Rev. Arthur Hastings Grant Biography


	This biography appears on page 547 in "History of Minnehaha
 	County, South Dakota" by Dana R. Bailey and was scanned, OCRed
 	and edited by Joy Fisher, http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031
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GRANT, REV. ARTHUR HASTINGS, is a native of New York City, N. Y., and was 
born November 16, 1865.  He graduated from Cornell University in 1887, and 
was Registrar and Secretary of the same in 1888-90.  He was pastor of the 
Unitarian Society of Freeville, N. Y., in 1889-91, and during this time was 
a regular correspondent for the New York Evening Post.  He was on the 
editorial staff of the Dryden Herald in 1891, until he removed to South 
Dakota in July of that year to assume the duties of pastor of All Souls 
church of Sioux Falls.  In this capacity his discussions on questions of 
public interest from the pulpit drew quite large congregations, and he 
frequently availed himself of the newspapers to put before the people his 
views upon public affairs.  He was as prominent as a citizen as he was as 
a pastor.  In 1892, he was elected president of the Sioux Falls Library 
Association and remained as such, until he removed to Newburgh, N. Y., in 
July, 1893, to take charge of the Unitarian church at that place.  He met 
with very flattering success at Newburgh, and at one time caused quite a 
sensation in that staid old town by challenging the ministers of the 
orthodox churches singly or collectively to a public discussion of some 
of the fundamental propositions of evangelical religion, which challenge 
was accepted and a joint discussion with an immense audience was the result. 
From the newspaper accounts that followed, it would seem that Mr. Grant was 
well equipped both for attack and defense, and made quite a reputation as a 
public debater.  In October, 1898, he left Newburgh to become minister of 
Unity church, Montclair, N. Y.  The same year he published the Grant Family 
History, in which the descendants are numbered by a very ingenious method 
devised by him.  Mr. Grant has a well stored and thoroughly disciplined mind, 
and with his studious and persevering habits, will undoubtedly be heard from 
in the future.