Diller B. Groff and the Name

We have been unable to determine definitively the origin of the street name "Caroline". Other nearby streets took their names from individuals prominent in local affairs. Corcoran Street got its name from William Wilson Corcoran, one of the founders of the Corcoran & Riggs Bank, the predecessor of the recently departed Riggs Bank. George Washington Riggs, the other founding partner in the Corcoran & Riggs Bank, gave his name to Riggs Street and Place. Wallach Place takes its name from Richard Wallach, the mayor of Washington during the Civil War.

Caroline was perhaps named for Diller Groff's mother. In the 1850 census we find Diller (listed as Dillie) age 10 in Manheim township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Samuel Groff 35, a carpenter, and Caroline age 32, with younger siblings Sarah (6), Samuel (3) and Mary (6/12). All were born in Pennsylvania.

But there is another possibility: in 1879, Diller and wife Susan Groff had a daughter. She is listed as Mary C on the 1880 census, and in the Rock Creek Cemetery records. (She died 18 October 1888.) Perhaps she was Mary Caroline, and known in the family as Caroline.

Diller Baer Groff was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on 2 April 1841, probably son of Samuel W Groff, laborer, and his wife Caroline.[5] His given name is actually a surname, suggesting that he was related to the Diller family. There was a Diller & Groff store in Lancaster. His middle name was likely an indication of a connection to the Baer families of the area, possibly the maiden name of his mother.

Diller was in Company H, 104th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, in the Civil War.[2] He was wounded during the Peninsular Campaign in the Battle of Fair Oaks (also known as Seven Pines) in May 1862. He was then a lieutenant. He recovered and rejoined the 104th, reaching the rank of captain of Company H by the end of the war. Groff lived in Virginia after the war and then moved to the District of Columbia in 1870.

A carpenter by trade, he apparently had some financial resources because he soon began acquiring property and building houses. Wherever possible he built entire blocks of residences, with Square 190 a good example. Groff built other rows of houses on 11th, 12th, T, and Swann Streets, on Vermont Avenue, and on Capitol Hill. He also designed a large brick horse barn on Naylor Court NW (between N, O, 9th and 10th) that now houses part of the District of Colombia Archives.[3]

Groff went to prison in 1904 after he and several others were convicted of defrauding the US Post Office in a contract to provide "Groff's patent mail-box fastener." He served two years.[4]. He maintained his innocence until the end of his life.

He and his wife and family lived for many years at 1901 11th Street, NW, at the corner of T Street, in a house that is still there. In the 1890 Washington city directory he is listed at 1107 I Street, NW. He was still at 1107 I at the time of his death on 8 March 1910 of "apoplexy" (probably stroke)[5].

Groff and his immediate family are buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, section C lot 62. Diller B junior and his family are buried elsewhere in Rock Creek Cemetery[5]. The current Diller B lives in another state.