Homer E. Grannis is an enterprising farmer and real estate owner residing in Claremont, Sullivan County, N.H., where he was for many years engaged in the saw-mill and lumber business. He was born in Claremont, July 16, 1832, son of Solon C. and Nancy (Spaulding) Grannis, and belongs to one of the oldest families in the town, being a great-grandson of Timothy Grannis, Sr, who came from North Haven, Conn., to Claremont in 1769.
For his first wife Timothy Grannis, Sr., married Sarah Sumner, daughter of Dr. William Sumner. She died June 25, 1789; and he married for his second wife Sarah Nye, of Tolland, Conn. Timothy Grannis, Sr., died May 7, 1827. He was the father of eleven children, seven by his first marriage and four by his second.
Timothy Grannis, Jr., eldest son of Timothy, Sr., and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Claremont, June 30, 1772. In his earlier years he taught school winters, and tilled the soil of a good farm in West Claremont during the intervening summer seasons. Possessing a good education, he was somewhat devoted to literary composition; and, while at the top of Ascutney Mountain in 1804, he wrote some lines in blank verse commemorative of the occasion. He did much surveying for the town and for private parties, and was well and favorably known throughout this region. He was a member of the Board of Selectmen from 1821 to 1829 and Representative to the General Court in 1829-32. He married Phoebe, daughter of Ebenezer Rice, and reared a family of five children, as follows: Solon C., Laurens A., Homer P., Sarah M., and Samuel R. Homer P. Grannis removed to Canada when young. Afterward he went South, and died in Alabama. Sarah M. Grannis married Leonard Gilmore. Laurens A., who was a large land-owner, died in Guildhall, Vt., in October, 1896. He married for his first wife Mary Johnson, and for his second Martha Cole. Samuel R., who married Caroline Higbee, settled in Minnesota, and passed the rest of his life in that State.
Solon C. Grannis, father of Homer E., was born in West Claremont, August 23, 1801. When a young man he settled upon a farm located a mile north of his father’s property, and for many years carried on agricultural pursuits upon a large scale. He was prominent in public affairs, serving upon the Board of Selectmen from 1843 to 1852, being Chairman of that body for some time, and representing this town in the legislature in 1860 and 1861. He was well informed concerning the history of Claremont, as he kept a record of all important events that transpired in the town. He acted as a Warden of the Union Episcopal Church for over forty years. Solon C. Grannis lived to be ninety years old, and died March 7, 1892. His wife, Nancy Spaulding, was a daughter of Abel Spaulding. Abel and his brother Joseph served in the Revolutionary War, and tradition has it that Joseph Spaulding fired the first shot at the battle of Bunker Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Solon C. Grannis were the parents of eight children, namely: Sarah, born November 16, 1824; Joseph S., born January 26, 1828; Martha A., born February 21, 1830, who died at the age of eighteen months; Homer E., the subject of this sketch; Martha A., born May 27, 1834; Nancy J., born April 3, 1836; Charles C., who died at the age of eighteen months; and George C., born December 10, 1842. Sarah married Chester P. Smith, and died in 1864; Joseph S., who is a lawyer in Cleveland, Ohio, married Eliza Harrison; Nancy never married; George C. married Annis Gilmore, and resides in Claremont; Martha A., who formerly taught school, became the wife of Daniel N. Bowker.
