USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 96
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ALEXANDER N. DE MENIL.
French Village .- The oldest settle- ment in the territory that comprises Osage County, obliterated about 1845, by encroach- ments of the Missouri River. It was settled prior to 1800 by French residents from Cote Sans Dessein on the north side of the river, and became the headquarters of hunters and trappers. The place was never known by any other name than French Village. As the country increased in population, the settle-
ment decreased in number and in 1845, the few people that lived there moved to Bon- not's Mill, a few miles further back from the Missouri River.
French Village .- A village in Marion Township, St. Francois County. It was laid out by the French in 1825. It has a Catholic Church, one of the first built in the county, a school and general store. Population, 200.
Fresh Air Missions. - The idea of establishing a "Fresh Air Mission," having for its object the seeking out of the poor chil- dren of a large city, and giving them an "outing" in the country during the hot sum- mer months, seems to have had its origin in Boston in the summer of 1867. Soon after- ward the "Missouri Republican" proposed the establishment of a similar mission in St. Louis, and in pursuance of this suggestion an organization was effected to take charge of the work. The city was subdivided into dis- tricts, especial attention being given to the "downtown" tenement neighborhoods, which were carefully canvassed with a view to gathering together the children of the poorest and most needy people and giving them the benefit of trips to the country, which they could not hope to enjoy without the as- sistance of kindly disposed and generous people of means. The earliest excursions of this character were made by river on the steamer "Great Republic," which landed the children at some attractive spot away from the noise and dirt and pestilential odors to which most of them were accustomed, giving them at the same time a breath of country air and a taste of country life. These excursions were continued year after year, and in 1885 what became known as the "orphans' excur- sions" were instituted. The charitably inclined ladies of the city soon became the chief pro- moters of this good work, and under their auspices "fresh air" excursions have become established institutions in St. Louis.
Freund, Siegmund E., merchant, was born April 2, 1850, in Schwising, Austria, and died in St. Louis, December 19, 1898. His parents were Samuel and Esther Freund, and his father was a well-to-do merchant. Sieg- mund E. Freund was trained to mercantile pursuits as a boy, and when he came to St. Louis in 1866 his first employment was ob- tained there in a general store, in which he
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clerked until 1868. In that year he and his elder brother, Bernard Freund, started a store of their own of the same character, which was carried on under the firm name of Freund & Bro. Their place of business was at the corner of South Third and Carroll Streets, their partnership continuing for a brief period. Siegmund E. Freund then es- tablished himself in business at 1600 South Broadway, and continued there until 1882, when he removed to and occupied the build- ing numbered 1554 to 1560 South Broadway. At that place he did a successful business until his death. In 1896 he converted his establishment into a department store, and his business increased to such an extent that he was employing at the time of his death from eighty to one hundred salesmen and saleswomen. His store was the largest of its kind in South St. Louis, and he was an honorable as well as successful merchant. At his death he left a large estate to his family. The store which he established on South Broadway is one of the leading mercantile emporiums of the city and a monument to his memory. He was the first to open his store in the morning and the last to leave it at night. He accumulated money by industry and economy, and invested a portion of his annual surplus earnings in real estate, aiding in the building up of South St. Louis, in which he was one of the largest property- holders. Enterprising and thoroughly identi- fied with every worthy enterprise calculated to promote the general welfare, he was a universal favorite with the public, and had a happy faculty of retaining the friendship of his acquaintances. He contributed liberally to educational, religious and charitable ob- jects, without regard to sect or nationality, and was universally esteemed for his sterling worth and uprightness of character. The friend of the young, he assisted many a man in getting his first start in life. He was a devoted husband and a kind father, and found his chief delight in the society of his wife and children.
He was a member of the Jewish Church and of the order of B'nai B'rith, of Benton Lodge, No. 263 of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and of other charitable and benevolent organizations. Benton Lodge at his death unanimously adopted resolutions of respect for Mr. Freund and sympathy for his family in their bereavement.
