1866 Birth:1666 Birth year of 1862 estimated based on age (4 years) in 1870 census enumeration; birth place assumed to be Auglaize County, as his parents Samuel Bitler and Vastia Ann Baily were enumerated there in 1860.

1870 U.S. Census:1666 Grant enumerated in the household of his father Samuel Bitler in Wapakoneta Village, Auglaize County, Ohio as a male, age 4, white, at home, born in Ohio. Brothers Gilbert, 8 years, and Frank, 9 months, also in the household.
Ohio, Auglaize County, Wapakoneta Village.

1871 Death of Mother:638, p. 16 (Vashta Bitler, Probate Court Death Records, v. 1, p. 26) Vastia Anna Bailey Bitler, mother of Gilbert, died on 27 April 1871, at age 34.

1871 Remarriage of Father:1778 Father Samuel Bitler married Augusta Mayer on 2 November 1871. This was Samuel's third marriage.

1880 U.S. Census:2135 Grant enumerated in the household of his first cousin Sylvester VanTress Bitler in Madison Township, Greenwood County, Kansas as a white, male, age 18, cousin, single, herder, broken collar bone, born in Ohio, father born in Pennsylvania, mother born in Virginia. Grant's brother Gilbert, age 20, also enumerated in the Sylvester VanTress Bitler household. (Sylvester's father Daniel Bitler Jr. and Grant's father Samuel Bitler were brothers.)

1890 Marriage:2299 Grant Bitler and Minnie A. Stewart married on 9 October 1890 in Greenwood County, Kansas.