Acknowledgement: Writings from the "Gross Family History" by Brother Placid Alois Gross, Assumption Abbey, Richardton, ND., 1970. (Revised April 2002)
Acknowledgment: Writings from the "Gross Family History" by Brother Placid Alois Gross, Assumption Abbey, Richardton, ND., 1970. (Revised April 2002)
Our first known ancestor, of whom anything is known was Andrew Grosz, born approximately in 1790.
In 1996 I was in Germany and saw the church records. According to that Andrew had only one brother that, grew to adulthood. A number of children had died in infancy. The book says he left the parish when he was drafted into the army and never came back.
After World War I, a Russian soldier by the name of Jacob Gross, who was a close relative of ours, stayed in Germany and married a German girl thus bringing the Grosses back to the "Vaterland." In Germany, he located the flour mill that Grosses had operated before going to Russia. The mill was still in operation, but not by the Gross family. This Jacob Gross corresponded with Raphael Gross of Napoleon, ND. Jacob died in Germany in 1960.
It is interesting to note that in the South American country of Brazil, there is a town by the name of "Grosso" and another called "Grossa." How these towns got their names we don't know, but "gross" is not a word in the Spanish language, and we do know for a fact that many thousands of German-Russians migrated to South American countries.
Andrew Grosz and his wife, Martha Fahrni, left their home in Germany in 1830, hoping for a better life in Russia. They had three sons, Mathias, Kasper, and John.
Their home in Germany was at Massenbachhausen, Brackenheim, Wuertemberg. "Massenbach" means a group of houses on the brook named Massen; "Brackenheim" is a nearby town; "Wuerttemberg" is the state or province. Massenbachhausen is north of Brackenheim. This is about 40 air miles southeast of the city of Mannheim.
Andrew owned a flour mill which was driven by water power from the running stream Massen. He sold it to a brother-in-law. The money was to be forwarded to him in Russia within one year, but the Groszes never got their money.
They traveled for three months by ox team and wagon to the Russian border town, Radziwilow. On the way, Andrew got sick and died. Martha stayed at Radziwilow, where she gave birth to another son whom she named Franz. Here she had to sell their oxen and wagon for food, but when spring came, the family continued on foot to Odessa, Russia. They were then brought to the "Dorf" Mannheim, where they were given a home. Their arrival date in Russia is given as 1831.
They did not get any land or other free benefits because they were a family traveling alone and not sponsored by the government, so the boys herded cattle for the village of Mannheim. Here, the mother also died.
JOHN: Nothing else is known about JOHN except that he lived and died in Mannheim.
KASPER: Was married but didn't have any children. His wife's first name was Barbara. Kasper
had a nervous breakdown and took his life with a butcher knife.
FRANZ: Was a heavy drinker and squandered all his property. It is not known whether either John or Franz had
any children.
MATHIAS: One of the four sons, is our ancestor. He was eleven years old when his parents, Andreas and Martha left Germany. He was thirteen when they finally got to Russia in 1831. In about 1842 he was married to Francisca Eberle.
In 1855 the Russian military drafted one team of horses with one driver from each village. Mathias was not obligated since he was not a land owner, but he volunteered for duty. The village Mannheim furnished the team and promised him 2,000 rubles when he returns. He returned safely in 1857 and was rewarded his pay.
In 1857 40 families from several different villages branched off and started a new village. They bought 2,757 1/2 dessiatines of land from the Russian nobleman Alexander Mitkow at 35 rubles a dessiantine. (One ruble was about 50 cents and one dessiatine is 2.7 acres.) Mathias and Francisca were one of these 40 families. They bought 60 dessiatines (162 acres).
Their new location was called Sakretarka in Russian but the Germans named it Georgenthal. It lay in a beautiful valley emerging from the Baraboi river. On this estate they found the nobleman's mansion and 13 small dwellings, some barns and four wells. The big house was used for the first prayer hall, school and living quarters for the first schoolmaster, George Deck.
While they took up temporary residence in the barns they started building their own homes. The first settlers had brought with them 222 horses and 148 head of cattle. The original census showed 185 people. In the course of time more land was acquired for this village.
In 1890 the population numbered 379, and as the population increased land became scarcer. In 1857 the price per dessiatine was 35 rubles. By 1914 it had gone up to 400 rubles.
Georgenthal was a daughter village of Mannheim from which it was only three miles distant. The Catholic Church here was a mission to the parish in Mannheim and all the administration buildings were in Mannheim. So these people still considered themselves residents of Mannheim. It should be remembered that these villages or "Dorfer" were only farming communities. The nearest city was Odessa.
In this little "Dorf" Mathias and Francisca raised their family of six boys. Three babies had died in infancy. The six boys in order of birth are: John, Aloysius, Joseph, Frank, Ignatz and Felix.
