|
The Name of Griess is Legion in the Town of Sutton Where
Hundreds of Members of One Great Family Live, and Make Their Fortunes. (by
Lynelle Greer)
“Brothers
and sisters have I none, but this man’s father was my father’s son.” What is
it?
It’s a joke
of course, but after you have once been to Sutton, Neb.,
it won’t be quite so funny.
The next
time you have occasion to stop in Sutton for any length of time, take the
telephone book and turn to the G’s. There are fifteen names beginning with G,
before you strike the Griess family, and there you either stop or get dizzy
trying to keep up with them.
Here they
are fifty-seven varieties, Adolph Griess, Alvin Griess, Albert Griess, Alfred
Griess, Andrew Griess, August Griess, Carl Griess, Carl Griess, sr, Charles
Griess, C. M. Griess, C. W. Griess, Chris Griess, Ed. Griess, Edgar Griess,
Emil Griess, Ed. P. Griess, Fred Griess, Fred J. Griess, F. K. Griess, Griess
and Griess, dentists, Dr. F. Griess, Dr. R. Q. Griess, Dr. Gus Griess, Gus G.
Griess, Gus H. Griess, Mrs. Henry Griess, jr, Henry C. Griess, Henry M. Griess,
Mrs. Henry Griess, M. S., H. H. Griess, Jacob J. Griess, Jacob Griess, sr, H.
J. Griess, Herbert Griess, Herman Griess, Hugo Griess, J. J. Griess, Jacob
Griess, jr, John G. Griess, John M. Griess, John P. Griess, Julius Griess,
Martin Griess, Otto Griess, P. P. Griess, P. S. Griess, P. M. Griess, Richard
Griess, Richard A. Griess, William F. Griess, William F. C. Griess, William
Griess, William P. Griess, Mrs. W. J. Griess----
What’s In a Name
Fifty-seven
families all relatives, and there are still many more families by the name of
Griess who do not have telephones.
The first
thing you see when you step from the train is the lumber company, “Griess and
Griess.” A little further on is the Sutton
State bank, and the man
behind the throne is H. C. Griess. A few more doors south, and you come to a
flight of stairs, where there are signs reading “Griess and Griess dentists,”
and the next door, “Dr. R. O. Griess, M. D.”. That’s the end of the main street
south. You turn north, and you come to the City State
bank, where W. F. Griess holds forth, and the next door is the post office which
is presided over by Ed P. Griess. At the other end of Main street north is a garage owned by E.
J. Griess.
And then
you stand in the center of the street and wonder how so many Griess’s ever got
to Sutton, wonder how they all happened to stay there, wonder how they keep
each other separated, and wonder a lot of other things that are really none of
your business.
But the
principal worry is how the merchants, who aren’t of the Griess tribe, keep them
all separate on their books and in their minds.
“Blue Henry”
“Oh, it
isn’t so bad,” they say. “You see, after you live here a while, you get to know
that one Henry Griess lives by the Blue river, so they call him ‘Blue Henry.’
That is all. No one ever says ‘Henry
Griess who loves out by the Blue river,’ just ‘Blue Henry,’ and everyone knows
who you mean.
After Blue
Henry was properly identified and caused no more trouble, they figured out a
name for Henry M. Griess. Now Henry M. Griess is tall, and not so slender as he
once was, but because there is another Henry Griess who is a rival when it
comes to weight Henry M. is called ‘long Henry’, and the other Henry is called
‘fat Henry.’ Then it is said, there is one Henry who raises pigs, and he is
called ‘Swine Henry.’
There is another
Henry, too, but he doesn’t live on the Blue, and he isn’t fat nor especially
tall, so he calls himself, ‘Henry Griess, M. S.’. The M. S. doesn’t stand for
master of science, nor manuscript nor the hundred and one things it could, it
stands for ‘Michael’s Son’ and Mrs. Henry Griess signs her name ‘Mrs. Henry
Griess, M. S.’, so there is no trouble in identification there.
There are
four Griess men whose initials are J. J. One of them is Jacob J., and the other
three are grandfather, father and son, all having the same name. John J.
Griess, Grandfather calls himself ‘John J., father, J. J. sr., and son J. J.
jr., so that isn’t so bad either.
Now the Williams
There were
two William F. Griess’s so one of them decided to add his father’s first
initial to his name and be W. F. C. Griess, that kept everything from going to
William F. Griess.
There is
another Henry Griess, too, whose middle initial is H., so every one calls him
just H. H. You can’t say Henry Griess, because you’ll be asked which Henry
Griess you mean, and you probably won’t know.
There are
four Peters in the Griess family, and they are all called by something besides
their first name so they won’t be mixed. For instance, one of them, when a
youngster, just learning English, would go into one of the stores, and the
first thing he learned to say was crackers, so he ask for them every time he
went in. After that he was called ‘Cracker Pete.’
Cousins
marry cousins in Sutton. They can’t be married in Nebraska,
so they go to Colorado or Kansas, and come back to Sutton to live.
Everybody Cousins
“Well,” one
of the citizens said, “If they didn’t marry their cousins, who would they
marry, the whole town is related.”
And then,
too, in Sutton, a cousin is a mere nothing, no relation at all, for there are
so many of them.
W. F.
Griess of the City
State bank said that
twenty years ago he took pencil and paper and tried to figure out his
relatives. He said that he left the women out of it, just using the fathers and
sons, and there were one hundred and seventy-five of them. That was twenty
years ago, now there are about 1, 750 of them, counting mothers and daughters,
of course.
Sutton
claims a population of 2,000 souls, but the census only gives 1, 600 or so. Out
of the sixteen hundred, about 1, 599 are relatives, for the Griess family has
intermarried with other families which have lived in Sutton for years and
years.
