Cleveland Ohio and Cuyahoga County from early on has been a
target location for those coming from what is now the Slovak
Republic. The first Slovak immigrants came as early as 1880. By
1882 this steady flow of immigrants produced a large Slovak
speaking nucleus of people. When Jacob Gruss first arrived with
his wife in 1880 he found only one countryman living in
Cleveland already, all we know of him is his surname was Roskos.
Jacob Aloysius Gruss was born 18 May 1854 in the community
Lipovce, County Saris. He was 26 years old when arriving in
Cleveland and died 4 April 1939 at the age of 84. When arriving
in America at the port of New York Gruss was advised by a
Bohemian (Czech) employment agent to proceed to the mining
regions of Pennsylvania but said he preferred working above
ground, Cleveland was then suggested by the agent as having lots
of job opportunities. Jacob Gruss went on to become a charter
member in the First Catholic Slovak Union, founded in Cleveland
on 5 May 1889 as the then Saint Joseph's So