Joseph Grachtrup, a respected retired farmer residing at No. 229 First Street, Grand Rapids, Mich., was born in the province of Westphalia, Germany, February 10, 1844, a son of Heinrich and Margaret (Nolte) Grachtrup, natives of the same province. Of these parents, the mother was called away about the year 1854, and the father in 1874—their remains now resting side by side in their native land.

Joseph Grachtrup, in early manhood, was a teamster in Westphalia, which country he left when twenty-two years of age and came to America, making his way direct to Grand Rapids. On reaching this city he had $5 he could call his own, and at once sought employment, which he found on the farm of John Platte, in Alpine township, with whom he worked for three years, and who subsequently became his father-in-law. From his compensation of $12 per month, Mr. Grachtrup saved, during these three years, $360.

Mr. Platte now died, leaving a family of nine children; Mr. Grachtrup married the eldest, Bernardina, September 18, 1870, and at once took charge of the family and reared and educated the younger members, in the meanwhile renting the farm, for which he paid $500 per annum for five years, and then $300 per annum for eight years, but during these thirteen years did not acquire a great deal of wealth, owing to his heavy family expenses. When the estate was administered, Mrs. Grachtrup received $1,000 as her dower, and this sum, together with some meager savings, enabled Mr. Grachtrup to purchase sixty acres of the old Platte homestead for $3,800, subject to a mortgage of $2,000. On this farm he built a house at a cost of $2,300, in which he lived seventeen years, and was very prosperous. Recently, Mr. Grachtrup disposed of this Alpine township farm for $5,150, and came to Grand Rapids to pass his remaining years in quiet retirement, at the street and number mentioned at the opening of this sketch.

To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Grachtrup have been born six children, named as follows: Louisa, who is the wife of Peter Saur, of Alpine township; John, who is a widower at the age of twenty-five years and father of one child; Agnes, with her parents; Clara, deceased; Ella and Joseph. The family are devout members of Holy Trinity Catholic church, in Alpine, and have ever been most liberal in their contributions to its support.

Of Mr. Grachtrup’s two brothers, Barnard is a well-to-do resident of Germany, and William was killed on subject’s wedding day, September 18, 1870, while serving in the German army in the Franco-Prussian War. The parents of Mrs. Grachtrup were natives of Prussia, came to America in childhood, and were married in Alpine in 1849. The mother died March 30, 1869, and the father in August of the same year, aged forty-one and forty-seven respectively. Their children, nine in number, were born in the following order: Bernardina, now Mrs. Grachtrup; John, deceased; Louisa, now Mrs. Rusche, of Alpine township; Joseph, a farmer on the old homestead; William, also a farmer of Alpine; Frank, a salesman, residing in Grand Rapids; Matilda, wife of S. Schweitzer, a farmer in Alpine township; Frederick, manager of the Star clothing house, at Grand Rapids, and Albert, farmer and fruit grower in Walker township. Mr. and Mrs. Grachtrup have three granddaughters, one of whom, Bernardina, daughter of the deceased son, John, is by them being reared with all the care and affection her grandparents can bestow upon her. Mr. Grachtrup has won many warm friends since he came to reside in Grand Rapids, and he and wife are greatly respected by their neighbors for their quiet ways, unostentatious charity and Christian like mode of life.