November 30, 1873, he married Miss Emma Pfeiffer, daughter of Jonas M. Pfeiffer, a pioneer merchant of St. Louis. The sur- viving members of his family are Mrs. Freund and seven children; Harry, Alfred, Eugene, Elsie, Jonas, Edwin and Irene Freund. Harry, Alfred and Eugene have succeeded their father in business, and have- all well sustained the reputation of an hon- orable and prosperous business house.
Frick, William, physician, was born April 7, 1857, near Liberty, Clay County,. Missouri. His parents were William and Ann (Hoblit) Frick. The Frick family were- natives of the German Palatinate (Rhein Pfalz) in the village of Duchroth, near the Prussian border, in Bavaria. Several of its members immigrated to America prior to the Revolution. William Frick came in 1839, having been drafted into the Bavarian Army, but secured his discharge, in peace time. He lived for a year in Pennsylvania and then in 1840 removed to Missouri and made his home upon a farm in Clay County. In 1844 he married Ann Hoblit, who was reared in Ohio and came to Missouri with her parents when she was eighteen years old. She was descended from Michael Hoblit and' wife, natives of South Germany, who came to America in 1750, locating near Philadel- phia, where their youngest son, David, was born in 1799, the year of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. Michael Hoblit died there, and his wife and children removed, in 1799, to Kentucky. Mrs. Hoblit was a very portly woman, weighing four hundred pounds. The sons, disliking the in- stitution of slavery, removed to Ohio, where, David, one of the number, married Martha Wilson, daughter of Amos Wilson, a Baptist and afterward a Christian minister, and nephew of James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- dependence. David served in the War of 1812, and in 1840 removed to Missouri, where he lived to an extreme age, leaving descendants to the number of eighty, who are distributed through many States. His daughter, Ann, married William Frick, who in 1885 removed from Clay County to War- renton, where the father died in 1885, in his eighty-sixth year. His widow is yet living" in that place. Of five children, John H. Frick has occupied a chair in the Central
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Wesleyan College at Warrenton, since 1870. The youngest son, William Frick, lived on the home farm until he was nineteen years of age, meantime attending the common schools in the neighborhood. He then entered Central Wesleyan College, from which he was graduated in the scientific course in June, 1879. A few years later he received the degree of master of arts from the same institution. The year after his graduation he taught a country school in Miami County, Kansas, and then returned to the farm, where he resumed work, and at the same time took up a course of medical reading. In 1881 he entered the St. Louis Medical College, and took a three years' course of study, an un- usually long term in that day, and was graduated in March, 1884. He located at Wright City, Warren County, Missouri, but having no liking for country practice, re- moved to Kansas City in November, 1884, and entered upon a general city practice, giving special attention to dermatology, a branch of the profession in which he is an acknowledged expert. Since 1891 he has held the chair of dermatology in the Kansas City Medical College, and has held the clinic on cutaneous diseases at the dispensary con- nected with that institution. He is an active member of the Jackson County Medical So- ciety, of the Kansas City District Medical Society, of the Missouri State Medical So- ciety, of the American Medical Association, and an honorary member of the Southeastern Kansas Medical Society. He has affiliated with the Republican party, since reaching the years of manhood. He is a consistent mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which he became connected in 1876. He holds membership with the National Reserve Association, the Fraternal Union of America and the Modern Woodmen of America. He was married May 5, 1886, to Miss Lydia Schaffnet, in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Frick takes zealous interest in the prosecution of his professional work, and in his specialty is regarded as the highest authority in the Mis- souri Valley.
Friede's Cave .- A cave in Phelps County, nine miles northwest of Rolla. Its entrance is sixty feet wide and thirty-five feet high. It has been explored three miles. It has a stalactite chamber two hundred feet in length, fifteen to thirty feet in width, and
with a height varying from five to thirty feet. There is a bat chamber containing thick de- posits of guano which is hauled off by the farmers in the neighborhood for fertilizing purposes. During the Civil War consider- able quantities of gunpowder were made at this cave from the saltpeter which it contains.
