USA > Iowa > Clayton County > History of Clayton County, Iowa : from the earliest historical times down to the present : including a genealogical and biographical record of many representative families, prepared from data obtained from original sources of information, Volume I > Part 74
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in Company M, Second New York Artillery, his enlistment having been for "three years or during the war," and in November, 1863, he re-enlisted as a veteran volunteer, his service continuing until he received his honorable discharge on the 15th of October, 1865. His regiment was a part of the Army of the Potomac and saw much severe service. It was attached to the First Brigade of the First Division of the Second Army Corps, under command of General Hancock, and the famous Irish Brigade likewise formed a part of this gallant corps, while the division was in command of General Nelson A. Miles. The Second New York Artillery ranked eighth in the number of its losses in the war. Of the original Company M with which Mr. Griffith went to the front, he was one of only five that returned at the close of the long conflict, and he held commis- sion as second lieutenant of his company at the time when he was mustered out. At the time when Manassas Junction was captured by General Stonewall Jackson's corps, Mr. Griffith was captured, but, with other enlisted men, he was paroled on the field of the second battle of Bull Run. After passing three months in the parole camp at Annapolis, Maryland, he was exchanged, whereupon he promptly rejoined his regiment. He served in the battles and minor engagements from Spottsylvania to Petersburg, and at the latter place, on the night of June 16, 1864, he was so severely wounded that he was sent to the north for proper treatment and care. In the following November he rejoined his regiment, with which he served during the final campaigns against the forces of General Lee. At Burksville Station, after Lee's surrender, he com- manded the guard having in charge the artillery surrendered by the great Confederate leader. He was mustered out October 15, 1865, two days prior to his twentieth birthday anniversary. Soon after the close of his gallant career as a youthful soldier of the Union Mr. Griffith entered the office of the Utica Morning Herald for the purpose of completing his apprenticeship as a printer. He con- tinued his services in newspaper offices at Utica, New York, until April, 1870, when he came to Iowa and established his residence in the village then known as Buffalo Grove, near the present town of Aurora, Buchanan county. There, on the 14th of December, 1870, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Mary A. Carpenter, who was born at Trenton Falls, New York, on the 6th of February, 1845. One of her brothers had been a former comrade and tent- mate of Mr. Griffith in the army and had sacrificed his life to his county. After his marriage Mr. Griffith worked at his trade in Dubuque and Chicago, and from the latter city he returned, in 1872, to Dubuque, where he retained a position on the Daily Herald until August 1, 1880, when he came to Clayton county and estab- lished his permanent home at Elkader, where he had shortly be- fore purchased an interest in the Elkader Register. In the control of this paper he was associated with George A. Fairfield until Jan- uary 1, 1893, when Mr. Fairfield retired from the partnership and was succeeded by Harry L. Griffith, the only child of the subject of this memoir, who has continued the business since the death of his father and concerning whom individual mention is made on
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other pages of this publication. David G. Griffith filled a large place in the community life of Elkader and Clayton county and was splendidly influential not only through the medium of his ex- cellent paper but also in a direct personal way. For many years he gave his allegiance to the Democratic party, but in the later period of his life he was aligned with the Republican party. He served three terms as mayor of Elkader and was postmaster of this place during the first administration of President Cleveland. He was always active and influential in public affairs in Elkader and the county. He held membership in the Baptist church, and in the time-honored Masonic fraternity his affiliations were with Elkader Lodge No. 72, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons; Har- mony Chapter No. 41, Royal Arch Masons; and DeMolay Con- sistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, at Clinton, this state, in which last he received the thirty-second degree. He was identified also with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America and other fraternal organizations, the while he was a specially appreciative and honored member of E. Boardman Post, No. 187, Grand Army of the Republic, through the medium of which he manifested his abiding interest in his old comrades in arms. It has already been stated that Mrs. Griffith was born at Trenton Falls, New York, and it may further be noted that she is a daughter of Bradford James Carpenter and Jane Laura (Jones) Carpenter, the former of whom was born at Richford, Vermont, September 25, 1807, and the latter of whom was born at Troy, New York, on the 4th of January, 1807, their marriage having been solemnized at Berkshire, Vermont, on the 2d of April, 1833. Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter passed the closing years of their lives at Ar- lington, Fayette county, Iowa, where his death occurred July 23, 1881. Of their four children who attained to maturity Lorin D. and Charles W., both of whom were soldiers in the Civil war, are now deceased, as is also Sarah B., the one surviving child, besides Mrs. Griffith, being Homer R., a resident of Atlantic, Iowa. Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Griffith has continued to reside at Elkader, a place that is endeared to her by the hallowed memories and association of the past and in which community she is held in affectionate regard by all who know her.