Francisca was born in 1824 and died in 1868. Mathias was born in 1817 and died in 1900 at the age of 83.
JOHN:
is the ancestor of Br. Placid Alois Gross, Assumption
Abbey, Richardton, North Dakota who compiled the GROSS
FAMILY HISTORY book in 1970.
John, born in 1844, married to Benedicta Laturnus, daughter of Andrew Laturnus. In 1894 they migrated to the new world with four of their children, Clemens, Caroline, Carl and Clara. They took up homestead land nine miles south and 4 1/2 miles west of Napoleon.
Their children were:
Andrew, born September 3, 1866, married to Veronica Bitz
Mathias, born August 23, 1870, married to Barbara Schweitzer
Magdalena, born June 15, 1873, married to Anton Wangler
Clemens, born February 15, 1875, married to Catherine Leier
Caroline, born 1880, married Joseph Leier
Carl, born June 15, 1882, married to Magdalena Schatz
Clara, born December 20, 1887, married to Joseph Leier
ALOYSIUS: was born in 1844 and died in 1888 in Russia. His wife, Notburga Schneider was born in 1847 and died in 1891. Their three children are Raphael who settled at Napoleon, North Dakota, Egidius of Bismarck, ND,and a girl Barbara who married Ignatz Froehlich. Barbara and Ignatz stayed in Russia.
JOSEPH:
the third son, was married to Maria Agatha Biegler.
In 1894 they came to America and homesteaded 3 1/2 miles
northwest of Westfield in Emmons County, ND. In 1910 they
moved to Grant County near Raleigh. Joseph was born in 1850
and died August 20, 1927. His wife, Maria, was born in 1853
and died July 25, 1933.
The children of Joseph and Maria Grosz were:
Franz, born October 24, 1873, married to Magdalen Feist
Walburga, born October 14, 1875, married to Andreas Wentz
Benedicta, born August 15, 1877, married to Frank Jahner
Ignatz, born September 18, 1881, married to Amalia Tirk
Magdalena, born April 4, 1883, married to Laurenz Tirk
Aloysius, born June 12, 1886, married to Barbara Gudman
Klemens, born April 12, 1888, married to Katherine Buchmeier.
They left for the United States in 1913. They settled at Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. Klementz made a living building elevators.
Later, they moved to Lampaman, Saskatchewan where they farmed. Klementz, also, did some carpentry work.
From Lampman they moved to Kingsford, Saskatchewan where they bought a farm. In 1933 they left Kingsford and moved to Meadow Lake, Saskathewan.
They lived in Meadow Lake from 1933 to 1937. From there they moved to Pierceland, Saskatchewan where they took out a homestead.
Franziska, born September 29, 1889, married to Max Erker
Joseph, born September 18, 1893, married to Susanna Hersch
Maria Agatha, born February 12, 1895, married to Dennis Bonogofsky
Marzelina, born March 27, 1900, married to Anton R. Ternes
Mathias, born May 7, 1902, married to Emelia Kratz
FRANK: the fourth son of Mathias and Francisca, stayed in Russia where he died in 1923. No other information is available about him.
IGNATZ: the fifth son of Mathias and Francisca, came to America and settled near Hague, North Dakota. Carl Gross was one of his sons. The descendants of Carl are those we focus on mainly on this Web site.
FELIX: the youngest son of Mathias stayed in Russia. He was born in 1862 and died in 1905. Felix had a family of eight children: Gabriel, Jacob, Ignatz, Peter, Elizabeth, Katherina, Francisca, and Anna Maria. (These are not in the correct birth order.) Gabriel was one of the many victims who were sent to Siberia. In 1970, he was still alive at the age of 84. He supplied much of the information for this historical account. Jacob is the soldier mentioned earlier who stayed in Germany during WWI. He died in 1960. His wife is living in Germany (in 1970). Peter was married to Magdalena Welder and had four children when on July 20, 1937 he was taken from his home in the middle of the night by military force. He was taken to Siberia, where he had to lay rail tracks in 57 degrees below zero. While doing this work without proper clothing, he contracted pneumonia and died in March of 1938. Magdalena continued operating her farm, raising her family and also teaching school, especially religious instruction and singing. On March 25, 1944, the family, along with all the other German people, were forced to leave their home to try to get to safety in Germany. She traveled by wagon with her four children and two orphan children. On June 15, 1944, they arrived in Poland. On January 21, 1945 they left Poland and arrived in Germany on February 18, 1945. On February 20, 1952, the family came to Canada and settled in Regina, Sask. In 1960, Magdalena married Joe Volk of Bismarck, ND. Her four children are residing in Regina.
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