Adam Fromholtz

ADAM FROMHOLTZ, clerk of Shawnee township, is proud to consider himself a farmer, and it is such men as he that elevate the agricultural and fruit growing industries. Possessed of many natural abilities, he has made such good use of each one that today he is one of the most prominent men in Wyandotte county, where he has resided for more than three decades.

Mr. Fromholtz, born on the 26th day of March, 1856, is of German birth and parentage, as his nativity occurred in Alsace-Loraine, of which province his father and mother, George and Christine Fromholtz, were life long residents. Adam Fromholtz was educated in the public schools of Germany but at the age of seventeen, left his home and his native land and took passage for America, where he had neither relative nor friend. He was, however, possessed of indomitable courage, and when he landed in New York it was with the confident expectation that he would win out. He made his way to Washington county, Kansas, where be gained employment as a farm laborer, as farming was the only kind of work of which he then had any knowledge. He later went to Topeka and during the six months of his residence there he helped to erect the big rolling mill in that city. He next went to Lexington, Missouri, farmed there for a period of seven years and then came to Rosedale. In 1881 he bought a ten acre tract of wild land, which determind effort brought into a state of cultivation. His first step was to build a little house, in which he lived while engaged in his fruit growing operations. He was so eminently successful that the following year he purchased twenty additional acres, and since that time he has added to his holdings until today he is the owner of forty acres of land in Missouri in addition to his tract of seventy-three acres in Kansas. In 1887 he commenced the building of his home, so planing it that he could add to it from time to time, as the necessity and opportunity arose. He has made such additions and now is the possessor of one of the finest homes in the county, but not only is his house beautiful in design and perfect in appointment, but he has put up out buildings that harmonize with it. His cow barns and dairy sheds are as attractive, as such, as is the more pretentious residence. Mr. Fromholtz devotes most of his land to the cultivation of grapes and fruits of all kinds, to which his farm is particularly adapted. A man who achieves the success which Mr. Fromholtz enjoys has a right to congratulate himself, but when we realize that everything he has and is, is the result of his own diligent efforts, we feel that he has every reason to be proud of his achievements. His fellow citizens showed their appreciation of his sterling character and proved abilities by electing him to the office he is filling in the most satisfactory manner.

November 7, 1882, the year after Mr. Fromholtz's advent into the county, he married Miss Amelia Engles, daughter of William and Wilhelmina Engles. Six children were born to the union, Wilhelmina, Louis, Rudolf, Sophia, Otilla, Louisa. Louis, the eldest son is assisting his father with the work of the farm. The family is Catholic in religion, prominent in church as well as social life in Rosedale.