Obituary and Tribute
Louisiana Press
Louisiana, Missouri
March 8, 1900
Page 6, Column 1

George Gross

On last Friday afternoon [February 23, 1900] five of us were seated in the music store discussing current events, the various changes, etc. in the roster of our little band and orchestra within the past five years, when all of a sudden the telephone bell rang and the summons came that our old mutual friend and musician, George Gross, had been drowned in St. Louis.  [His “day job” was as a painter with the St. Louis Water Department.  His crew was painting the inside of a 105-foot tall water tower and had  lit a small controlled fire at the base to dry out the walls.  Feeling the effects of the carbon monoxide, he (working alone) yelled to be pulled up.  The lines got tangled and he yelled again to be let back down as he thought he would be able to escape through one of the four 36-inch water lines that had been previously drained.  Sadly, he was overcome, collapsed, damming the trickle of water in the pipe and drowned.]  As is the case in such sudden disturbing news, we hoped against our convictions that there might be some mistake. But alas, later advices gave particulars and we were forced to realize the loss we had sustained.

All his friends are familiar with the details of his tragic death and the bravery that led to it. George was never known to shirk a responsible duty, and while his progressive ambition was fast leading him to the altar of success, his heroism stopped a career that was destined to shine out in brilliancy along the zenith of his chosen profession.  In one more week George intended to resign his position at the water tower [St. Louis Water Department] and devote his entire attention to music, for that was his calling and his talents were so fast being recognized that his proffered musical engagements were more numerous than he could accept.

He loved music and was a musician by heart as well as by inheritance.  He was born February 22, 1869, in Palmyra, Mo. and, at the tender age of five years, exhibited precocious talents by being able to follow by ear in perfect harmony of accompaniment on a violin the melody played by his father on the piano.  When six years old he played second violin in an orchestra and at eight he led an orchestra of eight musicians.  At eleven years he played solo cornet in a band and when fourteen taught [conducted?] several brass bands.  At seventeen he enlisted in the Fifth Cavalry Band stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas under the leadership of his brother Frederick.  He served at this station for five years when he was transferred with his brother to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he remained two years.  He then at the expiration of his enlistment came to Louisiana [Missouri] and on Sept. 13, 1894 was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Pieper of this city.  He remained in Louisiana the winter of 1894 and 1895 and had the leadership of Parks’ Opera House Orchestra.

In the fall of 1895 he accepted a position of professor of music at the A. M. C. college [now Texas A. & M. University] at College Station, Texas.  He taught two seasons at this college, then returned to Louisiana where in the spring of 1897 be embarked in the music business with R. W. Young.  In the fall of 1897 he dissolved partnership with Mr. Young and accepted a position with Parks’ Music House with whom he remained four months, leaving in December 1897 for Mexico, Mo. to accept a more lucrative position teaching [conducting?] the Mexico band. He went from Mexico to St. Louis in January 1899 and while there was the leader of two orchestras, taught [conducted?] the First Ward Republican League Band, and was also a member of the First Regiment Band playing saxophone under the leadership of Prof. Charles Seymour.  This band is the recognized concert band of  St. Louis.

His funeral took place from the residence of his sister, Mrs. Frank Boehm, Monday afternoon. Besides his wife [later to move to Mt. Sterling and  marry butcher Frank Meyer when Frank’s first wife Albertha Gross died in childbirth in 1905] and little son, four and a half years old [Leonard Gross who married Wilma Briggs and was the jeweler in Mt. Sterling.  Note:  Minnie was also pregnant at the time of George’s death with Rita Gross who later married Leon Price.  They had two children, Richard and Vivian, who graduated from Quincy High School], he leaves a father and mother [John David and Henrietta (Ketzler) Gross], a brother, Fred Gross [Bandmaster, 10th Infantry Regiment], now at Mantanzas, Cuba, the following sisters, Mrs. J. F. Little [Julia Gross], Mrs. Frank Meyer [Albertha Gross] and Miss Lula Gross all of Mt. Sterling, Ills., Mrs. J. O. Wilson [Hettie Gross], Clayton, Ills., and Mrs. Boehm [Amelia Gross] of this city, and a host of sorrowing friends, none of whom will miss him more than his old musical advocates of our little band and orchestra.

None but those of us who paid our last tribute to him with the aid of our instruments know the effort it took to play the melancholy strains of the appropriate music when each note seemed to remind us of him and others of our number who will never again play their parts and it saddens us to contemplate how soon the ties of association and home circle will eventually separate us all and teaches us to live in the sunshine of our friends and leave behind the consolation of our loved ones that the world is better from the influences we gave it.

With heartfelt sympathy to the widow, little son, father, mother and all, we are sincerely,

[* Comments in italics are by his great grand nephew, Don Gross]

© 2000 Rhonda Stolte Darnell