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CORPORAL HERMAN ROWLAND GROSS was the son of Herman L. and Florence J. Gross. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1898, and went by his middle name. His father was a butcher. When the Census was taken in the summer of 1900, the family lived at 619 North 39th Street in Philadelphia PA. There were three older children, brother Frank A. Gross, and sisters Alverda E. and Helen L. Gross. Another older son, Roland, died as a baby. The family was still at the North 39th Street address when the census was taken again in 1910. The family later moved to 448 Velde Avenue in the Delair section of Pennsauken NJ. Corporal Gross, who went as H. Rowland Gross, enlisted on March 25, 1917 and was initially assigned to Company F, 109th Infantry Regiment. He was first assigned to the guarding of bridges against German saboteurs until he was sent to Camp Hancock GA for eight months training. His regiment was sent to France in May of 1918. Corporal H. Rowland Gross was killed in action on September 6, 1918, while crossing the Vesle River, in France, north of the town of Magneux, in the face of enemy machine gun fire. He was 22 at the time of his death. H. Rowland Gross was survived by his parents, brothers and sisters. The Gross family was still living on Velde Avenue into the 1930s. |
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