Upshur County, West Virginia Biography of S. C. GROSE This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 573-574 S. C. GROSE taught his first term of school twenty-three years ago. While teaching he completed his own educa- tional program in the University, and since 1915 has been superintendent of the schools of Parsons, where his work has been of a quality that has brought forth many expres- sions of praise. Mr. Grose was born on a farm in Meade District of Up- shur County, November 19, 1880, and comes of a family of agricultural people, he and one brother being the only rep- resentatives in the educational profession. His grandfather, Samuel Grose, was a native of Pennsylvania, and after his marriage to Miss Ateman, moved to Warm Springs, Vir- ginia. Their children were: William, who died before the Civil war; John A.; Jacob, who died young; George, a resi- dent of Lorentz, West Virginia; Catherine, who married James Brake; Anna, who became the wife of John L. Loudin; Paulina, who married Charles Thorpe; and Mrs. Sarah Potts. John A. Grose, father of the Parsons school superin- tendent, was born at Warm Springs, Virginia, in 1838. While he had a meager education himself, he was much concerned in the proper education of his own children. At the opening of the Civil war he entered the Union Army as a member of the Tenth West Virginia Infantry, and served under both General Ouster and General Sheridan. He took part in the battles of Antietam, Prederieksburg, Chancellorsville, Spottsylvania, Fisher's Hill, the Shenan- doah campaign, involving the battles of Winchester and Ce- dar Creek, and was in the concluding phases of the war under General Grant around Richmond. He was a private soldier and was slightly wounded a few hours before the close of the struggle, at Appomattox. After the war he de- voted himself to his farm in Upshur County, where he lived until his death. In 1876, in that county, he married Nancy Jane Allman, who was born there in 1852, daughter of Abram and Barbara (Cutright) Allman. She had a brother, Isaac Allman, and a sister, Mrs. Phoebe Grose. John A. Grose and wife had the following children: Edward R., a teacher of science in the Glenville State Normal School of West Virginia; S. C. Grose; Arthur, a farmer at Sago in Upshur County; Wilbur, also a farmer at Sago; and Anna, wife of Charles Outright, of Sago. S. C. Grose spent the first nineteen years of his life on his father's farm in Upshur County, and he had an in- creasing share in the labors of the field and only such ad- vantages as were supplied by the local schools. At nineteen he began teaching, and after two terms of rural school work entered college, in the Preparatory Department of the Uni- versity. and while attending there taught two more terms of country school and following his course another term of rural school. Following that he was principal of the schools of Cairo, West Virginia, for six years, but each summer he returned to the University of Morgantown and in 1911 he enrolled in the University for continued work until he finished his course and received his A. B. degree in 1913. The next two years he was principal of the High School at FIemington, and in 1915 he was called to be superintendent of the Parsons School as successor to S. B. Hatton. While at Parsons Mr. Grose has made some distinctive additions to the school course and the general elevation of the school system there. He has introduced courses in teachers training, commercial, vocational agriculture and manual training, and Parsons now has a High School with a four year course. Two classes had been graduated from the high school before Mr. Grose became superintendent. The graduates are now qualified to enter any school or college in the state without examination, and it is also on the list of accredited high schools, a graduation there be- ing recognized by all the Universities and Colleges of the country. Since Mr. Grose became superintendent many graduates have continued their higher education for teach- ing and other professions. Mr. Grose is deeply interested in every subject connected with the proper training of youth for the serious duties of life, not only in school, but in connection with rural life and sociology and is an active member of several educa- tional associations, being president of the Tucker County Teachers Association. During the World war he took an active part in contributing to the success of the Bed Cross and Liberty Loan drives, doing much speeching in behalf of these patriotic causes. For several summers his time has been occupied with teachers institutes, and in the summer of 1922 he had charge of the approved summer school work for teachers at Parsons. At Harrisville, West Virginia, June 21, 1913, Mr. Grose married Miss Nolle Fowler, who was born at Harrisville, daughter of Jasper N. and Florence (Hayhurst) Fowler. Her father is still living at his home farm near Harris- ville. Mrs. Grose is a graduate of the rural schools, spent two years in the Glenville State Normal and also took sum- mer work in West Virginia University. She began teaching at the age of seventeen, and her last school was in the grades at Harrisville. Mr. and Mrs. Grose have three chil- dren: John Andrew, born in 1915; Rosa Nelle, born in 1918; and Florence Margaret, born in 1920. Mr. Grose is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Junior Order United American Me- chanics, and Mrs. Grose is a member of the Methodist Protestant Church. He became a stockholder at the organi- zation of the Philippi Blanket Mill at Parsons in 1922.