Cheney C. Gross, M. D. Biography 


	This biography appears on pages 1808-1810 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	A photo of C. C. Gross faces page 1808


	CHENEY C. GROSS, M. D.-To achieve state reputation within a 
comparatively short time, in one of the most exacting of the learned 
professions, is evidence of intellectual capacity of a high order and 
superior professional training, both of which, in an eminent degree, 
characterize the learned and successful physician whose name appears at 
the head of this article. The distinction of being the leader of his 
profession in Yankton is freely conceded to him and that he is also 
widely and favorably known in other parts is attested by the worthy 
prestige he enjoys in medical circles throughout the entire state of 
South Dakota.

	Dr. Cheney C. Gross, of Yankton, is a native of Naperville, 
Illinois, and the second in a family of five children, whose parents 
were Daniel N. and Mary E. (Dudley) Gross. The Doctor's paternal 
grandparents, Conrad and Salome Gross, came to America a number of years 
ago from Bavaria, Germany, and settled in Pennsylvania, thence about 
~833, emigrated to Dupage county, Illinois, where they spent the 
remainder of their lives. The Dudleys, who came from New Hampshire and 
Vermont, were also early pioneers of Dupage county. their settlement 
being contemporaneous with that of the Gross family, both locating near 
the town of Naperville, where they engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
Grandfather Gross was a devout member of the German Evangelical church, 
and a man of high character and excellent standing. The Dudleys were 
Congregationalists, of the most orthodox New England type, the Doctor's 
grandfather having been a leading spirit in organizing the church of 
that denomination in Naperville, of which society he was a charter 
member, and for a number of years one of its most liberal supporters. 
John Dudley, the Doctor's great-grandfather, was a Revolutionary hero, 
and the old flint-lock musket which he carried during the war was 
retained as a precious relic for many years. This branch of the family 
came originally from England, the ancestors being among the "Mayflower" 
pilgrims, others immigrating to America at a later date. Daniel N. 
Gross, the Doctor's father, was born in Naperville, Illinois, in 1837. 
He enjoyed but limited educational advantages, never attending school 
after his thirteenth year, and when quite young he apprenticed himself 
to learn the carpenter's trade, which in due time he mastered and became 
a skillful mechanic. For some years prior to the breaking out of the 
great Civil war he was foreman in a carpenter's shop, at Naperville, but 
when the President called for volunteers to put down the rebellion he 
was one of the first in that town to respond, joining Company E, Eighth 
Illinois Cavalry, with which he served until made an aide on General 
Sumner's staff, some time later. His command was attached to the Army of 
the Potomac, and took part in a number of Virginia campaigns, 
participating in many of the bloody battles which made the war in that 
section historic. Upon the occasion of the seven days' battle before 
Richmond he was one of those who volunteered to carry an important 
dispatch in the face of a deadly fire to the commander of another 
division, with an order to retreat, the mission being attended with 
great danger, and to all appearances almost certain death. Of the three 
he was chosen for the dangerous service, and after proceeding as far as 
he dared on horseback, he left his animal and, crawling directly under 
the fire of the enemy, finally reached his destination in safety and 
delivered the message. Returning, he reached his horse without injury, 
but in attempting to mount he was shot through the leg, the missile 
killing the animal, thus leaving him to make his way as best he could to 
a place of safety. After hastily dressing the wound, he was assisted by 
a comrade, S. V. Hoang, now living near Fargo, North Dakota, who, 
helping him mount another horse, led the animal, and in this way the two 
followed the retreating army until arriving at Pittsburg Landing on the 
shore of Chesapeake bay, where they found the force already embarked, 
and the last of the transports just leaving the shore. The commander of 
the transport was not disposed to return for them until Surgeon Hord, of 
Aurora, Illinois, threatened to report him, when he reluctantly yielded 
and the vessel approached sufficiently close to enable the wounded man 
to be swung on board in a blanket, their rescue being just in time to 
prevent their capture by the pursuing enemy. A storm came on and it was 
several days before Mr. Gross could be taken to a hospital in Baltimore, 
when, in order to save his life, it was found necessary to amputate his 
wounded limb. After remaining something like six months under treatment, 
he was discharged from the hospital, and immediately thereafter returned 
home, where a short time later, January 14, 1864, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Mary E. Dudley. This union, as already stated, resulted 
in the birth of five children, four of whom are living, at the present 
time, namely: Bertha C., a kindergartener in Riverside, California; Dr. 
Cheney C., of this review; Dean D., a hardware merchant of Yankton, 
South Dakota, and Mary S., an unmarried lady, who is still under the 
parental roof. Fred A. Gross, the youngest child, died in San Diego, 
California, June 28, 1900, at the age of eighteen years, after an 
illness of two years.

	Daniel N. Gross served three terms as treasurer of Dupage county, 
Illinois, and for a period of fourteen years was postmaster at 
Naperville. In 1883 he moved his family to Yankton, South Dakota, where 
he became associated with other partners in the hardware business, 
continuing a member of the firm until his death, which occurred November 
28, 1889. One year prior to that date, he was elected auditor of Yankton 
county, and he had fairly entered upon the duties of the office when the 
dread messenger summoned him to the great beyond. Mr. Gross was a man of 
influence in his various places of residence, and filled ably and 
worthily every position with which honored. He was prominent in the 
Masonic order, having been a leading member of the Oriental Consistory 
at Yankton, and was also active in religious circles, having been 
identified with the Congregational church at the time of his death, 
being a pillar of the First church of that denomination in Yankton. Mrs. 
Gross is still living and at this time makes her home in Yankton with 
two of her children, the subject of this sketch and the youngest 
daughter, Mary S.