Friendship Community .- March 15, 1872, Alcander Longley, editor of the "Com- munist," a social reform paper of the time, and a number of associates, incorporated the Friendship Community. Three hundred acres of prairie land and two hundred acres of woodland were purchased a few miles west of Buffalo in Dallas County, where a settle- ment was formed, and where the members lived in common, the men and women having equal rights, and sharing equally all their possessions and acquirements. They en- gaged in farming, stock-raising, fruit-grow- ing, maintained their own common store room and excluded from the affairs of the community all political and religious opinions of members. The "community" after a few years' existence proved a failure, and in 1875 was disbanded and the greater number of its members returned to their Eastern homes or sought residence elsewhere.
Friends in Council, Kansas City .- The pioneer woman's club of Kansas City, organized in the fall of 1880. The name and plan of work of this organization originated in Quincy, Illinois, where twenty-two ladies formed a club for mutual improvement, in 1869. This club was formed at the suggestion of Bronson Alcott and his daughter, Louisa M. Alcott, who came to Quincy to lecture and inaugurate a literary club. The club formed at Quincy has led to the organization of others of the same character and bearing the same name, and the one in Kansas City was the seventh thus formed, there being at the present time about twenty-five such societies scattered throughout the United States. The course of study pursued by the Kansas City Club has included the history, literature and art of different countries of the world. It began with the study of Egypt, and has come down through India, Persia, Assyria, Greece, Rome, Italy, France, Germany and England to our own times. The member- ship of the club is limited to twenty, and it meets each Tuesday afternoon from October
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to May inclusive, the first Tuesday of each month being devoted to the discussion of current events. The organization is noted for the thoroughness of its work and the de- votion of its members to different lines of study. Its officers are a president, vice president and secretary. From its organiza- tion until the year 1900, it has had the same presiding officer. An executive committee plans the work of the club and the topics are assigned before the spring adjournment, to. give ample time for preparation.
MRS. JAMES C. HORTON.
Frink, James Arthur, lawyer and judge of probate court, was born June 24, 1855, in Madison, Wisconsin, son of Henry E. and Helen C. Frink. His father was a member of the Wisconsin bar and was promi- nent in the politics of that State in the early sixties. The son passed the early years of his boyhood in Madison, living there until the death of his father in 1864. During the widowhood of his mother, he lived with her in St. Louis, Missouri. She married again in 1871 and removed to Centerville, Iowa, where the son studied law after having fin- ished his academic education at the Wiscon- sin State University in Madison. He was admitted to the bar at Centerville in 1883, and in the spring of that year removed to Ida Grove, Iowa, where he began the practice of his profession. He left Iowa in the spring of 1885 and moved to Winfield, Kansas, where he practiced law for two years. Then, in the year 1887, he established his home in Spring- field, Missouri, and became a member of the bar of that city, with which he has since been identified. At the general election of 1894, he was elected judge of the probate court of Greene County, and in 1898 was re-elected to that office. The probate court has been aptly termed the "people's court," and in con- ducting the affairs of this court in one of the most populous counties of the State, Judge Frink has proven himself a careful and con- scientious conservator of the people's inter- ests. In politics he is a Republican and at times he has taken an active part in the con- duct of political campaigns, having served twice as chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Greene County. In religion, he is a Methodist. He was grand chancel- lor of the Knights of Pythias of Missouri in 1895, and is now supreme representative of
Missouri in the same order. He is also past exalted ruler of the lodge of Elks at Spring- field, and is a member of the Orders of United Workmen, Woodmen of the World, Modern Woodmen of America, and Royal Arcanum. September II, 1883, he married Miss Alice Ruth Ingman, daughter of a prominent dry goods merchant of Ida Grove, Iowa. Two sons and a daughter have been born of this marriage.
