Grover was born on July 22, 1807, to Thomas Grover and Polly Spaulding in Whitehall, New York.[1] At age 12, he worked as a cabin boy on the Erie Canal, where he would eventually become a captain. In 1828, he married his first wife, Caroline Whiting, with whom he had seven daughters.[2]
In 1841, Grover was called to be a member of the presiding high council of the church in a revelation that now appears in the Doctrine and Covenants.[6] That same year, he began practicing plural marriage, marrying his second wife, Caroline Eliza Nickerson Hubbard, on February 20, 1841. He later married Hannah Tupper, Laduska Tupper, Emma Walker, and Elizabeth Walker as well. He had two children with Caroline Hubbard and two sons with Hannah Tupper.[2]
Grover was a captain in Brigham Young's vanguard company of 1847 which lead the way for thousands of Mormon pioneers emigrating west.[7] One of his jobs was butcher.[2] At the Platte River, Grover constructed and managed a ferry that would be used by thousands of emigrants.[8] He arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on October 2, 1847.[2]