Grotewold, Louis P.

GROTEWOLD, WICKSTROM

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner
Date: 7/21/2006 at 22:02:09

GROTEWOLD, LOUIS P.

Louis P. Grotewold, who is known far and wide as one of the old pioneer settlers as well as one of the wide-awake and progressive business men of the village of Larchwood, was born in Fayette county, Iowa, February 20, 1861. The family is of German descendants, and his father, Henry Grotewold, was born in Germany in 1837. He came to this country in 1851, and made his home in Iowa, where he was a life-long farmer.

Mr. Grotewold grew to manhood in Fayette county, where he obtained his education in the common schools. In 1881, when he was twenty years old, he came into Lyon county, where he found employment as hired help on the farm for a number of years.

In 1891 he bought a farm, and the same year accepted a position with the W.H. Bradley Lumber Company, with which he continued for ten years, in that time doing a vast amount of business and making a host of friends among the farming community. In 1900 Mr. Grotewold took a position as manager and salesman for the John W. Tuthill Company, and this position he is still holding.

Mr. Grotewold was married in 1889, when Miss Anna J. Wickstrom became his wife. She was born in Sweden, February 11, 1869, and came to this country in 1887. To them have come five children, Frederick H., Louis A., Ernest L., William S., and Tressie,--all natives of Larchwood.

Mr. Grotewold is a Republican, and has been on the town board. He has served as assessor for thirteen years, and at present is mayor of Larchwood. He is a public spirited man, and has done much to build up the town. By hard work and good management he has made his own fortune, and is very comfortably well off. At present he owns one hundred and fifteen acres inside the corporate limits of Larchwood, and is numbered among the solid and reliable business men of the town.

On another page of this volume will be found a portrait of Mr. Grotewold.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published under the Auspices of the Pioneer Association of Lyon County. Geo. Monlun, Pres.; Hon. E. C. Roach Sec’y; and Col. F. M. Thompson, Historian. Geo. A. Ogle & CO., Published, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. Chicago, 1904-1905

Transcribed by Roseanna Zehner, Darlene Jacoby and Diane Johnson