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The Florists' Review 



May 22, 1913. 



IILBERT LEONAKD 

 GRANT, thau whom few 

 men have been more closely 

 identified with the devel- 

 opment of the florists' 

 trade, especially during the 

 years in which the industry 

 was finding its footing, died Sunday, 

 May 18, at Seabright sanitarium, 

 Santa Cruz, Cal., following an opera- 

 tion for appendicitis. 



Mr. Grant had for some years made 

 his home at Overlook, near Sequel, Cal. 

 He had enjoyed his usual health until 

 the end of April, when an abdominal 

 difiiculty of long standing became 

 acute. Diagnosis was made by Dr. 

 B. H. Bush as probably appendicitis, 

 but some of the symptoms were obscure 

 and he asked to have the advice of Dr. 

 Emmet Eixford, professor of surgery 

 at Leland Stanford University, the most 

 noted surgeon in the state and one of 

 the ablest in the country. Dr. Rixford 

 was assisted by Dr. Rumwell, who came 

 down from San Francisco with him, 

 and by Dr. Bush. The presence of the 

 ■distinguished surgeon excited no little 

 interest among the medical fraternity 

 of Santa Cruz and the operation was 

 •witnessed by Dr. Piper, who gave the 

 anesthetic; Dr. Bell, Dr. Congdon and 

 Dr. I. C. Bush. It proved to be a pecu- 

 liarly aggravated case of long standing, 

 but the patient rallied strongly and 

 quickly was considered out of danger. 

 Indeed, his condition was so good that 

 May 6, in a note to his business asso- 

 ciates in Chicago, dictated to his 

 daughter, he said: "Just a line to let 

 you know I am getting along even bet- 

 ter than the doctors anticipated; I ex- 

 pect to be up and around again within 

 two weeks from this date." May 8 

 he vrote with his own hand: "The 

 operation has made a new man of me." 

 His progress continued excellent until 

 May 15, when complications developed 

 that necessitated a second operation, 

 which, in his weakened condition, was 

 followed by dissolution, at 12:55 p. m. 

 May 18, 



The descendant of Matthew Grant, 

 one of the original company who came, 

 in 1630, to Dorchester, in the Mary 

 and John, Gilbert Leonard Grant was 

 the son of Gilbert William Grant and 

 Susan Lawton Grant, born at Jersey 

 City, N. J., June 15, 1859. His father 

 was a wholesale merchant in New 

 York until 1861, in which year the fam- 

 ily removed to Cleveland, O. Here the 

 son received his education. He passed 

 through the grammar grades, but was 

 then obliged to go to work, as his 

 father lost everything in the oil-r&fin- 

 ing business during the period in which 

 Mr. Rockefeller was putting into execu- 

 tion his plans of "benevolent assimila- 

 tion." He learned telegraph operating, 

 but after a few years at the key drifted 

 iato the florists' business. Seeking a 

 larger field, ho removed to Chicago in 



1883, and was engaged in the wholesale 

 florists' business until 1885, when he 

 became editor and manager of the 

 American Florist, then being estab- 

 lished. He continued in this connection 

 for fourteen years, disposing of his in- 

 terest in 1897 to organize the Florists' 

 Publishing Co., and found The Florists' 

 Review. He continued the president 

 of the company and the editor and 

 manager of the paper until his death, 

 although from 1903 he gradually freed 

 himself of the details of active work 

 and had for several years made his 

 home in the foothills of the Santa Cruz 

 mountains overlooking Monterey bay, 

 in California. 



As a publisher Mr. Grant became 

 known in all the principal printing 

 centers of the country. He was a pio- 

 neer and leader in developing many of 

 the processes now every-day matters 

 in the trade. Some years ago, when 

 Mr. Grant was stating his requirements 

 as to presswork, binding and mailing 

 to the head of an establishment doing 

 that sort of work, he was told: "You 

 are trying to get out a high-class maga- 

 zine at daily-paper speed, and that's an 

 impossibility. ' ' He didn 't believe it 

 was impossible, and it proved not to be. 