Harry L. Griffith .- As editor and publisher of the Elkader Register and Argus, Mr. Griffith is well upholding the journalistic prestige here maintained for many years by his honored father, the late David B. Griffith, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work, so that further review of his career and the family history is not demanded in the present connection. Harry Llewellyn Griffith was born at Buffalo Grove, near Aurora, Buch- anan county, Iowa, on the 22d of October, 1872, and is the only child of David G. and Mary Anne (Carpenter) Griffith. He was a lad of eight years at the time when the family home was estab- lished at Elkader, and after his graduation in the Elkader high school, as a member of the class of 1889, he was a student in the University of Wisconsin about two years. Thereafter he worked at electrical engineering until 1895, and during a portion of this
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time he prosecuted advanced technical study in the Drexel Insti- tute, in the city of Philadelphia. On the 1st of January, 1893, he purchased an interest in his father's paper, the Elkader Register, and became a member of the firm of D. G. Griffith & Son, though he did not assume an active connection with the business until 1895, when, on account of impaired health, he returned to the par- ental home and incidentally assumed the business management of the paper of which he has maintained the ownership and control since the death of his father, on the 27th of August, 1910. In Sep- tember, 1907, was effected a consolidation of the Elkader Register and the Elkader Argus, and both names are retained in the present publication, which is the leading paper of Clayton county, both the newspaper and job departments of the office being of excellent modern equipment and facilities. Though he is registered as a Republican, Mr. Griffith is in a political way independent in his attitude and makes his paper stand representative of the same pol- icy. He is affiliated with Elkader Lodge No. 72, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons; Harmony Chapter No. 41, Royal Arch Masons, and has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry, in De Molay Consistory, at Clinton, this state, besides which he holds membership in the Elkader camp of the Modern Woodmen of America. June 16, 1896, recorded the marriage of Mr. Griffith to Miss Flora May Lothrop, of Dubuque, and she passed to the life eternal on the 18th of March of the fol- lowing year. At Fayette, Iowa, on the 1st of January, 1907, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Griffith to Miss Abbie Helen Gran- nis, and they have four children, whose names and respective dates of birth are here entered: Helen Katherine, August 16, 1908; Mary Golden, October 20, 1910; and David Grannis and Harold Sherman, twins, June 15, 1912. Mrs. Griffith was born at Grannis Mills, Fay- ette county, Iowa, on the 28th of December, 1883, and she received excellent educational advantages, including a course in the music and art department of Upper Iowa University, at Fayette, in which she was graduated. She is the youngest daughter of Henry J. and Abigail Caroline (Hubbell) Grannis, and her mother was a lineal descendant of Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Dec- laration of Independence. Henry James Grannis was born near North Liberty, St. Joseph county, Indiana, July 18, 1841, and he died at Fayette, Iowa, October 13, 1907. His parents, John and Rhoda (Bennett) Grannis, removed from the state of New York and became pioneer settlers in Indiana, he having been the next to the youngest of seven children, of whom five attained to years of maturity. In 1860 Henry J. Grannis accompanied his parents on their removal to lowa and the family settled at Fayette, where he attended Upper Iowa University until September 15, 1861, when he enlisted in Company C, Twelfth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, known as the "University Recruits." By the young ladies of the univer- sity Mr. Grannis was selected as color bearer of his company, to which they had presented a flag, and later the company became the color company of the regiment, Mr. Grannis having had the dis- tinction of bearing the colors for his regiment until he received
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his honorable discharge, on the 20th of January, 1866. He took part in the capture of Fort Henry, and his flag was the first on the ramparts of Fort Donnelson, February 15, 1862. At Shiloh, after being under fire from 9 a. m. to 5:45 p. m., he was captured in that famous "Hornets' Nest" that did so much to save the day from absolute disaster. Taken as a prisoner of war to Montgomery, Alabama, he was there held five weeks, being then transferred to Macon, Georgia, where he remained until October 11, 1862, when he was paroled, his exchange having been effected on the 10th of the following month. In December he rejoined his regiment and resumed his post as color bearer. He participated in the battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863, and in the siege of Vicksburg, where he took part in all important engagements until June 22d, when his regiment was sent to Black River to guard the rear from