Susan Elvira Sidwell was born on August 15, 1865 in Manti, Utah, to Adelia Belinda and George Sidwell. The Sidwells had nine children and she was the eldest.
One of her earliest memories was when her mother took her to Brother Barton's so she could learn to play a musical instrument called the melodeon. One year her father who was in farming took a load of wheat and some hogs to market. He earned enough money to send back to New York to get Susan a piano, her mother said the melodeon "was just to squeaky".
When Susan was nine she had typhoid fever the lasted over three months "my live was in the balance". After she was well enough she continued her piano lessons. She writes "I improved very slowly as I was not very musically inclined and I could not carry a tune". When the Manti ward got an organ she was put in as the organist which meant a lot of good practice.
Susan remembered when Brigham Young came to Manti to dedicate the laying of the cornerstone for the new temple. "He took several shovels full of soil. It was raining but as he kneeled in prayer an umbrella was held over him. I often heard him preach."
When she was sixteen she went to live with a family in Pleasant Grove. she taught music lessons and was taught how to run the telegraph. it was while living in Pleasant Grove that she met James Grant.
after a few years she got a job in Gunnison to take charge of the telegraph office. She was paid $15.00 a month in Hay and grain and she gave music lessons to pay her board.
In July of 1886 Jim came down and took her and her sister North, On the 21st of July 1886 she was married to James Grant. (the marriage was later solemnized in the Manti temple). the Grants bought a home in American Fork to start their family together. (the home still stands at about 180 North 100 West). They later sold the home in American Fork and moved the family to Thurber, Utah (now Bicknell) James served as one of the early bishops of the Thurber ward.
Around 1907 they moved the family to "the reservation" in the Uintah basin and started a store and a hotel. the first hotel was not much more than a big tent, later replaced by a frame building.
for years they were affectionately known as daddy and mother Grant. They eventually built a two story brick building, which was the most up to date hotel in the basin, rooms were .50 and 1.00, meals for .50 and baths were free. The Grant Hotel also boasted the first telephone in the Uintah basin.
The Grants lived the rest of their lives in what became Duchesne, Utah. together they had ten children. James died in 1927 leaving Susan a widow for nearly thirty years. Susan died on 17th June 1956. They are buried together in the Duchesne cemetery.
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