HERMAN FRICK
Transcribed by Cathryn Jex Millburn
Five daughters of Herman and Maud
(Price) Frick
Herman Frick, b January 29, 1884 at Richterswil Canton Zurich, Switzerland, d February 17, 1930 in Knoxville, Tennessee and buried at Woodlawn Cemetery-was a son of Albert and Elisabeth (Meier) Frick. Herman apprenticed himself for three years to learn the blacksmith trade, and in 1907, came to America. He paid his passage by working in the galley of the ship. Although he spoke four languages, he knew no English. He had shod horses while serving in the Swiss Army.
By 1909, Herman had arrived in Marlin, Texas, where he found employment in the Farmer's Blacksmith Shop, owned by Benjamin Monroe Price. On March 15, 1911, Herman was married to Maud Price, b January 29, 1887 in Dallas, d November 21, 1948 in Houston and buried by her only son in Lehigh, Oklahoma - a daughter of Benjamin Monroe and Mary ("Mollie" Earl) Price, natives of Indiana and Mississippi, respectively. Benjamin's parents were Joseph and America (Stinson) Price, and Mollie was a daughter of Silas and Caroline (Reese) Earl, of Mississippi.
The couple moved to Brenham for a year, but returned to Marlin for three years before they joined the trek to Oklahoma in 1917.
Herman became a naturalized citizen on March 31, 1922. The family joined a Lutheran Church while in Marlin, but became Presbyterians in Oklahoma.
There was little work to be found in the area, so Herman left in 1926 to job hunt in Tennessee. In February, 1930, he suffered a paralyzing stroke and was thought to be drunk, was thrown in jail, and then sent to the hospital where he died on February 17, 1930 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Maud and the six children took a train to be there when the Masons held his funeral.
Maud returned to Oklahoma, where she lived in poverty, and four years later, her son died of a ruptured appendix. Two of the teen-age daughters returned to Marlin to find work, and met their husbands. The children of Herman and Maud were:
Alberta Elisabeth Frick, b January 13, 1912 at Brenham, d January 18, 1912 at Brenham.
Alma Elizabeth Frick, b January 18, 1913 in Marlin - was never married. She worked as a secretary in the State Veterinary Department in Wichita, Kansas and in the Sugar-rationing Office during World War II. After the war, her mother and siblings moved to Houston, where Elizabeth worked in the Catalog Department of the Houston Public Library until her retirement in 1971.
Anna Frieda Frick, b December 6, 1914 in Marlin - married March 19, 1939 in Marlin to Joseph Walter Mahan - a son of Joseph Spurgeon Mahan and his second wife, Bertha Elsie (Lemur) Mahan. By his first marriage to Lucinda Pearl Nabors, Joseph Spurgeon Mahan had Norma Wren (Mahan) Scheiblich - wife of Herman Scheiblich; and Vista Mae Mahan, who married first to Clyde Haney, and married second to E. M. Dupuy. J. W. and Frieda moved to Tomball, Texas, where their five children were born.
Marie Margaret Frick, b October 10, 1917, returned to work in Marlin - meeting Clarence Walter
Woodward. When Clarence enlisted in the Navy in World War II, Margaret went to San Diego to marry him. They live in Aurora, Colorado, and have a son and a daughter.
Albert Herman Frick, b January 7, 1920 in Oklahoma, d July 10, 1934, and buried in Lehigh, Oklahoma.
Alice Frick, b March 31, 1922 in Oklahoma served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II - training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and serving in Letterman's Hospital in San Francisco, California. She married Clinton Charles Hoerner, of Houston. Their daughter, Lois Hoerner, married James Morgan, and the couple moved to Marlin, where she was working at Torbett-Hutchings-Smith Memorial Hospital in 1984.
Helen Selena Frick, b July 30, 1924 in Oklahoma. She and two of her sisters worked in a Defense Plant in Wichita, Kansas during World War II. Later, she married Dustin P. Gentry, and resides in Houston, Texas.
Copyright permission granted to Theresa Carhart and her volunteers for printing the bios of these Falls County Families to this web page. "Families of Falls County", compiled and edited by the Falls County Historical Commission, page 165, column 2, page 166, column 1. Member of the Falls County Historical Commission. This book is out of print, and very few copies are available.
