Carroll County IAGenWeb

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY IOWA

A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement

VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912

Transcribed and donated by Vance Tigges & Kathy Weaver.

Otto Mathias Gross, filling the position of county recorder, is numbered among the native sons of Carroll county, his birth having occurred in Roselle township on the 2d of October, 1886. His parents, Mathias and Genevieve (Dentlinger) Gross, were both natives of Germany, the former of Luxemburg and the latter of Württemberg. The paternal grandfather of our subject passed away in Germany in middle life. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Barbara Capeius. lived to attain a ripe old age. Their children were seven in number. John Dentlinger, the maternal grandfather, crossed the Atlantic to the United States and took up his abode in Bureau county, Illinois. He came to Iowa in 1880, settling in Carroll county, where he passed away at the age of seventy-two years. His wife died at the comparatively early age of thirty-five years. They were the parents of four children, namely: Genevieve, Amelia, John and Frank.

Mathias Gross, the father of O. M. Gross, drove a stage in Germany from his town to Paris, France. In 1865 he emigrated to America, locating in Bureau county, Illinois, where he made his home until 1882. In that year he came to Carroll county, Iowa, purchasing and locating on a farm of two hundred and forty acres in Maple River township, where he resided until called to his final rest in 1903 when sixty-eight years of age. His wife still survives him and is now sixty-six years of age. Both were faithful communicants of the German Catholic church. Mathias Gross held several township offices and was widely recognized as a substantial and respected citizen of the community. He was the father of five sons and two daughters, as follows: Anna, the wife of Joseph Timmerman, of Maple River township; George, who is a resident of Grant township; Frank, living in Wagner, South Dakota; John, of Maple River township; William, who likewise makes his home in that township; Pauline, the wife of William Pietig, of Roselle township; and Otto Mathias, of this review.

The last named was reared on his father's farm and attended the district schools and the parochial schools of Arcadia, while subsequently he continued his studies in the public schools of Carroll. After completing his education he followed the profession of teaching for seven years, imparting clearly and readily to others the knowledge that he had acquired. In the fall of 1910 he was elected county recorder and now holds that office. He is prompt, systematic and faithful in the discharge of his official duties and already his record has received the commendation of the general public. His property holdings include one hundred and sixty acres of land in McCook county, South Dakota.

Mr. Gross gives his political allegiance to the democracy and has served as assessor of Maple River township. In religious faith he is a Catholic and is a member of the Knights of Columbus. As a baby he had infantile paralysis, which crippled his limbs and feet and from which he has never entirely recovered. Though still young in years, he has already won an enviable reputation as one of the representative and esteemed residents of his native county.

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