Comments on: The Champion Checkers Player of Salt Lake City

By: Jpaul

Jpaul — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:42:11 +0000

The name of the English immigrant from the Tenth ward was… further research may tell.

By: Aaron Brooks

Aaron Brooks — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:39:35 +0000

And now you know… the rest of the story.

By: Maurine

Maurine — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:02:54 +0000

And so he did. The champion checkers player of Salt Lake City, a young boy named Heber J. Grant, reached into his pocket and paid for his own celebration. This is a great ending to the story, not just revealing the name of the checkers champion, but showing that he had to pay for his celebration himself.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:25:20 +0000

What a story! I agree with Coffinberry — that is a different side of Grant than we usually get in stories.

I wonder if Mark B.’s “harmless beverage” was one of the two listed in the ad. What else would they have served back then? A root beer or ginger beer? That seems too early for lemonade to be anything but an expensive luxury, and it was before the invention of Coca-Cola (1886) and I can’t find when soda water was commonly available in the rest of the world, let alone frontier America.

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:10:03 +0000

Meat pies, the fast food of choice before the invention of the hamburger.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:05:28 +0000

For the enjoyment of anybody who checks back to read comments, here's the advertisement for Hagell's shop from the 1874 city directory: . . . . .

By: Cliff

Cliff — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:39:48 +0000

Winsome story. Great find. Thanks Ardis.

By: Meghan M.

Meghan M. — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:27:13 +0000

What a fun story!

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:43:10 +0000

Well told.

By: Coffinberry

Coffinberry — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:43:25 +0000

I love it! This is a totally different take on HJGrant from the stories about perseverence we hear in Primary. Indeed, the impession I had always had from the stories was that he was a rather friendless lad who could only earn respect by spending hours alone throwing a ball against the barn wall or practicing penmanship. To learn instead that he was a geek with friends who appreciated his geeky qualities is really quite exciting to me.