Appleman, Gustavus Adolphus 1817 - 1893

APPLEMAN, GROTEWOHL, WILLIAMS, LARRABEE, PACKER

Posted By: Reid R. Johnson (email)
Date: 2/23/2026 at 23:03:27

Elkader Register, 09 Nov. 1893.

In Memoriam.

CAPTAIN GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS APPLEMAN.

it is always a painful task to be called upon to write a sketch of the life and times of a departed friend, and in the present instance it is even more so, from the fact that he was a man who was so much beloved and respected by all who had known him in life, and whose place in the affections of all cannot well be filled. He was born in the town of Mystic, Connecticut, on the 23rd of February, 1817, and died at the residence of H. J. Grotewohl, his son-in-law, in this city, on the 4th inst., at 3 a.m., in the 76th year of his age.

He was sprung from a long line of noble ancestors, who could be traced back into the mists and shadows of the early history of the settlement of his native state, when and where they contended with the red man for a foothold on this continent, and it was here that we find traces of them engaged in public and private enterprises, that in time contributed to make the whole of New England what she has ever since been, the nursery of great men, great enterprises and great learning. His father before him was a seafaring man, and as a commander of great ships had plowed the waves of every ocean of the globe, and being the father of seven sons, five of them followed their father's seafaring life over the great oceans, as trusty commanders and navigators. Of these five, three sailed from their native port as commanders of noble ships, but neither they nor any of their crews were ever heard of afterwards. They sailed in ships that never returned. One perished with his ship and crew, on a voyage from New York to Europe, the other two went down with their ships in the frozen ocean beyond the Arctic circle. At the age of 15 the subject of this sketch also went to sea, and from a sailor boy before the mast he raised himself up to the command of great ships, and during many years of his life he sailed to nearly every country of the globe, visited China, Japan, Australia, the Spice Islands, navigated the frozen ocean, explored Behring Sea, made several voyages around Cape Horn, entered Davis' Straights, visited Greenland and twice sailed around the globe, and in all these voyages he had obtained and stored his mind with the most useful information of all countries, cities, ports, harbors, people, winds, tides and ocean currents and to the end of his life he was a perfect walking encyclopedia of statistics of navigation, geography and history, and it was a rich treat to any one to spend an hour or two in his company, to listen while he discoursed his thrilling and interesting stories of ship and shore. He had lost but one ship in all of his long voyages, but he had the art, the courage and the daring to save himself and crew.

In 1851 he left the sea and came to Garnavillo, where he remained for a time, and then purchased a tract of land near Clermont, where he made his home for several years, but has passed the last few years of his life in this city with his daughter, Mrs. Grotewohl, and where, by his gentle manners, kind disposition and noble traits of character, he had endeared himself to each and every citizen of the city, who will, for years to come, miss his genial smile, his gentle salute and his ever kind and noble intercourse with them. He was married in early life to a sister of the Hon. E. N. Williams, who has gone before him to the land of spirits, and of this marriage he leaves behind him the wife of ex-Governor Larrabee, Mrs. Grotewohl and four sons to mourn his great loss. Of his father's family of eleven children two only survive him, his brother, Capt. Appleman, of Clermont, and Mrs. Packer, of this city.

Thus has a good and noble man passed away in the fullness of years, leaving no stain, no enemy, no reproach, but in the midst of kind friends and loving hearts, who loved him long and well, he has silently and calmly bid them a long farewell. Only a few days ago he had returned from the World's Fair, where, for the last time, his eyes rested on its collected productions, and none ever viewed them with more interest, but the effect was too much for him, and he returned to die the death of the noble and the just among those whom he had loved in life.

signed...Samuel Murdock.