Carroll County IN Archives Biographies.....Gros, Christian (Jr.) 1827 - 1902
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Author: John C. Odell (1916)

CHRISTIAN GROS, JR.

   Few men during their lifetime meet with the numerous circumstances
experienced by the late Christian Gros, and live to the age of seventy-five
years. The history of Mr. Gros' life reads like a romance, and a brief review of
it is most interesting.

   Mr. Gros was born in Germany, December 23, 1827. In 1836, in company with his
parents, two brothers, Fred and Charles, and a sister, he started for America.
The voyage was a stormy one and the ship was on the sea for several weeks. The
mother became dangerously ill and the daughter died and was buried at sea. The
mother was so ill that she did not know of the daughter's death and burial until
after she recovered.

   They located in Danville, New York. Frederick died in New York City about six
months after the family arrived in this country.

   In 1837 the family came to Delphi. In 1849, when the California gold fields
were discovered, a party of about one hundred and sixty men left Delphi for the
golden West. There were no railroads across the country at that time, and the
trip was made in wagons. The history of that journey has never been told
completely, but it was full of tragedies from start to finish. The hardships
endured could scarcely be believed in this day. Some of the party could not
withstand the ordeal and died before the end of the journey. Most of the
suffering occurred while crossing the great plains.

   In 1855 Mr. Gros returned from California, having succeeded fairly well in
the gold fields. The next year he went back, taking with him his brother,
George, then seventeen years of age, who is still a resident of California.
It was on this trip that Mr. Gros met with one of the worst experiences of his
eventful life, and which came near ending disastrously for him and his brother.
Instead of crossing the plains they started to make the journey by way of the
Isthmus of Panama, taking a boat at New York for Panama and crossing to the
Pacific side on a train and thence to California by boat. When the party reached
Panama there were about five hundred passengers. After they had landed, a
drunken sailor got into a fight with a native of whom he had bought a watermelon
for ten cents and refused to pay for it, The sailor stabbed and killed the
native, and this so infuriated the hot-headed residents of the town that the
whole party was attacked. They took refuge—men, women and children—in the small
railroad station. Some of the men of the party were armed and made the best
defense possible, but the natives had the advantage, and all day long, from ten
o'clock in the morning until dark, the natives kept up a constant fire on the
station. More than half of the party were killed, but Mr. Gros and his brother
escaped. They succeeded the next day in advancing on their journey. They reached
California in safety.

   In 1860 Mr. Gros married, in California, a widow named Martin. Three years
later, with his wife, he started for Delphi, this, time making the journey by
boat the entire distance from San Francisco to New York. When within sight of
Atlantic City, New Jersey, their boat was wrecked and Mrs. Gros was drowned.

   Mr. Gros was married, secondly, to Addie Hurlburt, May 26, 1872, who died in
California in August, 1915. Mr. Gros died October 5, 1902, leaving a wife and
two sons.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY INDIANA

ITS PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS
BY
JOHN C ODELL
With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and
Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families

ILLUSTRATED
1916
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY, Inc.
Indianapolis, Indiana

CHAPTER IX.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF DECEASED PIONEERS OF CARROLL COUNTY.


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