But when he was still an
infant they removed to Georgetown, a few miles away, where the father
established a tannery. At this time the town was little more than a
clearing hewed out from the virgin forest. Wood was plentiful and
cheap, and for this reason, Mr. Grant bought a tract of land and set up
his tannery.
Ulysses, or "Lys" as the neighbors called him, was the oldest of six
children--three boys and three girls. As soon as Ulysses was old
enough, his father started him to school. There were no public schools
in those days, so he went to a school maintained by private
subscription and taught by a man named John White.
White had his own notions about a curriculum, and one of the most
important was discipline. On top of his desk always reposed a bundle
of good husky switches--except at frequently recurring times when they
were beating a tattoo on some hapless scholar's back. It was his boast
that he often used up a whole bunch in a single day. However, his
school was no different from many another of the time. Beatings were
taken as a matter of course. "Spare the rod and spoil the child!"
Ulysses went to this school until he was fourteen, and mastered the
elementary studies. Between whiles he helped his father at the tannery
or on the farm. The tannery work he always hated.
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