GROVER, JAHU H.

GROVER, SKINNER, STAHL, FAIRBANKS, WALLACE

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 3/30/2004 at 13:11:55

Biography reproduced from page 522 of the History of Kossuth and Humboldt Counties, Iowa published in 1884:

J. H. Grover was born in Joliet, Ill., July 27, 1837. When four months old he went with this parents to Chicago, thence to Benton’s Port. They afterward moved to Iowaville, where his father died. Mr. Grover when went to Wisconsin and lived with a half brother, James McCloud, until fifteen years of age, then went to Illinois. He worked by the month for a short time in Vermilion county, after which he went to Paxton, where he resided a short time. He then spent a short time in Columbia Co., Wis. He stayed in the Wisconsin pineries the next two winters, working in other localities in the summer. He then went back to Lodi, Columbia county, where he remained until the spring of 1861, when he enlisted in company H, 2d Wisconsin Volunteers. He served three months, then re-enlisted for three years. He went direct to Washington, D. C., serving in Virginia three years. He was with the Army of the Potomac in the battles of Bull Run, Wilderness, Gainesville and Chancellorsville. He was wounded at the first day’s fight at Bull Run and was laid up for five months. He was mustered out at Washington, went to Lodi, Wis., and remained until Oct. 11, 1864, then came to Kossuth Co., Iowa, stopping the first winter with Henry Smith, in Portland township. On Oct. 30, 1864, he took a homestead on the southeast quarter of section 26, built a log house, 16x16 feet, in which he lived until 1869, then built a frame house. In 1883 he erected a new house, two stories high, 18x24 feet and 20x32 feet, respectively, at a cost of $1,200. He now occupies this house. Mr. Grover has also a barn on his place, 36x42 feet, and the longest cultivated grove in the county, comprising seventeen acres. He deals largely in cattle. He has also 520 acres of land adjoining his homestead. Mr. Grover was married Oct. 4, 1864, to Mary E. Stahl, of Lodi, Wis. They have five children—Louesa R., Clara C., William E., Myrtle M. and Raymond J. G. Mr. Grover is a republican, and has been township trustee.
------------------------------

Biography reproduced from page 212 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

The little band of patriots called the Grand Army of the Republic is every day growing fewer in number. Each year finds its ranks broken again and its members bereaved of honored companions. Each year finds more graves in our cemeteries marked with a flag, but the survivors are growing more deeply patriotic as their number lessens, and are showing in their lives the high spirit of loyalty which animated them years ago, and they are teaching their sons lessons of industry and valor which they learned upon the battle field. A man who served his country well during the war and whose life afterward has not detracted in any way from the glory he won the, is Jahu H. Grover, now living retired in Burt, Iowa, He has been a resident of Kossuth county for many years, and at one time owned a whole section of land in Portland township. He was born in Joliet, Illinois, July 27, 1838, and is a son of John Grover, a native of Pennsylvania, who moved to Will county, Illinois, where entered a land claim where the city of Joliet now stands. He married in Ohio Miss Abigail Skinner, a native of that state, and later removed to Iowa, locating in Bentonsport, where he took up a homestead claim, later moving to Iowaville, and followed agriculture until his death in 1845. His wife survived him until about 1878. Mrs. Grover, after the death of her husband, removed to Wisconsin and located in Columbia county. Here Jahu H. Grover received his education and grew to manhood. He remained with his mother until he was fifteen years of age, and at that early date started active life for himself. He was twenty-three years of age when the Civil war broke out, and on April 13, 1861, the date of the first firing upon Fort Sumter, he joined the Federal army as a member of the Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, Company H. His first enlistment was for three months, and his regiment was sent to Baltimore, where they participated in the first skirmish near that city. From Baltimore they went to Washington, D. C., and joined the Army of the Potomac. When the three months for which he had enlisted had expired Mr. Grover immediately reenlisted and continued in the same regiment and company. He remained with the Army of the Potomac for some time and later went to Virginia, where he was present at the first battle of Bull Run, also in the engagements at Booneville, Sulphur Springs, South Mountain, Frederickburg, Chancellorsville, the battle of the Wilderness and the second battle of Bull Run. In this last engagement he received a wound in the right arm and was disabled for a short time. He remained in the hospital only long enough to recover from his injury and joined his command at Belle Plaine, Virginia, where he took part in the battles of Gettysburg and Spottsylvania. He was wounded in the hip and still carries the rebel bullet. All during his term of service Mr. Grover was actuated by high ideals of loyalty to the country for which he was fighting, and was one of the many men whose patriotism saved the Union. When his term expired he was sent to Washington, D. C., and was there mustered out with honorable discharge in June, 1864. He returned immediately to Wisconsin where he married and soon afterward removed to Iowa, making a permanent location in Kossuth county, where he has since resided. He took up a homestead claim in Portland township of one hundred and sixty acres on section 26. This land was unimproved and he immediately directed his energies to its cultivation and development. He later added more land and from time to time purchased adjoining tracts until his holdings comprised six hundred acres of fertile and productive soil. In his home farm he had four hundred and eighty acres, and in the midst of these he built an attractive and comfortable residence in which he resided until 1904. He improved his property along modern lines, fenced his fields, built barns and outbuildings and planted large groves of maple, ash and walnut trees. He also put out a great number of fruit trees, and his orchards were among the most productive in Kossuth county and added greatly to his income. He specialized also in the raising of high-grade blooded hogs, cattle and horses, and was known as an expert stockman. He farmed on his first tract of land until 1904 and then retired from active agriculture, buying a town lot in Burt. He was one of the promoters of the Grange movement in Iowa, and has always taken an active part in the affairs of that organization.

Mr. Grover was married in Columbia county, Wisconsin, October 4, 1864, to Miss Mary E. Stahl, a native of Pennsylvania, who was reared and educated in Wisconsin. She is a daughter of Samuel Stahl who came from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin in the early days of its pioneer settlement. To Mr. and Mrs. Grover have been born six children: Louesa, the wife of Luther Fairbanks, a prosperous farmer of Portland township; Clara, who married Grant Fairbanks, who also follows agriculture in Portland township; Merta, the wife of Dr. Wallace of Titonka; Mary A., who lives at home; William, who is a prosperous farmer of Kossuth county; and Raymond, who is a pharmacist in Des Moines, Iowa.

Politically Mr. Grover gives his allegiance to the republican party but is progressive in his ideas and principles. He has served as township trustee for a number of years and was also active at one time as a member of the school board. He gives his most vital interest to his activities as a member of the James C. Taylor Post, G. A. R., of Algona, and is numbered among the old settlers of Kossuth county. He is doing his best to keep alive a splendid spirit, the spirit which animated the Federal army in 1861 and which does not lessen in its intensity as the men, who represented it in those strong times, pass to their last resting place.

(A note from Mary Fairbanks Rasmussen, a direct descendant of Jahu H. Grover, states that John Grover actually married in Indianapolis, Indiana, not Ohio as stated in this biography.)