My Genealogy Hound

FREDERICK LOUIS GROSS, secretary of the German Insurance company of Pittsburgh, son of John V. and Wilhelmina (Kurtz) Gross, was born in Korbach, principality of Waldeck, now belonging to Prussia, Aug. 27, 1818. His grandfather and father were dyers. John V., having retired after the death of his wife, came to the United States in 1855, and died at an advanced age, in Somerset county, Pa., in 1880. F. L. Gross was highly educated in a college, but, not inclining to study, in 1834 he entered a store, in order to acquire a commercial training. For several years he was employed in different cities in Germany as bookkeeper and traveling agent, and at Hamburg as clerk in a large factory owned by H. C. Meyer, father-in-law of Carl Schurz, afterward a noted American politician. In the summer of 1847 Mr. Gross came to Pittsburgh. Soon after he moved to Berlin, Pa., where he kept a store for over seven years. Returning to Pittsburgh, he was employed for some time as a bookkeeper, and on the organization of the German Fire Insurance company, in 1862, he was elected secretary, a position he has since filled. He is a member of the G. E. L. Church, and has always been a democrat. In 1850 Mr. Gross married Matilda Werner, of German birth, and they have three children living: August J., Lena L., and Matilda, wife of William A. McClurg, of Pittsburgh; the eldest is in Iowa; the second born, Edward L., is deceased.