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G. A. GROSSMANN, banker at Waverly, widely known throughout the
Iowa Lutheran Synod, is a son of George Martin Grossmann, a beloved pioneer of
Iowa Lutherisum, a brief sketch of whose life and work is published preceding
this. G. A. Grossmann was born May 25, 1862, in a cabin which represented a
parsonage of the Iowa Synod. Mr. Grossmann was one of eight children of his
parents and the only other one now living is Miss Nannie, the youngest child,
who remained with her parents until their death. She lives at Waverly. The
deceased children were: Emelia, wife of Rev. P. Bridow, of Maxfiled, Iowa;
Eliese, wife of G. Amman, whose father was the first lay minister of the Iowa
Lutheran Synod; Minna wife of Rev. F. Kuethe, of Waverly; Marie, wife of Rev.
Henry Hoerig, of Watertown and Menominee, Wisconsin; G. S. who was in the United
States mail service at Waverly and Waterloo; and Emma, wife of Paulus List, for
twenty years manager of the Wartburg publishing house in Chicago, and now
manager of the branch publishing house of the United Lutheran Church.
G. A. Grossmann was educated at home, partly under the direction of his
father, and he completed his college course and theological training in Wartburg
Seminary at Mendota, Illinois. After being ordained he was for four years
pastor at Jubilee in Blackhawk County, Iowa. On account of a throat affliction
he gave up the active ministry, and, returning to Waverly, did work for the
Wartburg Publishing Company. In 1893 he bought the Waverly Phoenix, a German
language newspaper, which had been established by a Mr. Krech, who sold it to
Henry Schulz, from whom Mr. Grossmann purchased it in 1893. At the beginning of
the World war the Phoenix was merged into the Weekly Democrat. The Democrat is
now edited by Mr. Grossmann's son Arthur. Mr. Grossmann is an able business man
and for several years has been president and director of the State Bank of
Waverly.
His interests and activities have been unfailing in behalf of his church.
Since 1899 he has been secretary of the Lutheran Mutual Aid Society and has
managed its affairs with vigor and efficiency, maintaining them on a sound
financial basis. Mr. Grossmann has always been known as a hard worker. His
vigorous constitution today is probably due to his habits of industry and
physical labor when a boy. At the age of fourteen he was binding wheat in the
harvest fields, plowing corn, and doing other heavy manual toil. He is a member
of the publishing committee of the Iowa Synod and of its finance committee, is a
member of the board of directors of Wartburg College at Clinton, Iowa, and
president of the Iowa Orphans Home Society. He is a member of the Community
Club at Waverly, and for ten years was on the board of directors of the Iowa
National Insurance Company of Des Moines. His father was a Republican, but Mr.
Grossmann has been a consistent Democrat in principle, though in the Bryan
campaign of 1896 he supported the gold standard ticket of Palmer and Buckner.
Mr. Grossmann in 1923 took his first important vacation, when he spent three
months in Europe. While overseas he placed wreaths on the graves of his
ancestors.
He married Miss Anna Kaufmann, daughter of G. Kaufmann, of Waverly. The
following children were born to their union: Cordelia, wife of A. R. Boer of
Wisconsin; Arthur C., editor of the Waverly Democrat; Rosa, wife of Rev Eugene
Poppen, of Detroit, Michigan; Helen, wife of E. L. Hahn, who is connected with
the wholesale department of Marshall Field & Company in Chicago; W. P.,
owner of a moving picture house at Nevada, Iowa; W. P., who for two years was at
Camp Dodge with the recruiting branch and at the close of the war with the
discharging department, and prior to the war had worked in the bank at Waverly;
Hilda, who completed her musical education in the Chicago College of Music, is
voice teacher in the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan; Emma is an
employee of the Peninsular State Bank at Detroit, Michigan; Helmuth W.,
owner of a Funeral Home at Charles City, Iowa, was in the hospital department of
the United States navy, assigned to the U. S. S. Montana in 1917-21.
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