Her cousin and later brother-in-law (he married her older sister Anna), Israel Ivins, was the first person baptized a Latter-day Saint in New Jersey.

She served for many years as president of the 13th Ward Relief Society in downtown Salt Lake City.

As a child, he wanted to join the baseball team that would win the Utah territorial championship, but others believed him to be too physically awkward to be successful.

[6] In the late 1890s, Grant served as the business manager for the newly-formed official LDS magazine, the Improvement Era.

Grant lost a large amount of money in the Panic of 1893 and never recovered from its adverse financial effects.

[6][9] In June 1875, when the first Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association (YMMIA) was organized in the Salt Lake 13th Ward, Grant, then 19, was called to serve as a counselor to Junius F. Wells in its presidency.

During the ensuing decade and later, Grant oversaw church education programs, the Genealogical Society of Utah and the Improvement Era.

In 1927, he authorized the implementation of the church's "Good Neighbor" policy, which was intended to reduce antagonism between Latter-day Saints and the US government.

Grant still operated on old methods, such as personally asking LeGrand Richards to move to California with the intention of calling him as a stake president there.

Grant presided at the dedication of an LDS chapel in Washington, DC, in 1933, which was seen to mark a new phase of nationwide expansion in the church.

One of Grant's greatest legacies as president is the church's welfare program, which he instituted in 1936: "our primary purpose was to set up, insofar as it might be possible, a system under which the curse of idleness would be done away with, the evils of a dole abolished, and independence, industry, thrift and self-respect be once more established amongst our people.

"[13] Grant also placed strong emphasis on the importance of sacrament meeting attendance and oversaw expansion of the seminary program and the creation of the institute of religion.

During the early 1900s, general authorities differed in their observance of the proscription against beer, wine, tobacco, coffee and tea, but among the apostles, Grant was one of the most vocal in opposing such substances.

[14] In 1921, Grant's administration made adherence to the health code compulsory for advancement in the priesthood or for entrance to temples.

In a general conference, he told the Latter-day Saints, "I have never felt so humiliated in my life over anything as that the State of Utah voted for the repeal of Prohibition.

[4] As the final surviving member of the church's Council of Fifty,[20] his death marked the formal end of the organization.

Grant's teachings as an apostle were the 2004 course of study in the LDS Church's Sunday Relief Society and Melchizedek priesthood classes.

On an early assignment as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve in Arizona, he surprised his traveling companion, Brigham Young Jr., with how many letters he wrote to Lucy.

They were among the most prominent young orators in Salt Lake society in the 1870s, both connected with the Wasatch Literary Association and Grant was a counselor to Emily's brother in the 13th Ward YMMIA presidency.

Another of her brothers, Heber M. Wells, later the first governor of the state of Utah, stayed with her for part of the time of her exile in Manassa.

Since she had not renounced her dislike for polygamy and he was already married to Lucy, that was in many ways a very daring move on his part, and she initially declined his request.

Since the Edmunds Act had been enacted in 1882, the situation of Mormon polygamists was far worse than it had been a decade earlier when Emily had first renounced polygamy.

To avoid Grant having to go to prison on charges of unlawful cohabitation, Emily went to England to live at the LDS mission home to have her first child.

She returned to the United States 16 months later and moved between multiple locations in Utah Territory and Idaho to avoid capture.

[25]: 7 In 1889, to avoid being forced to testify in pending unlawful cohabitation charges against her husband, Emily went to Manassa, Colorado, where she stayed for a year and a half.

Grant accompanied her on the train-ride from Pueblo, Colorado, to Manassa, having been on a different train on the previous part of the journey to avoid arrest.

[22]: 31  Emily's last child was born in 1899, when she was 42, the same year Grant pleaded guilty to unlawful cohabitation and paid a $100 fine.