Frank Henry Grupenhoff

Frank was a trunk maker, a home owner, and a single parent. He buried two children and his wife within seven years of each other. He lived through the Great Depression and both WWI and WWII. He must have had some kind of staying power. What a man!

According to a book written by my sister when she was in elementary school, Frank's family was the first in their neighborhood to get a car. Her source was probably our father.

Parents: Frank Grupenhoff, Mary or Maria K. Wissing
Birth: April 12, 1874
Marriage: October 29, 1902 to Josephine Plogsted. He was 28 and she was 20. They had six children: Cecilia, Edward H, Rosella Marie, William B, Clara A, and Josephine Agnes
Death: March 23, 1953, aged 78 years

1880 Census - Frank was 6. At this point, he was in a single-parent family, as his father had died when Frank was only 3. Mary, Frank's maternal grandmother, was also living with his mother, his sister Clara, and Frank himself. Frank and Clara were the youngest of their siblings, and their older siblings Henry and William are not listed on this census. I wonder if family members had taken the older siblings to lighten the financial burden from Frank's mother? Well, what I do know is that later, Frank's older brother William was living with his mother.

1899 City directory of Cincinnati. He was living at the same address (531 Woodward) as his mother Mary, brothers William and Henry, and sister Clara. William is listed as a porter, Henry as a varnisher, Frank as a trunk maker, and Clara as a cigar maker. If you'd like to see the directory, send me an e-mail. Someone else helped me find it, and I believe it would infringe copyright to post it here.

I couldn't find Frank in the 1900 census, although I found his mother, brother William, and sister Clara at the same address as in the directory. They were renting there, and at least five other families lived at the same address, so I'm guessing that they lived in an apartment building. The address listed on his marriage license is different from the one he lived at in 1899, so it's possible that he moved to the address listed on his marriage record between the compilations of the directory and the census. Frank was 26.

Marriage License, 1902:

The addresses listed for Frank and Josephine on this marriage license are very close to each other--not even half a mile apart! I'm sure they met because of their proximity to each other. Frank was 28 at the time of his marriage. I wonder why he waited so long (for that time period) to marry? Was he focusing on supporting his mother? Was he searching for love? Was he working on becoming financially stable? Whatever the case, he and Josephine Plogsted were married by a Catholic priest in October of 1902 and started their family immediately. 1903 brought Cecilia, Edwin came in 1904, Rosella in 1906, William in 1907, Clara in 1909, and Josephine Agnes (Granny Jo!) in 1910. By the 1910 census, the family had purchased a small home on Bouton Avenue and were working on paying it off. Frank must have been successful in his profession of trunk maker to make such an investment.

1910 Census:

The decade between 1910 and 1920 brought much sorrow to Frank's life. His daughter Clara died from severe burns she received in an accident, WWI started, his daughter Rosella died of diphtheria, and finally, his wife passed away from heart failure. See the post on Frank's wife Josephine for more detailed information on the three deaths.

After his wife died, Frank's mother came to live with him, I'm guessing to help with the children. It's possible that she came to receive the support of her son in her old age, but I find that doubtful since Frank was recently widowed and at the time of her death, Mary was living with her son William (see the addresses on her death certificate). The draft registration lists details that we already know but also has a physical description: Frank was average height and weight, had gray eyes and "light" hair.

Death certificate for his daughter Clara (1912)
1914 WWI starts
Death certificate for his daughter Rosella (1915)
WWI Draft Registration. (1918)
Death certificate for his wife Josephine (1919)

1920 Census:

In the 1930 census, Frank is listed as a carpenter in the home building industry instead of as a trunk maker. Cecilia was staying at home to take care of the house, Edwin worked as a production man (whatever that means--maybe it's a precursor to engineering?) in the soap industry, and William worked as a clerk for a roofing company. The census notes that Frank's family did not have a radio at this point, even though his daughter Jo and her new husband Cliff already had one.

Jo was the first of Frank's children to marry (in 1929), and his children Cecilia and Edwin married soon after. William took a little bit longer (according to information done by other researchers), but was not living with Frank for the 1940 census anyway. William was a grown man of 30-something by this point, so I'm not surprised. Frank lived in the house at Bouton Ave up through the 1940 census, but decided to move to Woodward St sometime before 1953.

1928 Mary Wissing mother of Frank passes away.
1929 Josephine Agnes Grupenhoff (Jo) and Clifford Winspear White's marriage
1929 The Great Depression
1930 Census
1939 WWII
1940 Census

Death certificate (1953): Frank died of "Chronic myocarditis" -- in other words, chronic heart problems. He had moved to 217 Woodward St., Cincinnati, Ohio, and was living there at the time of his death. His mother is listed as living (renting) at 531 Woodward in the 1899 Cincinnati directory, and Google maps shows these two addresses as right next to each other.