LOUIS GROTELUSCHEN.
The success of men in business or in any vocation depends upon character as well as upon knowledge, it being a self-evident proposition that honesty is the best policy. Business demands confidence and where that is lacking business ceases. In every community some men are known for their upright lives, strong common sense and moral worth. Their neighbors and acquaintances respect them, the younger generation heeds their example; and when they wrap the draperies of their couches about them and lie down to pleasant dreams, posterity listens with reverence to the story of their quiet and useful lives. Among such men in this county, Louis Groteluschen, merchant and president of the Farmers Savings Bank of Gray, takes high rank. Though Mr. Groteluschen has been successful in material pursuits, he is a man of modest and unassuming demeanor, a fine type of the reliable self-made American; a friend of the poor, charitable to the faults of his neighbors and active in his support of laudable public enterprises. Mr. Groteluschen is proud of Audubon county and of the great state of Iowa, and is zealously concerned in their progress and prosperity, being a man who, in every respect, merits the high esteem in which he is held by the business men and all the people of Audubon county.
Louis Groteluschen was born on April 29, 1868, in Platte county, Nebraska, the son of John and Anna (Loseke) Groteluschen, natives of Oldenburg, Germany, who were married there in 1866. They immigrated to America, proceeding at once to Nebraska, driving from Omaha to Platte county, a distance of ninety-three miles, their journey to Omaha having been made by river steamers from Pittsburgh. Upon reaching Platte county they homesteaded a quarter section of land and for a time lived in dug-out sod houses. John Groteluschen prospered from the start and eventually owned several farms in Nebraska, becoming quite well-to-do. He died in 1904, at the age of seventy one years. He and his wife were the parents of the following children: Louis, Ida (deceased), Adolph, Lena, Elizabeth, Amil, Otto, Bertha and Minnie, all of whom live in Platte county, Nebraska save the subject of this sketch.
In 1894 Louis Groteluschen left Nebraska and came to Audubon county, locating at Gray, where he engaged in the hardware business, and has thus been engaged very successfully since that time. Mr. Groteluschen at first was associated with A. F. Greenwalt, who later became county auditor, under the firm name of Greenwalt & Groteluschen; later the firm being known as Groteluschen & Newell. Since 1910 the firm has been known as L. Groteluschen & Company, dealers in hardware and agricultural implements. A. F. Greenwalt, formerly associated with Mr. Groteluschen, is now cashier of the First National Bank of Coon Rapids. For ten years Mr. Groteluschen bought and shipped live stock in addition to his other business. He has a well-stocked store at Gray and owns a tract of two hundred and forty acres of land in Nebraska. Mr. Groteluschen has been connected with the Farmers Savings Bank three years, and was originally partner with Mr. Wiley.
On May 22, 1895, Louis Groteluschen was married to Anna Ahrens, daughter of Edwin and Anna (Loseke) Ahrens, natives of Oldenburg, Germany. Edwin Ahrens located in Nebraska in 1855. an early settler of the section in which he homesteaded a farm. Anna Loseke came to this country in 1859 with her parents, who bought a team of oxen when there was no longer opportunity for transportation by water and actually walked across the state of Iowa, the party including the father, the mother, three sons and Anna. Edwin Ahrens, now deceased, prospered in his pioneer farming and became a very substantial and well-to-do citizen. His widow is still living.
To Louis and Anna (Ahrens) Groteluschen eight children have been born, Arnold (deceased), Elma, Rosa, Walter, Carl, Theodore, Herbert and Ruth, all of whom are at home and attending school.
Mr. Groteluschen is independent in his political views, supporting measures of men rather than parties and party emblems. He has never been identified with any lodges.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 394-395.
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