Gatrost, Henry

GATROST

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 10/8/2008 at 16:12:01

Henry Gatrost

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.201, Norwalk Twp.)
Henry Gatrost, farmer, P. O. Weston, was born in this county July 31, 1848; he is the son of Philip and Catharine (Graybill) Gatrost. His father was a native of Germany and came to Pennsylvania when he was a boy. From there he moved to Illinois and afterward to this county, locating in Garner Township in 1846. His mother was born in Ashe County, N. C., in 1814; was brought to Ohio when an infant, and is still living in this county. Our subject was educated in the common schools of this county, and was an unusually diligent and attentive student. He worked on his father's farm till he was twenty years of age, when he was married to Emily, daughter of Asa and Drusilla Downs, who settled in this county in 1852. Our subject then farmed his father's place for five years, sicne which he has been engaged in farming on lands which he rents. His mother became connected with the Latter-Day Saints Church in Ohio, in 1833; came to Caldwell County, Mo., where she experienced all the hardships of that people. They were mobbed and driven out of Missouri, when they went to Adams County, Ill., near Quincy. She came with the colony that founded Kanesville, this county, in 1846. Our subject's father was connected with the same church, aftering coming to Iowa, and died in that faith, November 5, 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Gatrost have eight children - Alvin J., Michael E., Ira E., John W., Forest A., Ada A., Laura M. (deceased), Caroline I. and Eva J. Mr. Gatrost is a member of the Latter-Day Saints Church. In politics, he is a Republican.