 Mr. Grant early saw the coming im- 

 portance of the half-tone ehgraving, 

 and was one of the first Chicago pub- 

 lishers to use it freely. It was then 

 necessary to send photographs to Phil- 

 adelphia, there being no Chicago en- 

 graver in a position to use the process. 

 in view of the present almost univer- 

 sal use of the half-tone plate it is in- 

 teresting to recall that this was little 

 over twenty years ago. As an editor 

 his aim was to hold his course ever close 

 to the commercial side of his subject, 

 the main function of a trade paper, as 

 he saw it, being to assist its readers 

 in making two dollars grow where only 

 one grew before, not only by the expan- 

 sion of business but through the elimi- 

 nation of waste and the thorough 

 utilization of up-to-date methods. 



In 1892 he and William Falconer 

 founded the publication Gardening, of 

 which he continued as business manager 

 from its inception until 1897, during 

 which time it was the leading journal 

 published in America for non-commer- 

 cial gardeners and florists. 



In 1892 Mr. Grant became a member 

 of the Chicago Publishers' Association, 

 the name of which was afterward 

 changed to the Chicago Trade Press 

 Association. He was its vice presi- 

 dent in 1893 and 1894 and its presi- 

 dent in 1895. 



Mr. Grant took, in 1886, the initial 

 step that led to the organization of 

 the Chicago Florists' Club, serving as 

 its secretary during the first four years 

 of its existence. In 1890 he was placed 

 in the chair, serving two terms, and 

 was again its pi-eSrfdent from 1895 to 

 1898. In 1890 he was one of the found- 



ers of the Horticultural Society of Chi. 

 cago and was its secretary in 1891 and 

 an active member of its executive com- 

 mittee continuously for many years. In 

 the early days of flower shows in Chi- 

 cago he was indefatigable and it has 

 been said that it was largely due to 

 his talent for the work that the exhi- 

 bitions in Chicago soon became known 

 as the largest and most successful flower 

 shows held anywhere in America. 



While devoting so much of his time 

 outside of business to the florists' and 

 publishers' organizations he still found 

 opportunity for equal activity in the 

 affairs of the Independent Order of Odd 

 Fellows. In 1883 he became a member 

 of Phoenix Lodge No. 233, of Cleveland, 

 transferring in 1884 to Excelsior Lodge 

 No. 22, of Chicago. He became chief 

 officer of the lodge in 1886. In 1885 

 he joined Chicago Encampment No. 10 

 of the Patriarchal branch of the I. 0. 

 O. F. and was its chief officer in 1887. 

 In 1889 he became a member of the 

 Grand Lodge of Illinois. 



Almost from its inception Mr. Grant 

 was a member and for many years an 

 active participant in the affairs of the 

 Society of American Florists. His 

 name was added to the roll in 1887 

 and has been there continuously ever 

 since. He attended every convention 

 from 1887 to 1902, and most of those 

 since, several times in the last ten years 

 having made the journey from Califor- 

 nia especially to attend the annual 

 August gatherings. Another trade or- 

 ganization in which he took special in- 

 terest, and of which he has been a 

 member since its inception, is the 

 American Carnation Society. 



Mr. Grant 's last trip east was for the 

 purpose of attending two conventions, 

 in August, 1912. He came to Chicago 

 as a California delegate to the first na- 

 tional convention of the Progressive 

 party and assisted in the nomination of 

 Theodore Roosevelt for the presidency. 

 Keen interest as he took in that part 

 of the work, it was second to the pleas- 

 ure he derived in assisting in nominat- 

 ing for the vice presidency his friend, 

 Governor Hiram Johnson, who is at 

 present so conspicuously in the public 

 eye in the matter of the alien land bill 

 in California. 



Gilbert Leonard Grant married at 

 Cleveland, May 21, 1879, with Josephine 

 Elizabeth Nichols, adopted daughter of 

 Martin Van Buren Rose, her mother's 

 brother, and known as May Louise 

 Rose. She was born in a village called 

 Tanner's Brook, in New Jersey, March 

 10, 1861. Her mother died when she 

 was but 3 months old. Mr. and Mrs. 

 Grant lived the happiest of home lives. 

 They had six children: Maud Ethel, 

 now the wife of Walter S. Miller, sec- 

 retary and treasurer of the Florists' 

 Publishing Co.; Alda Rose, who mar- 

 lied Harold L. Graham, now living^ 

 Han Diego, Cal.; Gilbert Walter, Pfo 



