John William Grant (1867-1938) was born in West Point, Georgia, to William D. and Sarah Frances (Reid) Grant. His father, William D., and grandfather, John T. Grant (1813-1887), founded the Fannin, Grant and Company Railroad. John W. Grant graduated from the University of Georgia in Athens in 1886, and earned a masters degree in accounting from the Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He married Annie Martin Inman (b. 1873), daughter of Hugh T. Inman, on April 11, 1893, and they had five children: Margaret VanDyke (Grant) Wilmer (1894-1974); William D. (1895-1931); Hugh Inman (1896-1906); John W., Jr. (1901-1972); and Annie Inman (1903-1993). In 1888, John W. Grant went to work for his father in the Grant Construction Company where he supervised construction of the Grant Office Building at 22 Marietta Street. Grant was also the director of the Third National Bank and president of the Georgia Savings Bank. He was a special commissioner of the Southern Railway Trust Company of Georgia and also a director of the Southern Mutual Insurance Company. He owned the Kimball House Company, a wedding gift from his father-in-law. He was a member of the Atlanta City Council (1907-1909), where he served as the chairman of its finance committee, and was also alderman from the Sixth Ward (1909-1911). Grant was a member of the board of education and a trustee of the Georgia Institute of Technology, donating land for the football field, which was named in honor of his son, Hugh Inman Grant. He was a member of numerous social clubs including the Piedmont Driving Club and the Druid Hills Golf Club. He was active in the Society of the Cincinnati; Society of Colonial Wars; Sons of the American Revolution; the Atlanta Art Association; and the Chi Phi fraternity.