(died 16 Sept. 1921, aged 49), mine foreman, murdered man. (James Grant) Native of Loch Garry, GC. Parents: Mr and Mrs Louis (Lewis) Grant. James Grant left GC when he was in his teens, 31 years before his death. He worked in lumbering in Michigan, then in mining in Montana and elsewhere. He was a foreman in mines in British Columbia, Idaho and Montana. Grant was regarded as a successful and popular foreman, and a man of genial nature. As the foreman of the High-up Mine, of the Greenback Co., about six miles from Virginia City, Mont., he defeated an employee called John Keel in a wrestling match. He is reported to have said to the defeated Keel, “You’ll have to be a better man than you are to throw me.” A little later that day, when the mine employees were returning to work after dinner, John Keel, who was lying in wait for Grant, killed him with six revolver shots. Grant, whose home was in Butte, Mont., left a wife and three children. At the time of his death one of the daughters was married to George Bourquin, district attorney of Silver Bow County, Montana. Grant was a Roman Catholic and a member of the Knights of Columbus. He was buried in Holy Cross cemetery, Butte, Mont.

     Grant’s killer John Keel, aged 46 at the time of the killing, was born in North Carolina, and was illiterate and a labourer and ex-sheep herder. Keel had been drinking before the wrestling match and murder. After some postponements of the trial, Keel was convicted in June 1922 of second degree murder and sentenced to 10 to 20 years at hard labour. After serving five years of his sentence, he was released on parole in 1927. A few years later he committed another murder, at Deer Lodge, Mont., and as a result, on 24 April 1930, was sentenced to life imprisonment for 1st degree murder. He died 14 May 1958, presumably still in custody.

The Butte Miner (Butte, Mont.) 17 Sept. 1921, portrait * Glengarry News 14 Oct. 1921 & Cornwall Freeholder 20 Oct. 1921, both based on Butte Miner of 17 Sept. * funeral notices, The Butte Miner 21 & 26 Sept. 1921 * material kindly supplied by Montana Historical Society (includes Keel’s prisoner description card and papers from Montana attorney general’s files), and by clerk of District Court, Virginia City, Mont. (judgement record) * Fraser (1959) 245-247 (family connections only)