Untitled From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901 - page 262-263

ALOYS GRIMM is one of the important factors in the business circles of Cassville, Grant county, and his life is an exemplification of the term "the dignity of labor." He has utilized the possibilities that America offers to her citizens, and though he came to this country in limited circumstances has steadily and perseveringly worked his way upward, leaving the ranks of the many to stand among the successful few.

A native of Germany, Mr. GRIMM was born in Coblentz, Rhine Province, June 16, 1839, a son of Valentine and Henrietta (FUERSTENHAUPT) GRIMM, the former also a native of Coblentz, the latter of Naumburg, Saxony. The father was a municipal officer in Coblentz, where both he and the mother died. In their family were ten children, eight sons and two daughters, namely: Hermann, whose sketch appears on another page of this volume; Valentine, who came to America in 1854, and became a cigar manufacturer of St. Louis, Mo., where he died; Hugo, who came to this country at the same time, and also manufacturer of cigars until his death; Aloys; Joseph, a resident of Bloomington, Ill.; William, a resident of Coblentz, and an official of the Prussian government, serving as superintendent of river and harbor work; Gustoph, who died in St. Louis in 1895; Ann M., a resident of Germany; Philip C., a member of the firm of GRIMM Brothers, of Cassville, Wis.; and Helen, a resident of Coblentz, Prussia.

In his native city Aloys GRIMM was reared and educated, and in his seventeenth year decided to try his fortune in America. On landing in this country he came at once to Cassville, Wis., where he arrived May 9, 1856. For a number of years he followed the carpenter's trade, and later engaged in bridge building until 1870. Two years later he embarked in the drug business, near the store of KINDT, GEIGER & Co., and in May, 1876, moved to his present place of business. He carries a full and complete stock of drugs, paints, etc., and is doing a large and profitable business.

Mr. GRIMM was married, in Cassville, in 1865, to Miss Agnes THORMYER, a native of Mary THORMYER, who at an early day located in Cincinnati, and from that place removed to Louisville, Ky. While there Mr. THORMYER enlisted in the Union army, in 1865, and was in the service until the war ended. Subsequently he engaged in farming near Indianapolis, Ind., where his death occurred.

To Mr. and Mrs. GRIMM have been born seven children, as follows: Lena, now the wife of D. G. SHEESMAN, of Washington, D.C.; Anna, wife of G. O. BEAN, agent at St. Paul for the Great Western Railroad Co.; Agnes, wife of Henry A. ROBINSON, a druggist of Durand, Ill.; Adolph, who is married and engaged in the drug business in Dubuque, Iowa; Philip C., a merchant at the Sac and Fox Agency, in Oklahoma; Aloys, a bookkeeper for CONKLIN & HOFFMAN, at the same agency; and Frank H., who is pursuing a course in pharmacy at Highland Park College.

As a Democrat Mr. GRIMM has ever taken quite an active and prominent part in local politics, has served as town treasurer for nineteen consecutive years, and school treasurer sixteen years, resigning at the end of that time. He was postmaster at Cassville during President Cleveland's first term, and one year during President Grant's administration, and is now an efficient member of the school board. His official duties have always been discharged with the utmost promptness and fidelity, and his well-spent and honorable life commands the respect and confidence of all who know him. Socially Mr. GRIMM is a worthy member of Cassville Lodge, No. 235, F. & A.M., of which he is senior warden; of Chapter 27, R.A.M., of Lancaster; of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and of the Modern Woodmen of America.

(Transcriber's note - the word sketch above means biography, not a picture.)




This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck