Frederick Leicht 1831-1923

LEICHT, DREHER

Posted By: Deb (email)
Date: 11/11/2015 at 19:14:53

Fred Leicht, Who Saw 10,000 Graves Dug in Cemetery, Dies

Old Sexton Who Spent Forty Years in Aspen Grove to Rest There Wednesday.

Fred Leicht will be buried Wednesday in Aspen Grove among the 10,435 graves that he either made or watched dug by assistants in the forty years that he was sexton of the cemetery. He will lie close to the graves of hundreds of friends, for in the sixty-eight years he lived in Burlington he associated with hundreds of men whom he afterward buried in the cemetery that he watched over zealously.

Mr. Leicht was nearly ninety-two years of age when he died in Burlington hospital Monday morning following an attack of pneumonia. Since his retirement as sexton of Aspen Grove in 1906 he has lived quietly with his daughter, Mrs. Fred Lichtenberg of South Central avenue.

He was born in Germany, near Laudan on the Rhine, April 9, 1831, and came to America sixteen years later. The boat he sailed on was sixty-two days crossing.

Lived Here Seventy Years.

His first home was in Cincinnati where he married Miss Marie Dreher in 1853. Three years later they came to Burlington. Ten years later he became sexton of Aspen Grove cemetery and for four decades he made it a labor of love to keep the flowers and greensward of the quiet burial place beautiful to see. It was only after increasing feebleness had given its warning that he resigned his post in 1906.

Leaves Many Descendants.

He leaves eight children, twenty-one grandchildren, thirty great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. His children are: Mrs. Fred Lichtenberg, John Leicht, Mrs. Amelia Walker, Peter Leicht, Frank Leicht, Fred Leicht, Jr., Mrs. Emma Hassman and George Leicht. All but Mrs. Hassman, who lives in Ft. Madison are Burlingtonians.

Funeral services will be held at 3 o’clock Wednesday afternoon from the Unterkircher funeral parlors.

Source: The Burlington Hawk Eye, 23 Jan 1923, p. 16.