John Groseclose (1826-1910)

GROSECLOSE, SELLS, WARNER, CHAVANNES, MARTIN, SMITH

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 1/24/2017 at 12:26:20

From Nevada Representative February 11, 1910 (front page)

OBITUARY

DEATH OF JOHN GROSECLOSE

John Groseclose, one of the best known and most highly esteemed of the pioneer citizens of the south part of Story county, died Wednesday morning, at his old homestead near Elwell in Union township, lacking but four days of being 84 years of age. His funeral will be conducted this (Friday) afternoon from the Methodist church in Elwell, and the interment will be in the family lot in the cemetery at Center Grove.

Mr. Groseclose was born in Johnson county, Indiana, on February 13, 1826 and died as stated, near Elwell, Iowa, February 9, 1910. He was the fifth of a family of ten children, and his father having died at the age of fifty and the elder children having married or died, he found himself in youth with many of the responsibilities of the family. He grew to a sturdy manhood in Indiana and was married on November 14, 1849, to Miss Eliza Sells, who was also a native of Hoosier and who died at the homestead near Elwell in 1906. He emigrated to Iowa in 1855 and settled in Union township upon the farm where he has made his home for the nearly fifty-five years since. Here he built up one of the finest farm homesteads in the county and won the ample rewards of a life of worth and industry. He had eight children: Mrs. Emeline Warner of Maxwell; Mrs. Caroline Chanvannes of Des Moines; Harriet, who died in infancy; Howard, who was a young implement dealer at Cambridge and died there at the age of 24; Mrs. Louisa Martin of Oysterville, Washington; William, who lives on the old homestead; and Mrs. Carrie Smith of Perry, Iowa.

Mr. Groseclose was one of those substantial citizens whom it is always a pleasure to meet, and through many years he had been an annual and most welcome caller at the Representative office. His last call appears to have been on the 29th of October last, upon which occasion he seemed to be in his usual health, showing, of course, the advance of years but rugged and promising to be good yet for many years more. His was the type that holds good while it lasts and when it cannot last any longer simply quits. It was an exceedingly good type, and one that most men would emulate if they had the choice. He will be remembered and regretted by great numbers of friends throughout the portion of county where his acquaintance extended and to them all he will be recalled as an example of those who came to Story county when it was first settling up and who remained here to enjoy and where what has been best in the development of the county.