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AUGUST L. FRITZ, one of the leading citizens of Fremont township, Benton county, Iowa, was born and has always lived in this township. He dates his birth April 20, 1864, and is a son of Peter and Anna B. (Kahl) Fritz, both natives of Germany, the former born in Hessen, August 15, 1824, the latter, in 1830. They came to the United States in 1852, being eighty-seven days in crossing the ocean, and were married soon after their arrival in this country. From New York they went to Ohio, in the stone quarries of which state Peter Fritz found employment. They remained in Ohio, however, only a short time, and that same year came on to Iowa and settled in Fremont township, Benton county. At that time all of section 16 could have been bought at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, but Peter Fritz bought only eighty acres. On this tract, six miles from the nearest neighbor, he erected a log house, the flooring for which he paid at the rate of sixty-five dollars a thousand feet in Iowa City. Often he went to Muscatine to market, the round trip requiring several days. The journey from Ohio to Iowa they made with ox teams and walked most of the way. Here they reared their family and passed the rest of their lives, and here the mother died February 3, 1884, the father, January 6, 1902. Of their five children four are still living, namely: Henry, of Fremont township, Benton county, Iowa; Caroline, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Amelia, wife of Jacob Gerber, of Linn county, Iowa; and August L., the subject of this sketch.
August L. Fritz grew up on his father's pioneer farm, having the advantage only of a common school education, and when he married, in 1884, he settled on his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres, in section 22, which he has since improved with good buildings, and where he carries on general farming and stock raising, making a specialty of Hereford cattle. In addition to this property he owns real estate in Atkins.
On September 27, 1884, Mr. Fritz married Miss Anna Fox, a native of Linn county, Iowa, born March 10, 1867, daughter of Lewis and Magdalena (Annan) Fox, natives of Switzerland, the former born in 1836, the latter in 1830. They came to America in 1852, the same year Mr. Fritz's parents landed here; their ocean voyage covering a period of eighty days. Coming direct to Iowa, they settled in a one-room house in Cedar Rapids. A year later they moved to Clinton township, Linn county, where the father died in 1870. The mother subsequently became the wife of Jacob Fritz, and moved to Benton county, where her death occurred in 1902. Lewis and Magdalena Fox had five children, all living at this writing: Mary, of Atkins, Iowa; Lewis, of Oklahoma; John, of Linn county, Iowa; Anna, wife of the subject of this sketch; and Magdalena, wife of Jacob Fritz, of Cedar Rapids. Mr. and Mrs. August L. Fritz have six children: Marie, Matilda, John, Lena, Emma, and Augusta, all at home except the eldest daughter, who is a teacher in Chicago.
For ten years Mr. Fritz served as school director of his township, and at this date is in his third term as township1 trustee, having been elected to office on the Democratic ticket, which has always received his staunch support. He and his family are members of New Jerusalem church.
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