George Henry Gross

GEORGE HENRY GROSS is a veteran of the railway operating service, but left that business several years ago to take up banking and is now cashier of the Damar State Bank at Damar, Kansas. This bank is one of a numerous chain of banks under the ownership and presidency of C. G. Cochran, who is the president, while A. D. Manny is vice president and Mr. Gross is cashier. The bank was established by charter July 17, 1905, has been very prosperous, is capitalized at $10,000 and has a surplus of $10,000.

George Henry Gross is in every respect except birthplace a thorough American. He was born in the Province of Samara, Russia, October 31, 1879. When he was six years of age his father, George Gross, brought the family to America. George Gross, Sr., was also born in the Province of Samara, one of the interesting districts of Southeastern Russia whore democratic ideas and ideals have made greater progress than in any other section of that chaotic empire. George Gross grew up and married in Samara, learned the trade of shoemaker, and on coming to the United States in 1886 located at Wilson, Kansas, where he set up a shop as a pioneer shoemaker and he is still living there. He is a republican in politics and a Protestant in religion. He married Ava Elizabeth Michael, born in the Province of Samara, Russia, in 1861 and died at Wilson, Kansas, in 1912. Her father was born in the same province in 1816 and came to the United States in 1875, locating at Wilson, Kansas, where he was one of the first settlers. He homesteaded 160 acres, and after developing that retired to Wilson, where he died in 1893. George Gross and wife had two children: George Henry and Lottie. Lottie is the wife of C. F. Brown, a coal and feed merchant at Goodland, Kansas.

George Henry Gross received his education in the public schools of Wilson, attending high school there for two years. At the age of nineteen he went to work for the Union Pacific Railway Company as night clerk at Wilson. A year and a half later he was made a station agent and operator and filled those posts at many stations in Western Kansas between Junction City and Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, along the main line and on the Plainville branch. His last day of work for the Union Pacific Company was December 14, 1915. He then entered the Waldo State Bank as assistant cashier and held that post until September 15, 1918. For a week or two, until the 6th of October, he was assistant cashier of the Zurich State Bank, and on January 1, 1919, became cashier of the Damar State Bank.

Mr. Gross served as mayor of Waldo four years. He was also a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Waldo, and is past grand of Waldo Lodge of Odd Fellows. In politics he is a republican. December 24, 1903, at Luray, Kansas, Mr. Gross married Miss Mary A. Luder, daughter of Jacob and Rosa (Henning) Luder. Her mother still lives at Waldo, while her father, deceased, was an early day farmer in that vicinity. Mr. and Mrs. Gross have four children: Irene Elizabeth, born October 9, 1906; Georgia, born November 10, 1909; Paul Wayne, born May 5, 1913; and Jacob Kenneth, born July 23, 1918.

Pages 2299-2300.