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    JC Grant Co. celebrates 100-year mark

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November 12, 2009

JC Grant Co. celebrates 100-year mark

Business celebrates centennial with ribbon cutting ceremony

Jonathan Jackson

Since 1909 Milledgeville residents have been able to shop at a downtown jewelry store and that tradition is not changing anytime soon.

The J.C. Grant Co. celebrated 100 years of business in Milledgeville Thursday with a ribbon cutting and party marking the milestone. The downtown Milledgeville jewelry store was filled with friends, family and well-wishers who stopped in to celebrate the achievement with the company.

“We have our sixth generation here,” Jean Graham said during the ribbon cutting, introducing her grandson to the crowd.

Graham, her sister Carol Vance, brothers Joseph Grant and Johnny Grant III all work with the jewelry store. Johnny Grant III (R-Milledgeville) is also a state Senator for the 25th District that includes Milledgeville. Johnny Grant Jr. and grandson-in-law Justin Jones work with jewelry and watch repair for the long-standing business.







“We’ve had 100 years,” Grant Jr. said. “I’ve only been here for 62 of them.”

Grant said that through the years, the business has tried to give top-notch customer service.

“We’ve tried to do a good job giving good service and good prices,” he said. “Service is lacking in most every business today.”

Grant said one secret to his success has been that he enjoys what he is doing.

“If you like it and if it’s fun, then the time flies,” he said.

Grant spent many years in public service with the City of Milledgeville serving as mayor. He said during his time he worked well and side-by-side with city employees.

“I will never forget taking delivery of a fire truck while wearing my Bermuda shorts,” he joked. “People would find me in a lot of places they weren’t expecting me to be. I worked with city employees and enjoyed it.”

Graham addressed those gathered to celebrate the business’s centennial and traced the earliest advertisement placed in the Union and Recorder to Sept. 7, 1909.

It reads: Grant Jewelry Co.

“I have come to Milledgeville and purchased the stock and fixtures of the Star Jewelry Co., and will continue the business. In asking the people of this city and county for their patronage, I assure them that I will carry a full and complete line of watches, jewelry, etc., of the best makes and will deal promptly and honestly with them.

I guarantee all repair work entrusted to me will be promptly and rightly done - J.C. Grant.”

In 1909, John Clark Grant decided his six children could be better educated in Baldwin County, so he moved his jewelry and watch repair business from Eatonton and set up shop. The business started in Monticello before locating in Eatonton and eventually, Milledgeville. Grant bought the inventory of the bankrupted Star Jewelry Co. and set up shop in downtown Milledgeville. The J.C. Grant Co. continues to make its home in downtown Milledgeville.

One of six children of J.C. Grant, John W. Grant Sr. spent time in Moultrie and Warner Robins as his family grew and John W. Grant Jr. became a watchmaker in Pennsylvania before returning home to Milledgeville to work with his family in the jewelry store.

Since then, the Grant family has remained a stalwart institution in the town of Milledgeville. Grant, his four children and grandson-in-law, work in the store that has expanded over the years to include gifts, home decor and a bridal registry in addition to jewelry repair and a large selection of jewelry and clocks.

The J.C. Grant Co. is located at 116 S. Wayne St. in downtown Milledgeville.

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