Heber Jeddy Grant (November 22, 1856 – May 14, 1945) was an American religious leader who served as the seventh president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Grant worked as a bookkeeper and a cashier, then was called to be an LDS apostle on October 16, 1882, at age 25. After the death of Joseph F. Smith in late 1918, Grant served as LDS Church president until his death.
The first president born after the exodus to Utah, Grant was also the last LDS Church president to have practiced plural marriage. He had three wives, though by the time he became church president in 1918 only his second wife, Augusta Winters, was still living.
In business, Grant helped develop the Avenues neighborhood of Salt Lake City. In 1884, he served a term as a representative to the Utah Territorial Legislature.
Early life
Grant was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, the son of Rachel Ridgeway Ivins and Jedediah Morgan Grant. His father was a counselor in the First Presidency to Brigham Young. Rachel Grant was a native of New Jersey, where she had converted to the LDS Church at about 20. Her cousin and later brother-in-law (he married her older sister Anna), Israel Ivins, was the first person baptized a Latter-day Saint in New Jersey.
Jedediah Grant died when Heber J. Grant was nine days old. After Jedediah's death, Rachel married Jedediah's brother, George Grant, but he fell into alcoholism so she divorced him. Rachel became the dominant influence in Heber's life. She served for many years as president of the 13th Ward Relief Society in downtown Salt Lake City.
He was known for his determination to achieve goals that were seemingly beyond his reach. As a child, he wanted to join the baseball team that would win the Utah territorial championship, but others believed him to be too physically awkward to be successful. In response, he purchased a baseball and practiced throwing the ball for hours against his barn to improve. The team he joined later won the championship. In similar fashion, Grant expressed a desire to be a successful bookkeeper although many of his associates criticized his penmanship. He practiced his writing to the point that he was invited to teach penmanship at one of the local academies.
There were no free public schools in Salt Lake City when Grant was a child, but his mother kept him enrolled in various schools while he was growing up.
Business activities
After working as a bookkeeper in the insurance business in 1877, Grant became an assistant cashier with Zion's Savings Bank and afterwards opened an insurance business with Nephi Clayton. Later, Grant became a partner with D. W. Jennings. He later founded an additional insurance agency in Ogden and, for a time, owned the Ogden Vinegar Works.
In the late 1890s, Grant served as the business manager for the newly-formed official LDS magazine, the Improvement Era. Grant's insurance company advertised in the publication.
Grant continued to be involved in business activities after his call as an apostle. He founded many new businesses, including a bank. He was a founder of the Utah Sugar Company and the main founder of the Salt Lake Theatre.
Grant lost a large amount of money in the Panic of 1893 and never recovered from its adverse financial effects. He was also the main person to negotiate new financing to the LDS Church in New York at the time. His efforts kept the church going until Lorenzo Snow's late-1890s call for tithing placed the church in a better financial situation.
Early LDS Church service
Grant was made a block teacher (similar to the modern position of home teacher) when he was still a youth, which was rare at the time. He was ordained a seventy at 15, which was also rare at the time.
In June 1875, when the first Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association (YMMIA) was organized in the Salt Lake 13th Ward, Grant, then 19, was called to serve as a counselor to Junius F. Wells in its presidency.
At 26, he served a mission to the Native Americans from 1883 to 1884.
Grant's early church assignments included service on the Church Salary Committee and the Sunday School General Board. Grant was made Second Assistant in the Superintendency of the General YMMIA in 1898. When Joseph F. Smith became president of the church and head of the YMMIA, Grant was made First Assistant, where he served until he became church president.
In 1880, Grant became president of the Tooele Utah Stake, moving there with his wife, Lucy, and their children. Around then, Lucy began to develop health problems.