George F Freie

FREIE

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/10/2009 at 11:33:54

George F Freie, who is living on Sec 33, Grant township, near the town of Ogden, is one of the more recent arrivals in Boone county, dating his residence here from March 1885. He was born in Cook county, Illinois, September 28, 1860. His father, John Freie, was a native of Germany and when a lad of fourteen years crossed the briny deep the United States, taking up his abode in Cook county, Illinois. He was afterward married there to Katarina Buberd, a native of Germany, who died when her son George was only five years of age. The father afterward married again and had several children by his second wife, but our subject is the only son born of the first marriage in a family of four children. Of the second marriage, two sons and six daughters are still living. The father devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits in cook and Kankakee counties, Illinois, and his last years were spent in retirement in Chicago. His second wife still survives him.
George F Freie remained in the county of his nativity until he was twelve years of age and in 1872 accompanied his father on his removal to Kankakee county, Illinois. He worked by the month as a farm hand from that time forward and give his father his earnings until he was twenty-two years of age. He then began working for himself and was employed as a farm hand in Kankakee, La Salle and Cook counties. He afterward rented land in La Salle county, continuing its cultivation for three years, and in the spring of 1885 he came to Boone county, Iowa, where he again leased a farm, which he operated for ten years. On the expiration of that period he purchased the place upon which he now resides, first becoming the owner of 80 acres, upon which he built a summer house and stable. In 1895 he took up his abode here and has since purchased an additional tract of 80 acres so that he now owns a quarter section in Grant township. He has also remodeled the house, to which he has made additions and has built a large barn. An air of neatness and thrift pervades his place and Mr Freie is well known as one of the progressive and enterprising agriculturists of the community. He has planted fruit and shade tress upon his place. He now makes a specialty of the production of potatoes, planting form fifteen to twenty acres each year to that tuber, raising about two thousand bushels annually. During the season of 1901 he had thirteen hundred bushels although it was considered a very bad year for crops of all kinds. He also raises a good grade of stock, making a specialty of Poland China hogs and is known as a breeder and dealer in pure blooded animals. He has some very fine Poland China hogs and these command prices upon the markets. In 1902 he further extended his business interests by the purchase of the Renner Creamery, located in this neighborhood. He employs a butter maker and his business is now being successfully conducted.
Mr Freie was married in La Salle county, Illinois, in the winter of 1885, to Miss Anna Peter, a native of Germany, who came to the new world in childhood. She was reared in La Salle county and be her marriage she has become the mother of six children: Nora Ella, Benjamin, Edward, Nettie, Esther, and Lillie. Mr Freie and his family are prominently connected with the Evangelical Association, and he heartily supports the men and measures of the Republican party, his first vote being cast for James G Blaine, in 1884. While not a politician in the usually accepted sense of office seeking he always keeps well informed on the issues and questions of the day an for four years he served as justice of the peace and likewise held the position of constable, filling both offices with credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents. He is a self made man, owing his prosperity entirely to his own efforts. Possessed of laudable ambition to secure a home for himself and family he steadily worked his way upward and today is classed among the substantial agriculturists of Grant township.

1902 Boone County History Book