When you stop to think about it...

White Haven 2, originally uploaded by edrahe.

Today's picture was taken at President U.S. and Julia Grant's St. Louis Home, White Haven.

I realized something very interesting today. Almost 90 years after his death my great-great grandfather Henry A. Moeller Sr. is, on a daily basis figuratively at least, thumbing his nose at a once well-to-do and prominent St. Louis businessman, Confederate slaveholder and father-in-law of President U.S. Grant.
There are a lot of interesting things under one’s nose if you take the time to stop and take a look. Today I took time to explore the U.S. Grant National Historic Site, not too far from my house in St. Louis County.
As a history buff I thought I know a lot about our 18th president. After spending an hour at what was his wife Julia’s home, which he eventually bought from his father-in-Law Col. Frederick Dent, I learned at lot more about President Grant and realized the irony of my great-great grandfather’s final resting place.
The future President Grant was serving as an officer in the 1840s at Jefferson Barracks when a fellow soldier by the name of Frederick Dent Jr. invited Lt. Grant out to his family’s White Haven Plantation about seven miles west of Jefferson Barracks. Grant became a regular visitor there and eventually fell in love with 17-year-old Julia Dent. Because Grant was a career solider being sent to remote posts including Mexico the couple endured a four year engagement separated almost the entire time.
According to my tour guide it was an interesting marriage in that neither Julia or Grant’s parents were thrilled at the match. Col. Dent, a proud slaveholder, and his son-in-law, a strong abolitionist, were often at odds about the subject. Grant’s parents objected to Julia because she was from a slave-holding southern family. In spite of their families’ objections the Grants had a close and loving relationship.
Even as his son-in-law was commanding the Union Army, Col. Dent remained true to the cause. By all accounts Col. Dent remained isolated at White Haven during the war. His wife died many years earlier and by 1863, with Missouri by then firmly on the side of the Union, his slaves had deserted White Haven.
It is said that Col. Dent refused to sign a loyalty oath to the Union and pointed out that his son-in-law was commander of the Union Army and that should be adequate. After that run-in he reportedly painted the White Haven house Confederate Gray. A gray or white layer of paint was actually found on the clapboards when the National Park service restored the house, which is presently painted its historically accurate dark green.
After their marriage, Julia and Ulysses lived on a section of White Haven off what is now Rock Hill Road and the present site of St. Paul’s Churchyard. Their rough log cabin built on that spot was christened “Hardscrabble.” This cabin has been moved three times and just about every St. Louis resident knows that it now sits on Anheuser Busch’s tourist attraction aptly named, Grant’s Farm.
So, it finally clicked with me today and it’s something I should’ve realized a while ago. My Great-Great Grandfather Henry A. Moeller -- U.S. Army Private Henry Moeller --a Union soldier and veteran of the Battle of Camp Jackson which saved Missouri from seceding from the Union, is buried in St. Paul’s Church Yard, land once owned by prominent St. Louis Confederate Col. Frederick Dent; land where slaves once toiled; land later owned by General U.S. Grant. I wonder what he would’ve thought of that?