EDWARD FRICK.
While success cannot be achieved without unflagging industry, the futility of effort is often noticeable in the business world and results from the fact that it is not combined with sound judgment. Many a man who gives his entire life to toil, earnest and unremitting, never acquires a competence, but when his labor is well directed, prosperity usually follows. Edward Frick is one whose work has been supplemented by careful management and today he is numbered among the successful business men of Audubon county.
Edward Frick was born on August 15, 1852, at Freeport, Illinois, the son of Louis and Eliza (Duensing) Frick. Louis Frick was a native of Germany, and his wife was also a native of the Fatherland. They were married in Germany and came to America from their native land, subsequently settling in Illinois. Louis Frick was killed in an accident with a team of horses when his son, Edward, was only seven years of age. Mr. Frick was with his father at the time of the accident, but escaped unharmed. Louis Frick and wife were the parents of five children, Caroline, Edward, Mary, Josephine and Henry, the last two named being now deceased.
Edward Frick was educated in the common schools of Illinois. For a time he worked in a molasses factory for twenty-five cents a day, and was compelled to take his pay in molasses. At this time he was about eight or nine years of age. Subsequently he began work on the Rock Island railroad at the age of eighteen years, first as a brakeman, being afterwards promoted to the position of freight conductor before he was nineteen years old, then later advanced to passenger conductor, and was engaged in this work continuously for thirty years. In the meantime, during 1879, he purchased land in Audubon county, Iowa, at five and six dollars an acre. At one time he owned four hundred and eighty-seven acres of land, all of which was situated in Audubon county. At the time of his first dealings in land he had only about thirty dollars cash to pay down on the property. As a passenger conductor he ran out of Chicago to West Liberty, Iowa, for a number of years. Mr. Frick was requested to go West by the railroad officials, and ran a passenger train out of Denver, Colorado. He spent the last fifteen years of his railroading life traveling out of Denver and Colorado Springs.
Edward Frick was married on July 30, 1876, to Henrietta Marquardt, who was born on October 13, 1854, in Michigan City, Indiana, and who was a daughter of Julius and Ernestine Carolina (Wiese) Marquardt, both of whom were natives of Germany. Julius Marquardt was a baker in his native land, and after coming to America he and his family located in Indiana. Mrs. Frick's father died when she was only two years old, and her mother died when she was nine years old. They were members of the German Lutheran church.
Edward Frick and wife are the parents of four children, Edward Louis, Daisy Adelaide, Branch Railey and Myrtle Marquardt. Edward is located in Honolulu, where he operates a "kodograph" shop, and sells curios gathered from the islands. He also carries a line of kodaks. Branch Railey is a druggist at Vale, Oregon. Myrtle is the wife of Dr. R. F. Childs, of Audubon. Daisy A. Frick was educated in the Minnesota Institute of Pharmacy, at Minneapolis, and also graduated from the East Denver high school. She is the proprietor and manager of the Frick Drug Company, of Audubon, Iowa, operating the "Rexall" store, which is the leading drug store in the city of Audubon. Miss Frick is well qualified as a business woman, and in her capacity as manager of this store has built up a large and lucrative business. She is also the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of land in Dickinson county, Iowa, and has a handsome cottage at Des Moines Beach, Lake Okoboji, Iowa.
Edward Frick is a Republican, but although keenly interested in politics and all public measures he has never been a candidate for public office and has never held office. He is a man who is well known in this section of Audubon county, and is now making his home in Audubon. Although his land interests, four hundred and seventy-one acres, are in Dickinson county, Iowa. He is a man of sterling integrity, of upright moral principles, and worthy the confidence and respect of his fellow men.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 779-781.
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