Frost, Daniel M., distinguished in both military and civil life, was born August 9, 1823, in Schenectady County, New York, and died in St. Louis, October 29, 1900. After receiving a thorough preparatory education at the Albany Academy, presided over at that time by Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, a noted edu- cator in his day, he was admitted to West Point Military Academy as a cadet. He was graduated from the military academy in 1844 with class honors, General U. S. Grant, Gen- eral George B. McClellan, General W. S. Rosecrans, General W. B. Franklin, General P. G. T. Beauregard, General Nathaniel Lyon, and General C. P. Stone- known in later years as "Stone Pasha" on account of his services to the Egyptian gov- ernment-being among the famous military men who were his contemporaries and class- mates. Immediately after his graduation he was assigned to duty as a brevet second lieu- tenant of artillery in the First Regiment. After passing two years of uneventful service he was transferred, at his own request, to a regiment of mounted riflemen, which he joined at Jefferson Barracks in 1846. He was soon afterward sent to Mexico with his regiment and joined the forces under the im- mediate command of General Winfield Scott. He participated in all the engagements from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, and upon the recommendation of General Harney was brevetted first lieutenant at Cerro Gordo for gallant and meritorious conduct. He re- turned to St. Louis with his regiment in the autumn of 1848, and in the spring of 1849 went with the regiment to Oregon, acting as regimental quartermaster on this expedition. The year 1851 found him again in St. Louis, and in that year he was sent, upon General Scott's recommendation, to Europe to gather information concerning the cavalry drill and discipline of the armies of the Old World. On his return to the United States, in 1852,
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he rejoined his regiment in Texas, and while participating in an expedition against ma- rauding Indians was seriously wounded. The year following he resigned his commission in the United States Army and established his residence in St. Louis. He at once took an active interest in the organization and discipline of the citizen soldiery of Missouri, and upon the organization of the Washington Guards in St. Louis he was placed in com- mand of that famous old-time military com- pany. While giving a considerable share of his time and attention to local military af- fairs, he was actively engaged in business, operating first in the lumber trade, and later on an extensive and profitable scale in the fur trade. In 1854 he was elected to the State Senate of Missouri, and took high rank among the influential legislators of that period. He was mainly instrumental in se- curing the passage of the State militia law while he was a member of the Senate, and soon after it went into effect he was elected brigadier general of militia by the commis- sioned officers of the First Military District. In 1859 he commanded the militia of this dis- trict on what has become known as the "Southwest expedition," an expedition un- dertaken by order of the Governor of Missouri for the purpose of quelling the tur- bulent spirits who had produced a condition of constant turmoil on the western border of the State as a result of the contest for su- premacy between the pro-slavery and anti- slavery elements in Kansas. He was at the head of the military forces of the First Dis- trict thereafter until they were swept out of existence by the events which made Missouri a part of the battle ground of the Civil War. Acting in obedience to the Governor's com- mand, and in compliance with the military law of the State passed in 1858, he assembled the militia of the First District at St. Louis on the 6th of May, 1861, and established the military encampment which became known as Camp Jackson. The military companies of the district had been called together for their annual drill in pursuance of the require- ments of the military law of the State, but in view of the fact that the Southern States were at that time making active preparations for war, and had already captured Fort Sum- ter and other national fortresses, and of the further fact that the Governor of Missouri was believed to be in full sympathy with the
movement to establish a Southern Confeder- acy, General Nathaniel Lyon, commanding the Union forces then available in St. Louis, construed this assembling of State troops to be an act hostile to the Federal government in intent. He accordingly ordered the forces under his command into action, and, march- ing to Camp Jackson with about 8,000 men, demanded its surrender. The superiority of his force, in point of numbers, to that under command of General Frost made resistance useless, and the formal surrender took place on the Ioth of May. This action and the logic of events which followed caused General Frost to become an active participant in the war as a Confederate soldier and officer after he had been released from his parole through an exchange of prisoners, and toward the close of the year 1861 he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. The banishment of his wife from their home near St. Louis in 1863, and the suffering to which she and her children were exposed by reason of such banishment, caused him to re- sign his commission in 1863 and proceed to Montreal, Canada, where the family circle was reformed, and where they continued to reside until the close of the war. After the war he returned to St. Louis, rehabilitated his home, and occupied a position of com- manding influence as a man and a citizen.
