Father Ulrich Frey, 1899 Biography

FREY

Posted By: David Reineke (email)
Date: 12/31/2006 at 12:20:33

I translated the following biography from Der Carroll Demokrat, a German-language newspaper published in Carroll, Iowa, between about 1874 and 1920. It was originally published in a special 25th Anniversary Edition of the paper on Friday, 20 September 1899. Any information in brackets or notes at the end are my own explanations. It reads as follows:

Rev. Father Ulrich Frey

The Rev. Father Ulrich Frey, whose excellent picture we present in another location, has been the pastor of the Catholic parish in Roselle since September 1877. The man was born on 17 July 1847 in the Diocese of Rottenburg, Wuerttemberg, Germany. He spent the years of his youth there, and after he had acquired an elementary school education, he initially attended the lower high school in Biberach, and then the advanced high school in Ellwangen.

Very early he felt within himself the vocation to which God had called him. And so after he had completed his qualifying exam, we see the energetic student taking his leave from everything dear and worthwhile in life, and embarking on a trip across the ocean. Upon arrival in America, he entered the St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee. In this excellent educational institution he quickly acquired a knowledge of theology, and so already by 1871 we see the energetic youth, having achieved the goal of his greatest desire by becoming a laborer in the vineyards of the Lord, waiting to take up his occupation according to the wishes of the Rev. Bishop.

In March 1871, the young priest celebrated his first Mass in St. Lucas, Iowa, and he remained there as pastor for 11 years. Then the Reverend received a call to Alton, Iowa, and then to St. Donatus, and afterwards to the Catholic community in Roselle, Iowa, which had been without a priest from April to September 1887, where he became pastor of the parish. The Reverend has been hard at work in the parish since then, and on 26 December 1896, he had the occasion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his becoming a priest. It was not a boisterous celebration, but more of a small celebration just among the members of his parish because the Reverend enjoys his privacy and is seldom encountered outside his parish. But the celebration was all the finer and more heartfelt, and it will long live in the memory of the parishioners.

NOTES: Father Frey took over the parish in Roselle after Father Wegmann died in 1877. Father Frey died in 1911 as the result of an accidental discharge of a handgun. A translation of his obituary has also been posted.