The Grove Brothers were residents of the Pleasant Grove area (They lived in Sec 14 of Franklin Twp- just a long mile from Milford Twp) and were both killed in the War and were memorialized by a cenotaph in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery. This monument has not been found and no one can recall its ever being at Pleasant Grove Cemetery.
George W. Grove, two years older than his brother Jacob Grove, was a casualty (died in service) of the War Between the States and was memorialized at Pleasant Grove Cemetery. George Grove was in Co.E of the 3rd Iowa Infantry. He had joined the war effort early and was killed on the 8th of Jan 1862. We have record of his being buried at St. Louis, Mo, however, currently, no record can be found for either brother indicating when his remains, if ever, were moved to Pleasant Grove.
Jacob, the younger brother, was a private in Company A of the 23rd Iowa Infantry. When his older brother, George was killed in very early 1862, Jacob wanted to “take his brother’s place” in the war effort and he enlisted on 4 August 1862. Jacob was wounded at the Battle of Black River, Mississippi, on the 17th of May in 1863. The shot went through the right knee. After his leg had been amputated, he was being taken to Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana and while in route the ambulance overturned and tumbled down a 30 foot embankment and he was further injured. He was taken aboard the hospital ship “Hood” where he died at age 21 on the 9th of June 1863.
The “Battle of Black River” was just to the east, about 15 miles, of Vicksburg, Mississippi, with a little over 250 Union casualties.
Milliken’s Bend is across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg and upstream a few miles. The Vicksburg Campaign ended in early July of 1863 with the Confederates surrendering.
Records are sparse showing where internment was for the brothers from the time of death until the Pleasant Grove Cemetery was established in 1877(?) although George was originally buried at St. Louis.
As a footnote to this sad episode, there is a note that the father, A.L. Grove died insane in 1869, at about 63 years of age, and it’s easy to imagine that the grief of losing his two oldest boys in that conflict contributed to his mental state. He was the man who ‘donated’ the land for the McMichael Cemetery. See page 325. He was the father of six- two other sons and two daughters.
Apparently there had been, by 1882, a memorial within the Pleasant Grove Cemetery to the two soldiers and a stone for the father. However, in 2006, there was no marker found with the “Grove” name on it.
Lt. Laverne Rasmus “Bud” Sorensen ‘36 was killed in mid-August 1943 near Ellsworth, Kansas, while stationed at Smoky Hill AAF Base southwest of Salina, Kansas. He was on a routine training flight as a crew member in a B-24E bomber. The crew he was with was not his regular crew but apparently he and another fellow had filled in for two other fellows so this particular other crew could have a full complement of 10 people for their bomber mission training.
The plane was on its fifth or sixth flight of the day and previous crews had written the plane up for the fuel tank selection switch as not indicating the proper settings. On one of the previous flights the plane had landed with one engine “feathered”. These incidents, however, did not ground the plane for the day.