Frost, Richard Graham, lawyer and Congressman, was born December 29, 1851, in St. Louis, son of General Daniel M. Frost. After completing a course of study at St. John's College, of New York, he was sent abroad and finished his education at London University, England. He then studied law at St. Louis Law School, the law department of Washington University, and received his degree from that institution. Entering upon the practice of his profession in St. Louis, he attained prominence at the bar, and also in politics, acting with the Democratic party, and attracting attention by his able cham- pionship of Democratic principles. Receiv- ing the Democratic nomination for Congress in the Third District, he made a gallant race for member of the Forty-fifth Congress, and, afterward contested the seat of Lyne S. Met- calfe, his Republican competitor. He was renominated two years later, and elected to the Forty-sixth Congress. At the end of his first term he was re-elected and served in the
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Forty-seventh Congress, taking rank among the most brilliant and versatile members of that body. After his retirement from Con- gress he practiced his profession in St. Louis. A man of scholarly attainments, he was iden- tified with various societies for the promotion of intellectual culture, and was an easy and graceful writer, as well as an attractive and popular orator. He died in St. Louis, Feb- ruary 1, 1900.
Fruin, Jeremiah, who has constructed a large share of the public works of St. Louis, and who has been, literally as well as in its broadest significance, one of the builders of the city, was born in the pictur- esque Glen of Aherlow, County Tipperary, Ireland, in the year 1831. His parents were John and Catharine (Baker) Fruin, who came to the United States when the son was two years of age, and settled in the city of Brook- lyn, New York. His father was a graduate of Maynooth College, an intelligent and suc- cessful man of affairs, who was actively engaged for many years in the construction of public works in Brooklyn and elsewhere as a contractor. He died in Brooklyn in 1861, and both he and his wife, who died some six years later, are buried in Holy Cross Cemetery of that city. Jeremiah Fruin was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, and when he was sixteen years old became associated with his father in business. He remained in Brooklyn until 1860, and as a young man was an active spirit, identified with many organizations around which clus- ter historic associations of more than ordi- nary interest. Among these was the famous "Water Witch Hose Company, No. 8," which in the old days of the volunteer fire de- partment, was the pride of Brooklyn. He was captain also of Company E of the Sev- enty-second Regiment of National Guards, of Brooklyn, and belonged to the old-time "Charter Oaks Base Ball Club," of that city. His interest in base ball was not left behind when he came west and in later years, when he was actively engaged in business for him- self, he was captain of the old "Empire Ball Club," of St. Louis. Leaving Brooklyn in 1860, he first went to New Orleans, but re- mained there only a short time, and then came to St. Louis. This was on the eve of the War of 1861-5, and he did not become regularly engaged in business for himself
until after the war closed. During the war he was connected with the Quartermaster's Department of the Union Army, and most of the time was stationed at St. Louis. When this connection ended he became engaged in the construction of sewers and grading of streets under contract with the city of St. Louis, and for thirty years he has been largely engaged in work of this character, and of a kindred nature. A large part of the contract work in connection with the building of the great system of street railways, which now traverse the city in every direction, has been done under his supervision, and, from time to time, he has furnished the laboring classes of the city a vast amount of employment. In 1872 he formed a partnership with W. H. Swift, under which he engaged extensively in con- tracting, and in 1885 was organized the Fruin-Bambrick Construction Company, a corporation with W. H. Swift, president; J. Fruin, vice president, and P. Bambrick, sec- retary ; which, in addition to operating stone quarries in St. Louis, has engaged largely in the construction of railroads and other public works. The operations of the Fruin-Bam- brick Construction Company have extended from the Indian Territory to the Atlantic Coast, and in 1897 it had contracts for build- ing a large masonry dam at Holyoke, Massa- chusetts, and laying several asphaltum street pavements in the cities of New York and Brooklyn. It has also engaged in the con- struction of city waterworks in some of the larger and many of the smaller cities of the country, and the enterprise is one which has made Mr. Fruin and his associates widely known throughout the country. As a citizen of St. Louis Mr. Fruin has always taken an active interest in public affairs, and during the years of 1895 and 1896 he served as one of the police commissioners of the city. In politics he has been identified with the Demo- cratic party, contributing to its success, and wielding an important influence in the party councils. He is a member of the Masonic or- der and a Knight Templar, and a member also of the Royal Arcanum. In 1856 he was married to Miss Catharine Carroll, of Brook- lyn, New York, and has two children, a son and a daughter.
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