My Genealogy Hound

Louis Grother, druggist, of Cole Camp, Mo., is a native of Benton County, Mo., born April 19, 1845, and is the son of Henry and Margaret (Tobaben) Grother, who were native Germans. In 1843 they immigrated to America, and settled on a farm near Cole Camp, where the mother died in 1871. Later the father moved to Fayetteville, Ark., and there died at his son’s residence. Louis Grother received a good education in the common schools of Benton County, which he supplemented by an attendance in the schools of Jefferson City. At the age of eighteen he began clerking in a drug house in St. Louis, and afterward clerked in Jefferson City. In 1872 he went to Colorado, and began selling drugs in Canon City, but after one summer’s work there sold out. He afterward followed merchandising in various places in Missouri, and also spent two years in Quincy, Ill. In 1877 he settled at Cole Camp, and formed a partnership in the drug business, which he has continued up to the present time. He keeps a fine line of drugs and medicines, and has a commodious and substantial store building. In January, 1870, he was married to Anna Mahnken, a sister of Henry Mahnken, whose sketch appears in this work, and by her is the father of four children: Emelia, Sena, Caroline and Samuel L. Mr. and Mrs. Grother are members of the Lutheran Church. He has two brothers living—Henry, who was born in Germany, and now resides in Fayetteville, Ark., and John, a native of London, and now a resident of Iowa.