attack by the forces under General Johnston. After the expiration of his original term of enlistment Mr. Grannis, on the 25th of Dec- ember, 1863, re-enlisted as a veteran volunteer, continuing as color sergeant and taking part in the battles of Tupelo, Mississippi, and Nashville, Tennessee, the expedition against Mobile and the siege of Spanish Fort. In his service he carried the colors in every im- portant battle in which his regiment was engaged-twenty-three in all-and was under Confederate fire one hundred and twelve days. He carried the colors also on the march for a distance of 2,670 miles, and by water and land transportation traveled 13,809 miles. Consistently may be ventured the statement that this record was equaled by that of no other color bearer in the Union service. In several engagements the colors were riddled in Mr. Grannis' hands. On one occasion every guard was killed or wounded, yet, strange to say, he never received a scratch or suffered the flag to go from his hands except at the time when he was captured. That the flag was always to the front and carried with greatest gallantry every official report from the regiment testified, for every one of the reports makes special mention of "our gallant color bearer." On the 22d of November, 1865, Mr. Grannis was commissioned first lieutenant, but he never mustered as such, as he chose the colors rather than promotion.
Halsten S. Groth is the fortunate owner of one of the finely im- proved farm properties of his native county, the same comprising two hundred acres of fertile land in Section 7, Marion township, and including the old homestead place on which he was born, the date of his nativity having been May 19, 1861. Mr. Groth has here been actively concerned with progressive operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower during the entire course of his adult career, and he is distinctively to be designated one of the enterprising, success- ful and representative farmers of the county, with secure place in popular confidence and good will, thus nullifying any application of the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." Mr. Groth is a son of Sven and Birget (Öin) Groth, both natives of Norway. The father was a young man at the time of his emigration to America and after remaining two years in Wisconsin he came to Clayton county and became one
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of the pioneer settlers of Marion township. Here, by energy and good business policies, he achieved large and worthy success as a farmer, and at the time of his death he was the owner of the sub- stantial estate of two hundred acres that is now in the possession of his son Halsten S., of this review. Sven Groth, a man of un- qualified integrity and honor, passed to eternal rest on the 3d of September, 1881, a zealous communicant of the Norwegian Luth- eran church, as is also his venerable widow, who remains on the old homestead with their eldest child, subject of this sketch, and who celebrated in 1916 her eighty-fifth birthday anniversary. The second child, Helgrim, is a resident of Hebron, North Dakota; Rachel resides at Broadview, Montana; Barbo is deceased; Kittil and Bertin maintain their home at Maple, Cass county, North Da- kota; Olena is the wife of Kittel Esk, of Finley, Steele county, that state; and the other five children died young. In the public schools of Clayton county Halsten S. Groth continued his studies until he had availed himself of the advantages of the high school at Elgin, and upon attaining to his legal majority he assumed, in the interest of his widowed mother, the active supervision of the home farm. About two years later he rented the place, and after the lapse of another year he purchased the interests of the other heirs and came into sole possession of the valuable property, upon which he has since made the best of modern improvements, including the erection of an attractive and commodious frame house of two stories and substantial and well equipped barns. He has also installed on the farm a silo that has a capacity of one hundred tons, and he brings to bear in his operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower the most approved of modern policies and facilities, with the result that his success has been of substantial and unequivocal order. He is a director of the Farmers' Dairy Company at Elgin, this county ; is president of the Gunder & Clermont Telephone Company, is serv- ing with marked loyalty and efficiency as township trustee, and is essentially one of the popular and influential citizens of his native county. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he and his wife are earnest communicants and liberal support- ers of the Norwegian Lutheran church. Their attractive home receives mail service on rural route No. 4 from the village of Elgin. On the 24th of May, 1888, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Groth to Miss Helen Skarshang, who was born and reared in this county, and of the five children of this union the eldest is Jessie Benora, who is the wife of Jens Halverson, their residence being in the state of Minnesota; Selmer likewise resides in that state; and Harry, Alma Sophia, and Arthur remain at the parental home.