	Referring specifically to the career of Dr. Cheney C. Gross, it is 
learned that he was born in Naperville, Illinois, on February 15, 1868, 
and that he grew up at home, receiving his early education in the 
schools of his native place, and later, 1886, graduating from the 
Yankton high school. The Doctor was a youth of about fifteen when his 
parents moved to South Dakota and since that time his life has been very 
closely interwoven with the history of this city. After finishing his 
high-school course, he continued his literary education for three years 
in Yankton College, subsequently, in the fall of 1890, entering the 
medical department of the Northwestern University at Chicago, from which 
institution he was graduated in the summer of 1895. For one year of the 
above period he was connected with the drug house of G. W. Frostensen, 
in Yankton, but immediately after receiving his degree abandoned all 
other pursuits for the practice of his profession, which he has since 
prosecuted with distinguished success, having not only risen to an 
eminent position in his own city, but achieved a reputation far beyond 
the limits of his present field of endeavor. The Doctor's progress since 
opening an office in Yankton has been rapid and marked, and by common 
consent he is now recognized as the leading physician in this section of 
the state, his abilities in all branches of the profession creating a 
demand for his services which taxes his utmost powers to meet. A close 
and critical student, as well as a skillful and successful practitioner, 
he keeps abreast of the times in all matters relating to medical 
science, belonging to a number of professional societies and 
associations, and taking a leading part in their deliberations. Among 
these are the American Medical Association, the South Dakota Medical 
Society, Sioux Valley Medical Association and the Aberdeen Medical 
Association, in addition to which he has also filled several positions 
in the line of his calling, to-wit, that of health officer of Yankton, 
superintendent of the county board of health, which post he has held 
during the past six years, and county coroner, serving two terms in the 
last named office. For several years he has held the position of surgeon 
for the Great Northern Railway Company at Yankton and is also medical 
examiner for several of the leading old-line life insurance companies.

	Few physicians of his age and experience have come so prominently 
to the front as has Dr. Gross, and none have discharged their duties 
more ably or faithfully. He is a gentleman of scholarly habits and 
refined tastes, extensively acquainted with general literature and, as 
already indicated, a profound student of medicine. In private life he is 
quiet and unobtrusive, yet of a social disposition, a ready and fluent 
conversationalist and impresses all with whom he comes in contact by the 
depth and wide range of his intelligence. It is in these humble 
relations that characters are most fully tested, and here, as in his 
professional labors, the Doctor has always been governed by principles 
of virtue and duty. Dr. Gross has never seen fit to assume the duties 
and responsibilities of matrimony, being still an unmarried man and 
making one of a happy home circle of which his mother and a sister are 
the members. In religion he is a Congregationalist, being an active 
member of the First church of that name in Yankton, and he is also 
identified with the Pythian fraternity, belonging to Phoenix Lodge, of 
this city.

	The subject's maternal grandmother Dudley bore the maiden name of 
Mary Barrows and was a native of Middlebury, Vermont. Her family 
originally came from England, settling in this country about 1630. She 
was a woman of exceptionally strong character and unusual intellectual 
attainments. In 1832 she left her home in Middlebury, Vermont, with a 
married sister, Mrs. Rev. N. C. Clark, whose husband had been appointed 
by the American Home Missionary Society to the then new field of 
Illinois. They arrived in Chicago when that city was a mere village, 
boasting but one frame house. Here she and a Miss Chapin founded a 
school, which was to be the basis or origin of the present public-school 
system of that great city. Miss Chapin later married Rev. Jeremiah 
Porter, an appointee of the American Home Missionary Society and who 
served as chaplain to the United States troops stationed at old Fort 
Dearborn and whose name is prominently mentioned in the history of the 
early settlement of Illinois. Here Miss Mary Burrows first met her 
future husband, John Dudley, whom she married December 19, 1836. Her 
niece, Miss Martha J. Barrows, has been a missionary at Kobe, Japan, for 
many years, where, in 1893, she and the subject's aunt, Miss Julia E. 
Dudley, founded the Woman's Evangelistic School of Kobe, Japan, a Bible 
training school under the supervision and control of the American Board 
of Foreign Missions.

	The subject's mother, Mrs. Mary D. Gross, is a woman of strong, 
earnest and sincere Christian character, and also of unusual 
intellectual strength and abilities. To her Dr. Gross is probably 
indebted mainly for his mental and intellectual ability. She was favored 
in her youth with superior educational advantages, having attended the 
public schools and a private academy at Naperville, Illinois, and also 
the Rockford Female Seminary at Rockford, Illinois. Her sister, Miss 
Julia E. Dudley, who is still living in California, was for thirty years 
a missionary in Japan, being superintendent of the Bible training school 
for women, at Kobe, Japan, under the American Board of Foreign Missions.