In is memoirs, Gen. Grant reports a story told of a horse trade that he made in his boyhood days, as follows: “There was a Mr. Ralston living within a few miles of the village, who owned a colt which I was very much wanted. My father had offered $20 for it; but Ralston wanted $25. I was so anxious to have the colt that after the owner left I begged to be allowed to take him at the price demanded. My father yielded, but said $20 was all the horse was worth, and told me to offer that price; it if was not accepted I was to offer $22.50, and if that would not buy, to give the $25. I at once mounted a horse and went for the colt. When I got to Mr. Ralston’s house I said to him, ‘Papa says I may offer you $20 for the colt, but if you won’t take that I am to offer $22.50, and if you won’t take that to give you $25.’ It would not require a Connecticut man to guess the price finally agreed upon. This story is really true. I certainly showed very plainly that I had come for the colt and meant to have him. I could not have been over eight years old at the time. I kept the horse until he was four years old when he went blind, and I sold him for $20. When I went to Maysville to school, in 1836, at the age of 14, I recognized him as one of the blind horses working on the tread wheel of the ferry-boat.”
Originally published in the Belmont Chronicle of St. Clairsville, OH on 26 Nov 1885 pg 4.
