portland history website Positive Spin. “‘He often told of trips in a canoe with Capt. (Lt.) Grant and of the times they used to have at Fort Vancouver when the city was the leading social center of the northwest.’…He went about the countryside in buckskins, moccasins and a hat adorned with a pheasant feather.” Ramsey is buried with his dog in a tiny, wooded spot near the present-day intersection of N. Burgard and N. Columbia Blvd. in St. Johns.
During his time at Fort Vancouver, it is likely Grant might have practiced his life-long hobby of card playing. He and his wife played card games socially wherever they lived according to Chernow.
Given the fact that Grant sometimes drank when separated from his wife, enjoyed playing card games, and Fort Vancouver was a social center for local pioneers, the rumor that Ulysses S. Grant drank and played cards with St. Johns’ early farmers is likely true!
It’s interesting to note how the skills he learned in our community aided his success later as a Union general.
Sources: Grant, by Ron Chernow; Grant at Fort Vancouver by Frank Kohl; per https://positivespin.us/frederickramsey.htm; “Quartermaster History Timeline 1775 to Present”; A Brief History of the Quartermaster Corps Dr. Isaac W. Hampton II.