I will eventually bring this story around to a birth that took place on this day 150 years ago, but I choose to go back a bit farther in this family’s history to show a trend. I have discussed this family to a certain extent in previous blogs. The family highlighted in this post is the Grass family. Or is it the Grahs family or the Grasz family or the Gross family? You will see references using all of those spellings today.

The original Grass family to become part of the German Family Tree was part of the New York Group. In the book, Zion on the Mississippi, there is a list of the members of that group that originated in New York City but chose to move to Perry County to join the other Gesellschaft members. In this list, we see the spelling of Grahs for this family, as seen in the image below.

The members of this Grass family that arrived in Perry County in 1839 were Christian and Elizabeth (Loene) Grass and a young daughter, Christiane. This Grass family had arrived in New York in 1836 aboard the ship, Henriette, according to our German Family Tree. We have a baptism record in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg that says Christiane was born in New York on December 9, 1838. Like many others who were part of the New York Group, they did not remain in Perry County for very long. Then, in the years between 1841 and 1846, we find some church records for this family in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis. Then, when Holy Cross Lutheran Church was established in Collinsville, Illinois in 1848, this Grass family was one of its charter members.

A son named Gottlieb Friedrich Grass was married in Collinsville to Wilhelmina Wilhelm in 1865. Shortly after that marriage, Gottlieb and Wilhelmina relocated to Frohna in Perry County where their first child was baptized on Reformation Day in 1866. All in all, 6 Grass children were born and baptized in Frohna. The last one is today’s birthday boy.

George Friedrich Grass was born on September 28, 1873, 150 years ago. George was the last of the Grass children to be baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. His baptism record is displayed below. It is the only record we have in our GFT for George. It uses the spelling, Grasz.

The next Grass child, born in 1877, is always given Illinois as his birthplace. When the 1880 census was taken, we find the Grass family living in the Goodfarm Township in Illinois. George was 6 years old at the time, and his father was a farmer with quite a large family. Once again, the Grasz spelling is used in this entry.

The Goodfarm area has an interesting history in the early years of the Missouri Synod. In a previous post about Rev. C.R.W. Frederking titled, Another Initial Pastor, I included this bit of history about that location. I would add that Rev. Wunder, mentioned in this history, was one of the 5 graduates of Concordia Seminary in Altenburg, and Rev. Frederking was likely the pastor in Goodfarm when the Grass’s lived there.

I found this photo of George’s parents.

Two more children were born into this family in the 1880’s, and they each were born in Nebraska. Those two, along with their parents are found living in the Lincoln County in Nebraska in the 1900 census. Prior to that census, George Grass would get married, so let’s turn our attention to the woman who would become his bride.

Linna Ida Pandorf was born on June 4, 1874 in Germany. She was the daughter of Herman and Johanna (Tirschmann) Pandorf. This Pandorf family came to America in the early 1880’s and settled in the Triumph Township in Custer County, Nebraska which is not that far from Lincoln County where the Grass family was living. Since Linna married George before the 1900 census, we never find Linna in an American census living with her parents.

George Grass married Linna Pandorf on June 14, 1899. According to the Nebraska certificate of marriage shown here, this wedding was conducted by a justice of the peace in Triumph, Nebraska.

It looks as if George’s surname is spelled Gross on the above form. From this time on, we find his name listed as Gross. In the 1900 census, George and Linna were living in the Triumph Township where George was a farmer.

The map below shows where Triumph Township is located, along with some other places that will be mentioned later in this post.

It appears that George and Linna had 4 children, all girls. When the 1910 census was taken, the Gross household included 3 daughters.

George had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. It lists his address as Callaway, Nebraska, which can seen on the previous map.

The 1920 census displays all 4 of the Gross daughters.

Linna Gross died in 1921 at the age of 47, leaving George as a widower. In the 1930 census, George was living with just his youngest daughter, Mabel.

The 1940 census shows George living by himself and still farming.

The last census we can view is the 1950 one. George was 77 years old, no longer employed, and living in Arnold, Nebraska.

I found a photo of George Gross on his Findagrave.com entry, but did not locate one for Linna.

George Gross died in 1952 at the age of 78. George and Linna are buried together in the Woldheim Cemetery which looks as if it found in the Triumph Township.

As you can see, in the early years of the Grass family, we find quite a few changes of locations. At least after George Gross got married, he settled down to remain the rest of his life in Custer County, Nebraska. We also see that the spelling of the family surname went through some changes along the way. George is one branch of this family tree that ended up with the Gross spelling of his name, but I suspect he may still have others in his family tree with the name Grass or Grasz.