The Family Beginning
In 1873,
Henry Griess and Michael Griess came to Lincoln
with their wives, from southern Russia.
They had migrated into southern Russia
from Germany, when Russia
was open to Germans for homesteads. The Griess’s wanted to escape the German
military service, and wanted their children to escape it, so they went to Russia.
Shortly after their arrival there, a law was passed which would force them into
similar autocratic military service there, too, so they came to America.
With
Michael and Henry Griess, were three nephews, and another family by the name of
Grosshans. After staying in Lincoln
just a short time, all of them went to Sutton, where Henry Griess and
Grandfather Grosshans bought up some railroad and farm lands, and sort of
formed a company, including the eldest son in each family.
Finally the
time came when the boys wanted their interests separate, and so the fathers
divided their lands and gave the sons their share, and each one started for
himself. Then one of the Griess boys married a Grosshan girl, and so on---
How About Christmas
“You see,”
said one of the Griess boys, “my father’s brother married a Grosshans and a
Grosshans boy married an Ochsner,---“ And on and on he went explaining what
relation they all were to him. Think of buying Christmas and birthday gifts for
a family like that.
The elder
members of the Griess family say that they can keep their generations in mind
alright, but when it comes to the younger generation, they are lost. There are
so many sons by the same name, and so many daughters throughout the family by
the same name that they don’t know whether they are talking to some of Blue
Henry’s children or some of ‘Cracker Pete’s.’
Dr.
Ferdinand Griess, who is a dentist, says that his small daughter’s name is
Marjorie and his son’s name is Donald, and that so far those are the only
children by that name in the family.
“But they
won’t be for long, “ said the doctor. There will be twenty Marjories and
Donalds in another twenty years.
Other Professional Men
Dr.
Ferdinand Griess was graduated from the University of Nebraska
dental college in 1909, and went back to Sutton to practice and has been there
ever since.
His
brother, Gus, is also a dentist. Dr. Gus graduated from the dental college in 1912.
Both are members of Xi Psi Phi fraternity.
Dr, Rudolph
Griess is the youngest member of that particular branch of the family, and he
graduated from the University School of Medicine in Omaha in 1919, and is a member of a medical
fraternity.
They all
went back to Sutton and have been there ever since.
“We were
out of funds when we were out of school,” said the doctors, “and we knew we
could make some money back here so we came back.”
But it seems
as though most of the Griess’s do come back, or else they never leave.” There
is another Griess, Theodore Griess, who is president of the Union State
bank at Harvard, just two stations from Sutton. The one Griess who is furthest
away is one who is living in Long
Beach, and no doubt he will be coming back home some
day ready to take up his old life in Sutton.
They Run the Town
Most of the
town proper is run by the Griess family, and many of the surrounding farms are
owned by them. The Ochsners and Grosshans are next in line, but they are almost
Griess’s because they are related to them by so many marriages.
In fact,
the town should have been called ‘Griess’ instead of Sutton.
Until about
thirteen or fifteen years ago, every member of the Griess family went to one
church, the Emanuel Reformed Lutheran. This church supported the same pastor
for about thirty-two years, and then some of the younger generation broke away
from the old church, and a new one came to light, the Second Reform church, and
from that came the Free Reform church, and now all three of them are in
existence, and the family, as far as the church is concerned is pretty well
divided.
Twenty
years ago there were 175 fathers and sons by the name of Griess, now they say
there are many over a thousand, twenty years hence, ---well, let the future take
care of itself.
The Lincoln Star (Lincoln, Nebraska)
-
July 30, 1922
Transcribed and
Contributed by: Ida Maack Recu
Sutton Festival Dedicated To Freedom Seeking Ancestors by
Dean Terrill
Southeast Nebraska Bureau
Sutton – The honored guests didn’t make it, even to hear the
strains of “O Du Lieber Augustine.”
Understandable,
of course, since this year’s Harvest Festival was dedicated to two sets of
“great-greats.” It was 90 years ago that the town’s German ancestors chose Clay
County – and an even 200 years since
their forefathers before them had fled from the homeland to Russia.
“History
says they left Germany July 22, 1763, for the rich
Black Sea country to establish their own
little colony,” explained Mrs. Ruben A. Griess, unofficial town historian.
“Catherine the Great had promised they could stay forever, but after a century
the Russians tried to force them to become citizens.”
Thus, much
of Sutton today owes its parentage to the Hofmanns and Roemmichs and Grosshans
who again sought freedom—and especially to old Heinrich Griess. As the
telephone directory still shows, the population was soon swelled by such other
arrivals as the Nuss and Oschner families.
“There were
probably 200 to 300 of us Griess’ alone at the festival’s chicken barbecue,”
estimated this clan-member-by-marriage. “But since 3,000 peple were served, you
can see there were also a few other folks.”
Sites On Centennial
Besides a
few waltzes and German folk songs to their memory, the early immigrants were
recalled through window displays ad parade floats at the annual two-day event.
More ceremonious recognition is already being planned for their centennial
anniversary.
Among other
highlights of the Tuesday-Wednesday affair were swimming contests, band
concerts, wrestling matches, and the Sutton Garden Club’s customary flower
show. A traditional soap box derby shared its spotlight with the introduction
of kart racing.
Bob Figi as
Commercial Club president and Earl Vauck, as festival chairman, spearheaded
committee preparations. In charge of the barbecue was another
Griess—naturally—this one Oscar R.
The Lincoln Star (Lincoln, Nebraska)
July 25, 1963
Transcribed
and contributed by: Ida Maack Recu
|