FAMILIES D-H: GROTHAUS ~ Arend Grothaus (1831-1907)
This web page was created, on October 26, 2016, from information provided to the Darrtown.com Webmaster by Arend Flick, a great-grandson of Arend Grothaus.
On October 18, 2016, Arend Flick sent an email to the Darrtown.com webmaster, in which he wrote: "Hello. I found my way to your website in doing some research on my family and wanted to see if you could add the name of my mother’s first cousin, Fred Grothaus, to the list of Darrtown soldiers who served in WW2."
That contact, plus several follow-up communications, led to the creation of this Grothaus Famly web page.
The Arend Grothaus Family Tree - as seen at Ancestry.com (as of October 26, 2016)
As more information about the Grothaus family is contributed and/or discovered, it will be added to the Grothaus branch of the Darrtown Family Tree at Ancestry.com
The following information about Fred Grothaus (1878-1964) and Catherine (Ebbers) Grothaus (1880-1956) was contributed by Arend Flick, in October 2016.
The Fred and Catherine Grothaus Family
Frederick Arend “Fred” Grothaus was born on December 12, 1878, in Brown County, Ohio, where his parents had recently purchased a farm. Between 1900 and 1915, he tried a number of occupations in southwestern Ohio, including school teacher, census taker, and grocer, before buying a farm with his twin brother George in Milford Township, near Darrtown, in 1916 or 1917. He had married Catherine Ebbers in Cincinnati in 1907; together, they raised three children: Catherine (born in 1912), Fred (born in 1917), and Martha (born in 1918).
The children attended school in Collinsville and Darrtown and graduated from Milford Township High School—Catherine in 1931, Fred in 1935, and Martha in 1936. After nearly 20 years of farming, the elder Grothauses moved into Hamilton where Fred, Sr. became a successful Realtor, specializing in farm properties. He died in 1964, eight years after his wife.
Their three children ended up living out their lives in Hamilton too. Catherine graduated from Miami University in 1933 with a degree in Elementary Education and spent 38 years as a schoolteacher in the Butler County and Hamilton City school districts. She died in 2005. Fred graduated from Miami University in 1939 with a Business degree, spent three years in the army during World War II (he went in as a private but left as a sergeant) where he saw action in France and Germany, and then joined his father’s real estate business. He died in 1985. Martha married Fred Schwab in 1940 (the couple were married for 66 years before their deaths less than two months apart in 2007) and worked many years at the Agricultural Stabilization Conservation Service in Hamilton. They had one daughter.
In a second email message, Arend Flick provided the following info about Fred Grothaus and George Grothaus (Fred's twin brother and Arend's grandfather).
Fred’s father was also named Fred, and he (the elder Fred) and my grandfather George (who was his twin), moved to Butler County from Cincinnati to farm in around 1917.
Both families settled in Milford Township. They shared a farm on the Middletown & Oxford Road according to the 1020 census, but by 1930, Fred and his family were renting a farm on Hamilton-Richmond Pike (in District 42). I wish I could be more precise—I need to pull deeds and such from the Butler County courthouse the next time I’m back that way. (I grew up in Hamilton but have lived in California for many years).
I believe Fred and his family moved into Hamilton around 1935, which means they were only residents of your area for around 18 years. But I know the three Grothaus kids—Catherine (born in 1912), Fred, and Martha (born in 1918) all saw Darrtown as their home in many ways.
In any event, if you think they were there long enough to qualify, I will be happy to provide you with the information you need for the Darrtown family tree.
Webmaster note: Alas, email contact with Arend has been lost; so, if Arend can re-connect with the Darrtown webmaster, perhaps we can add the Grothaus family information
