Ag 250: How U.S. Grant Lost His Shirt Farming in the PNW
By Matthew Weaver
Future President Ulysses S. Grant, drawing from his Ohio farming background, served with the 4th U.S. Infantry in the Pacific Northwest. He was assigned to the Columbia Barracks (now Fort Vancouver) in Vancouver, Washington, in 1852. As regimental quartermaster, Grant managed supplies and logistics.
Shortly after, he purchased farmland intending to cultivate potatoes, cattle, pigs, and wood for steam boats and firewood.
“All of this is about buying low, selling high... Each of these efforts fails miserably for one reason or another.” - Nick Sacco, historian
Weather disasters struck first, washing away his potato crops in 1853. He stored firewood elsewhere, but this cut into profits. Cattle and pig operations also failed, with a sow he sold to the regimental drum major later giving birth to a dozen pigs.
Grant attempted to sell chickens at market in San Francisco but they died en route. He and officers invested in 100 tons of ice, intending to ship it from the Columbia River, but bad weather caused the ship to veer off course, melting the ice.
“It’s just kind of one thing after another for Grant,” says Sacco. “He’s trying to be creative... and nothing really works in his favor.”