Hugh G. Grasz was a brother of Floyd M. Grasz whose wife was Tressa E. Wilson a granddaughter of John Benjamin and Mary E. Crockett Wilson. Hugh had a short but eventful life. He was born in Wakarusa, Elkhart County, Indiana 23 December 1882. His parents were Henry "Hank" and Mary "Mollie" Irwin Grass of Nappanee, Indiana. He was the fourth of their five children. Winnie the oldest had died in child birth at 17. An infant daughter died right after birth. Then Hugh and the last child, Floyd M., father of Miriam Elaine Grasz Field to whom this website is dedicated was their fifth child.

Hank was a veteran of the Civil War and in 1903 moved to Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, to the Indiana State Soldier's Home where he lived until he died 3 March 1910. Mollie out lived him several year and died at the soldier"s home 38 March 1922.

Hugh was a carriage painter and most likely worked for his brother Will until he enlisted with the army. From a letter he sent to his friend A. W. Gantzhorn we know he was in the Philippines. The letter was written 12 August 1905. It states he was to return to the U.S. in just one year and that he expected to go to Walla Walla, Washington. That is what he did.

Hugh was stationed at Walla Walla and it was there that he met and married Katherine R. Peasner. They were married 15 January 1908. Where they lived and what their life was like at that frontier outpost at that time we have no details. Hugh died in February of an appendicitis and was buried in the post cemetery. After that we have no record of Katherine. Through census records we have some idea of the rest of her family but as to her life following the death of Hugh we know nothing.

From an article by George Stammerjohn and Will Gorenfeld we have a detailed and colorful chronology of the life of William Peasner, Katherine's father. The article is titled "Bold Soldier Boys," The 1st U.S. Dragoons Out West, 1833-1860, Dragoon Buglers. This article provides a time line and good descriptions of the life that William Peasner lead. Click here to read the full article

Much of the of the information in the following time line is from the article and permission for its use was generously given by Will Gorenfeld coauthor of the article.

Click here for the time line of William Peasner, Dragoon

This photograph is the flagpole at the cemetetery on the grounds of the Soldier's Home in Lafayette, Indiana. The base of the pole is made from a cannon caputred during the Spanish American War.

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