Father,
Peter Grass - governor of Madliena Manor, Mother – Susanna, born
Healenius.
He struggled for his education himself as his parents turned him to
an orphanage in Riga at the age of 13. Because of difficult youth and
the need to deal independently with everything early on, work and
education went hand in hand. At the age of 27, in Riga, he came under
the patronage of the rector of Schola Carolina J. Loder, with the
support of whom he graduated this lyceum and entered the University
of Jena.
On
his return to Livonia, he initially worked as a private tutor until
he became a permanent pastor.
1762:
married, wife Maria Magdalena Steingötter, daughter of archivist.
The family has five children, of whom, Karl Gothard Grass (1767-1814)
a painter, graphic artist and literary writer left significant traces
in the cultural history of Latvia.
He
collaborated with a representative of the Enlightenment and a man of
letters, landlord of Drusti manor Nikolaus Christoph von Hagemeister.
K.J.Grass
seems to have collected Latvian folk songs guided by his interest.
His letter to G. Merkel in 1797 attests to it. Presumably, due to the
collector's death, the folk songs collected in Dzerbene are sent to
Rujiena’s pastor G. Bergmann for the publication of the first
collection of folk songs by K. Harder.