It was 1884, and Ulysses S. Grant was broke.
The former president had been living a comfortable retirement in New York City, but he lost his life savings to the Bernie Madoff of the time, according to Steve Trimm, a local Grant historian.
He was the bank president. He cleaned out every account of every depositor, Trimm said.
To make matters worse, Grant was diagnosed with throat cancer. His doctors recommended he move somewhere in the mountains to enjoy the clean air in the limited time he had left, but the family simply didn’t have money to buy such a retreat.
So Joseph Drexel, a longtime Grant friend and admirer, stepped in. A successful banker, Drexel was working on a hotel project on Mount McGregor in Wilton. There was a cottage on the property where the hotel was being built, and Drexel told Grant and his family they could live there as long as they wanted, free of charge.
That’s how Grant came to spend his final days in the town outside Saratoga Springs, and why the cottage is now called Grant Cottage State Historic Site. It’s been 125 years since Grant’s passing, but the cottage remains largely the same as the day he died. Flowers from the funeral even still sit in the parlor, each hand-dipped in wax to withstand the toll of time.
On Saturday, July 24, the cottage will host a special remembrance of Grant from 1 to 3 p.m. on the veranda. The 77th Balladeers will perform and the Boy Scouts of Wilton and the Sons of Union Veterans will host an honor guard. Tours will be available, and the highlight of the event will be an interpretation of Fred Grant’s farewell to his father, with Trimm portraying Fred Grant.
As immersed as Trimm is in Grant history, just a few years ago, he didn’t know too much about the 18th president or the cottage he called home for six weeks. That changed when Trimm became acquainted with a woman in Oregon who was a big Grant fan. He decided to visit the cottage and send her some memorabilia.
What was supposed to be a brief trip turned into a passion.
`The story just knocked my socks off,` Trimm said. `I thought, ‘I want to be part of this.’`
So, ever since, Trimm has been part of the Friends of Grant Cottage, acting as a tour guide at the cottage and helping to raise money to keep the building open.
It wasn’t Grant’s presidency or his prominent role in the Civil War that so impressed Trimm. It was the fact that on the brink of financial ruin, Grant came to Mount McGregor and used his final days to complete his memoirs, which enabled his family to stave off poverty.
Grant wasn’t sure the book would sell, but a good friend, none other than Mark Twain, had high hopes. Twain, who had recently started a publishing company, offered to print the book and give the family a very generous 70 percent of the profit, eclipsing an offer from a magazine company that had wanted to publish the memoirs.
`Twain was convinced it would be a best-seller,` Trimm said.
So, Grant set to work in the cottage’s sick room, `where he suffered greatly,` Trimm said.
The sick room is one of the buildings in the cottage that has been largely preserved since Grant’s passing. Trimm said Drexel had the foresight to envision the cottage as a place where people would come to pay their respects to Grant, particularly Union soldiers and their families.
Looking back in history books, it might seem odd that people would make pilgrimages in Grant’s honor since his presidency is largely written off as a failure, Trimm said. But those books were written by Grant’s political enemies, he said. In his own research, Trimm discovered that Grant was `100 years ahead of his time in terms of civil rights.`
Grant fought for slaves and shielded them from the Ku Klux Klan, Trimm said. He enacted civil rights laws that were shelved after he left office, only to be resurrected during the days of Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights pioneers.
`He had not a prejudicial bone in his body,` Trimm said.
Grant likely picked up those values from his father, who was so strongly opposed to slavery that when Grant married his wife, Julia, his father refused to attend the wedding because Julia’s family owned slaves.
Trimm will share such stories when he portrays Fred Grant on Saturday. He’s excited to share a side of Grant most people don’t know, as is Michelle Gavaletz, the cottage’s executive director.
The cottage often does funeral re-enactments that draw big crowds, Gavaletz said. She’s hoping this event will do the same, especially since it’s a milestone anniversary of Grant’s death.
The event costs $5 for adults and $4 for seniors and students. Children under 5 and members of the military are admitted free.
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