William W. Grant, M. D. During the years that have elapsed since he came to Denver, Dr. Grant has built up a large practice in this city and has become known as a skillful surgeon and a successful physician, who is accurate alike in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. While his specialties are surgery and gynecology, yet in every department of the profession his knowledge is exhaustive and his skill recognized. He has had the advantage not only of study in the institutions of our own land, but in those abroad, having spent one year in the study of surgery and gynecology in the hospitals of Berlin, Vienna and London.
The record of the Grant family appears in the sketch of ex-Governor Grant, the doctor’s brother. The family consisted of seven children, of whom William was the third. He was born in Russell County, Ala., near Columbus, Ga., and in boyhood attended a private school there. His boyhood life was spent on a southern plantation, where he was instructed by his father in the making of every kind of farm implement and in their use in the cultivation of corn, cotton and other farm products. He also learned to fell trees, split rails and dig ditches, and, in fact, did every kind of farm work, and did it well. He worked side by side with the colored help, and no favors were shown him, although his father was a kind and indulgent man. Thus he learned to appreciate individual effort and its results. School study and farm work were alternated; yet before the age of fifteen he and his brother, the ex-governor, read Virgil and had commenced Sallust. However, they were not “hothouse” products, for neither was familiar with the letters of the alphabet until seven and eight years of age respectively.
At the age of sixteen our subject entered as a private a company of Alabama artillery known as Clanton’s battery in Gen. James H. Clanton’s brigade, and served during the last sixteen months of the Civil war, being promoted from the ranks to the position of sergeant of artillery, in charge of the gun. He was present in the engagements of Mount Hope Church and Columbus, Ga. Returning home at the close of the war he attended school for a year and then began the study of medicine. For a time he read under private tutelage, then spent a year (1867) in Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, and the following year entered Bellevue and Long Island Medical College, from which he graduated in 1868 with the degree of M. D.
Shortly after his graduation Dr. Grant opened an office in Nebraska, near Sioux City, Iowa, but in 1872 removed to Davenport, Iowa, where he continued for a number of years, and while there held the office of president of the Scott County Medical Society. He was also president of the Iowa and Illinois Central District Medical Association. In 1885 the surgeon-general of the United States army appointed him post surgeon at the Rock Island arsenal, and he held the position until 1888, when he resigned on account of going to Europe. On his return from abroad, in December, 1889, he came to Denver, where he has all office in the Mack building. In addition to his general practice he is one of the surgeons to St. Joseph’s hospital and president of the staff, and is also surgeon to the Rock Island Railroad here. The various professional organizations the American Academy of Railway Surgeons, American, State and Denver and Arapahoe County Medical Societies–number him among their members. All discoveries in therapeutics, all improvements in surgery, and, in fact, every development made in the profession, receives his
thoughtful attention and study. Himself one of the foremost members of the medical fraternity, his articles concerning professional work and the treatment of disease frequently appear in medical journals and are valuable additions to the professional literature.
The residence of Dr. Grant is at No. 930 Pennsylvania avenue. He was married in Franklin, Tenn., to Miss Mary A. Moseley, who was born in that state and died in Davenport, Iowa, leaving two children, William W., Jr., and James. In Denver he was a second time married, his wife being Miss Nanny Green, daughter of the late judge James Green, of Culpeper C. H., Va.
Source: Portrait and biographical record of Denver and vicinity, Colorado : containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present : together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States.. Chicago: Chapman Pub. Co., 1898.