In 1843, Ulysses S. Grant first visited White Haven as a young second lieutenant. In the decades after that first visit, Grant, White Haven, and the country underwent vast changes in response to the turbulent issues that divided the nation. Frederick Dent, a prosperous St. Louis merchant, purchased the property in 1820 as a summer home, a haven from the heat and pollution of the city, but by Grant's first visit in 1843, the Dents were living there year round. The slave plantation consisted of some 850 acres of land, with the Main House at the center of the estate, where Dent lived with his wife, Ellen, and their seven children.