John Groth is one of the venerable and honored pioneer citizens of Clayton county, where he has maintained his home for more than sixty years and where he has contributed his full quota to civic and industrial development and progress. He and his wife still reside on their fine old homestead farm, in Section 8, Marion township, and they have the high regard of all who know them, both having long been zealous and influential communicants of the Norwegian Lutheran church. Their attractive home now has mani-
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fold advantages that were notable for their absence in the pioneer days, and not the least is the free mail service afforded by rural route No. 4 from the village of Elgin. Mr. Groth was born in Norway, on the 19th of December, 1833, and is now the only sur- vivor of the nine children of Halsten and Ragnild (Kittleson) Groth, who passed their entire lives in their native land, the subject of this review having been the youngest of their children. Mr. Groth gained his early education in the schools of his native land and was a youth of eighteen years when, in April, 1852, he embarked on the sailing vessel that gave him transportation to America. He landed in the port of New York City and thence came directly to Iowa; where he numbered himself among the pioneer settlers of Marion township. He purchased one hundred and ninety acres of land, in Section 8, and from the same he developed the well improved farm that now constitutes his home. He has won independence and definite prosperity through his own well ordered labors and enterprise and has long been numbered among the substantial ex- ponents of agricultural and livestock industry in Clayton county, the while he has at no time failed to live up to the varied duties and responsibilities of loyal citizenship. He has had no ambition for public office, but is a stalwart supporter of the principles of the Re- publican party. On the 16th of January, 1862, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Groth to Miss Guri Tollefson, likewise a native of Norway, and eleven children were born of this union. Halsten, the firstborn, died in childhood; Sarah remains at the parental home; Rachel is deceased; Halsten (second of the name) is associated in the work and management of the old homestead farm; Tollef re- sides in the village of Elgin; Sophia and Kittle are deceased; Louis is a resident of Elgin, Fayette county; Sophia and Martin are still members of the parental home circle; and the youngest child, a son, died at birth.
Wilford E. Gruver, the efficient and popular cashier of the Clayton Savings Bank and the valued incumbent of the offices of treasurer of Clayton corporation and of the school district in which the village of Clayton is situated, is a native son of the Hawkeye state and is a scion of the third generation of both the paternal and maternal families in Iowa, with the civic and material history of which commonwealth the names of the respective families have been long and worthily identified. Mr. Gruver holds precedence as one of the representative young business men and loyal and public-spirited citizens of Clayton county, has a secure place in popular esteem and is well entitled to recognition in this publica- tion. He was born at West Union, Fayette county, Iowa, on the 5th of November, 1890, and is a son of Benton C. and Amazet (Burke) Gruver, both of whom were likewise born in this state, where their parents settled in the early pioneer days. The father of the subject of this review has given the major part of his active career to agricultural pursuits and still maintains his residence in Fayette county, his devoted wife having been summoned to eternal rest in 1913 and being survived by all of their eight children. Wil- ford E. Gruver supplemented the advantages which he received
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in the public schools of his native county by taking an effective course in a business college in the city of Cedar Rapids. Soon after having thus fortified himself he assumed a clerical position in a bank at West Branch, Cedar county, and two years later he was promoted to the position of assistant cashier of the institution. About two and a half years later he resigned this office and became cashier of a bank at Beaver Creek, Minnesota, where he remained one -year. He then resigned his position and came to Clayton county, where he has served as cashier of the Clayton Savings Bank since 1915, and where he has made an admirable record in the Executive management of this substantial and popular financial institution of the county. He is treasurer of his school district. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and at West Branch, Cedar county, he still retains affiliation with Wapsinonock Lodge, No. 381, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He is popular in the representative social life of the community. On June 8th, 1916, he married Katharine Richards, of McGregor, whose father, F. S. Richards, is cashier of the First National Bank, of McGregor.
