My Genealogy Hound

Nicholas Gruber, another successful farmer of Van Buren Township, Newton Co., Mo., was born in Blair County, Penn., in 1832, and is of an old American family. The founder of the family in this country settled in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, about 200 years ago. Nicholas Gruber, Sr., father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Northampton County, Penn., and learned the tailor’s trade in early life. This he followed until the Lehigh Valley canal was constructed, when he learned to blast rock, and after that for thirty years he was engaged in putting down wells. He married Miss Susan Daniels, daughter of Peter and Armintea (Straus) Daniels. To Mr. and Mrs. Gruber were born ten children: Lovina, Solomon, Amelia, Mary R., Jacob, Nicholas, Catherine, Lydia, Thomas and Louisa. Mr. Gruber lived at Martinsburg, Penn., for over forty years, and died there in 1872 at the age of seventy-seven years. He was a man of property, the principal part of which he left to the German Reformed Church, being a member of the same. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and a Democrat in his political views. His son, Nicholas Gruber, Jr., remained and assisted his father until twenty-two years of age, when he learned the trade of black-smith, and continued this occupation for two years. He then learned the axe-maker’s trade in Bedford County, and could make a very fine axe. In 1852, when at the age of twenty, he married Miss Charlotte Shoup, daughter of Jacob and Hellen (Bernhart) Shoup. This union resulted in the birth of seven children: Anna M., Oran Simon, Samuel A., Alie L., Carrie D., Lottie E. and Freddie A. J. After marriage Mr. Gruber lived on a farm in Bedford County, Penn., for two years, and then went to Ohio in 1854, where he remained one winter. They went from there to Clayton County, Iowa, and there remained three years, after which, in 1857, he went to Kansas, purchased a farm in Pottawatomie County in that State, and there remained ten years. In the meantime he went to the Rocky Mountains and engaged in mining at Black Hawk City. In 1867 he moved to Newton County, Mo., and purchased his present property of 160 acres. He has a fine farm, well watered and well stocked. He is a Republican in his political principles, and he and Mrs. Gruber are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is an upright, honorable man, and the whole family are highly respected. His daughter, Anna M., married A. F. Holt, of this county; she died October 30, 1873, leaving one son, Charlie. Samuel A. married Miss Susan Robinson, who bore him three children: Oscar, Nora Anna and Bertha; they live in Howell County, Mo. Alice L. is an evangelist, and is spending her life in active missionary work, traveling and preaching the gospel.