John Gross Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1227-1228 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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	JOHN GROSS, a prominent banker and capitalist of Freeman, was born 
in the southern part of Russia, on the 3d of June, 1860, and is a son of 
Henry and Christina (Schmall) Gross, of whose four children he is the 
younger of the two surviving, his brother, Philip, being a prominent 
citizen of Medina, North Dakota. The father of the subject died when the 
latter was but one year of age, and when he had attained the age of five 
years his mother also passed away, and he was reared by his maternal 
grandparents, attending the common schools of his native land until he 
had reached the age of fourteen, when he accompanied his two elder 
brothers on their emigration to America, in 1874. They made their way to 
Yankton, South Dakota, where they separated, the brother returning 
eastward to Illinois, since which time all trace of him has been lost by 
the other two brothers. When the subject arrived in Yankton his cash 
capital was represented in the sum of fifteen cents, and though a mere 
lad and a stranger in a strange land, he manifested the self-reliant 
spirit which has been the conservator of his pronounced success in later 
years. He secured employment in the grocery store of Christian Buechler, 
a fellow countryman, and when the latter removed his business to the new 
town of Freeman the subject accompanied him and here remained in his 
employ about one year. In company with Mr. Buechler he was then 
concerned in the erection of a new building, and in this they 
established themselves in the hotel and liquor business, in which they 
continued about six years, when the partnership was dissolved. Mr. Gross 
at that time purchased his partner's interest and thereafter continued 
the enterprise until January, 1902, when he disposed of the same and 
established the Merchants' State Bank, to whose management he has since 
given his attention, while the institution has gained a representative 
support and controls a large business, which is constantly increasing. 
For many years past Mr. Gross has been prominently and extensively 
identified with the farming and cattle industry, and at the present time 
he has about five hundred head of high-grade cattle and owns about 
twenty-four hundred acres of valuable farming land, in Hutchinson and 
Turner counties. He is a Republican in his political proclivities, but 
has never sought official preferment, though he is essentially public-
spirited in his attitude. He and his wife are valued members of the 
German Reformed church, and they hold the high regard of all who know 
them. Mr. Gross has attained a high degree of success through his own 
efforts, and his straightforward course and inflexible integrity have 
marked him as well worthy of all that he has achieved since coming to 
the state as a poor boy. 

	February 15, 1888, Mr. Gross was united in marriage to Miss Lydia 
Leyjans, of this county, she likewise being a native of southern Russia, 
whence she accompanied her parents to the United States in 1885, the 
family taking up their residence in Hutchinson county. Of the six 
children born to Mr. and Mrs. Gross one is deceased, Ciara; the others 
remain at the parental home, namely: Louisa, Amelia, Annetta, Henry, 
Leona.