FRANK AND ANNA [KURKA] GROSS
[ pg 256 PHOTO Frank Gross, Sr., family - back from left: Frank
Gross, Jr., Joe, Emil, and Oscar; seated: Frank Gross, Sr., and Anna
[Kurka] Gross]
During the Verdigre Centennial, we would like to tell about our
grandparents who were early Verdigre pioneers. Frank Gross, our
grandfather, was born in 1848 in Schmelz-Aussen, Germany. He
emigrated to the USA in 1870 where he met our grandmother, Anna
Kurka. She had recently emigrated from Teplitz, Bohemia, with her
parents, Wenzel and Machtilda Kurka. They met and married in
Yankton, South Dakota.
In 1874 they came by team and wagon to Knox County, Nebraska, where
they homesteaded four miles north of Verdigre on the Verdigre Creek.
They first built a log cabin and later a large farm house which is
still in use by the Liska family who now owns the property.
Frank Gross was one of the first pioneers to raise purebred Black
Angus beef cattle. Four sons were born to Frank and Anna: Joe,
Oscar, Frank, Jr., and Emil. Joe, the oldest, homesteaded near
Verdel, Nebraska, where he lived until his death. Oscar Gross owned
and operated the Empress Theatre in Verdigre during the 1920s.
Frank, Jr., obtained a farm near Venus and in his later years was in
the real estate business in Omaha.
Emil, our father, married Blanche Foreman from Venus in 1913 and
remained on the old homestead with our grandparents. Their children
are Helen (Mrs. Roger Lewis) and Vernon, who both reside in
California. About 1918 our grandparents moved into the town of
Verdigre and lived in the house that was later owned by the Edwin
Pavlik family (where Edwin’s daughter Leatrice Vakoc now lives).
Emil Gross was the leader of the Verdigre military band for several
years. He moved to Alamo, Texas, in 1930 where he lived until 1944
when he moved to California. He died in 1980 at the ripe old age of
92. Our mother, Blanche, died at Alamo in 1942 at 49 years of age.
Our grandparents Frank and Anna Gross, the original settlers, lived
in Verdigre until their deaths. Frank died in 1926 and Anna in 1928.
Both are buried in the cemetery at Niobrara, Nebraska.
-Submitted by Vernon Gross and Helen (Gross) Lewis (both of
California)
Page 256