John P. Habermann has shown the progressiveness, industry and mature judgment that significantly mark the sterling race from which he is sprung and which has contributed a most valuable element to the complex social fabric of our great American republic. Mr. Habermann is now one of the representative business men and honored and influential citizens of the village of Osterdock, Clay- ton county, and is well entitled to recognition in this history of his home county. He was born in the beautiful Rhine Province of Germany, on the 16th of November, 1875, and was a lad of eight years when he accompanied his parents, John P. and Catherine (Lortcher) Habermann, upon their immigration from their native province to the United States, in 1884. The family home was first established at Tama, the judicial center of the Iowa county of the same name, but one year later removal was made to Sioux City, this state. In 1893 the parents removed from that city to Cassville, Wisconsin, where the father now lives retired and where the de- voted wife and mother passed to eternal rest in the year 1912, both having become zealous communicants of the Catholic church when they were young. John P. Habermann, Sr., entered fully into the spirit of American institutions and as soon as possible became a naturalized citizen, whereupon he espoused the cause of the Demo- cratic party, in the ranks of which he has since been staunchly aligned. The eldest of the children is Mary, who is the wife of Anthony Dressen, of Harrison, Idaho; the subject of this sketch was the next in order of birth; Margaret resides in the city of Minne- apolis, Minnesota; Frances is the wife of John Moore, of Turkey River, Clayton county ; Elizabeth is the widow of Edward Carter and maintains her home at Mandan, North Dakota; Frank is a resident of Dubuque, Iowa; and Matthew and Josephine remain with their father at Cassville, Wisconsin. John P. Habermann, Jr., the immediate subject of this review, gained his early education principally in the public schools of Sioux City, and as a youth he
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was there employed for a time in a bottling establishment. He was about eighteen years old when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Cassville, Grant county, Wisconsin, and there he served a thorough apprenticeship to the blacksmith's trade, to which sturdy vocation he gave his energies for the long period of twenty- two years, during the last seven of which he conducted a blacksmith shop at Osterdock, Iowa, his present place of residence. Mr. Haber- mann gave significant evidence of his loyalty when the Spanish- American war had its inception. He was at the time a resident of Cassville, Wisconsin, and in June, 1898, he enlisted as a member of Company M, Third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He was with his regiment in active service in both Cuba and Porto Rico, and with the command received his honorable discharge in the month of January, 1899. Mr. Habermann has maintained his home at Oster- dock since 1905 and here he now owns and conducts a well ap- pointed and popular restaurant and confectionery store. He has served as mayor of the village, is at the present time a valued and progressive members of the village council, his political allegiance is given to the Democratic party, he is affiliated with the Catholic Knights of Wisconsin and the Spanish-American War Veterans, and both he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic church. On the 12th of November, 1901, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Habermann to Miss Christine Eckstein, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Eckstein, of Cassville, Wisconsin, and the five children of this union all remain at the parental home, namely : Adele, Mar- garet, Hans, Rose and Ethel.
John Louis Hagensick has been a resident of the Hawkeye state from the time of his birth, is a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of Iowa and is now one of the substantial farmers and influential citizens of Read township, with secure place in the confidence and good will of the community. He was born in Ceres, this state, on the 30th of December, 1874, and is a member of a family of twelve children, all of whom are living. His parents, John M. and Margaret (Winch) Hagensick, were born and reared in Germany and soon after coming to America they became pioneer settlers in Iowa, in 1854. The father was a blacksmith by trade and he continued his active association with the work of his trade until 1860, when he engaged in the general merchandise business in the little village of Ceres, Clayton county, where also he was appointed postmaster under the administration of President Lincoln. He was one of the most honored and influential citizens of his community and it is specially interesting to record that he continued the in- cumbent of the office of postmaster for the long period of thirty- four years, his retirement having taken place in 1894 and his death having occurred in September, 1897, his devoted wife having pre- ceded him to eternal rest and both having been zealous members of the Evangelical Lutheran church. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and took deep interest in the affairs of these organizations. John Louis Hagensick acquired his early education in the public schools of Clayton county and as a lad of eleven years he became a member
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