.144 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



both receiving unusual advantages in 

 this respect for their day and genera- 

 tion. 



The paternal ancestor of Mr. Frclz 

 was John Frets, who with a brother, 

 Christian emigrated from Manhenii, m 

 Baden, Rhenish Prussia, about 1720, and 

 settled for a time in Upper Salford, now 

 Montgomery county, where he married 

 Barbara Meyer, daughter of Hans Mey- 

 er, who bore him five children — John, 

 Jacob, Christian, Abraham and Eliza- 

 beth. In 1737 John Fretz settled in Bed- 

 minster township, Bucks county, where 

 he purchased 300 acres of land and lived 

 until his death in February, 1772. 



Christian Fretz, son of John and Bar- 

 bara, born in Upper Salford, May, 1734, 

 was reared in Bedminster township, 

 Bucks county, and married in 1757 Bar- 

 bara Oberhotzer, born November 10, 

 1737, died May 8, 1823, daughter of Mar- 

 tin Oberholtzer, who was born near 

 Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1709, and set- 

 tled in Bedminster soon after attaining 

 manhood. Christian Fretz, on attaining 

 manhood, settled in Tinicum township, 

 where he lived until his father's death, 

 when, having inherited the old home- 

 stead, he returned to Bedminster, where 

 he died May i, 1803. During the boy- 

 hood and early manhood of Christian 

 Fretz the Indians were still quite num- 

 erous in that vicinity, and tradition re- 

 lates many incidents of the association 

 of the family with the "noble red man." 

 At the time of the death of Barbara 

 Fretz, widow of Christian, in 1823, she 

 was the mother of twelve children, one 

 hundred and nine grandchildren, and 

 one hundred and three great-grandchil- 

 dren. The children were: John; Agnes, 

 wife of Abraham Bebighouse; Joseph; 

 Henry; Martin; Jacob; Abraham; Is- 

 aac; Barbara, wife of Henry Fretz; 

 Christian; Mary, wife of Henry Tyson; 

 and Elizabeth, wife of Abraham INleyer. 

 , John Fretz, eldest son of Christian 

 and Barbara, was born in Bedminster, 

 May 24, 1758, aiid was reared in the Men- 

 nonite faith, his .parents being members 

 of the old Deep Run Meeting, the oldest 

 Mennonite congregation in Bucks coun- 

 ty. He purchased land adjoining the 

 homestead in Bedminster, and lived 

 there until 1792, when he purchased 300 

 acres of the Rodman tract in Warwick, 

 now Doylestown township, and settled 

 thereon, building in 1795 the stone house 

 which was standing until about 1898. He 

 later purchased considerable adjoining 

 land, owning at one time 800 acre§ along 

 both sides of the Neshaminy, marked 

 on the old maps of the region as "Fretz 

 Valley." He died December 20, 1804. 

 His wife was Anna Kratz, born in Pluin- 

 s.tead township, November 4, 1764. She 

 died August 4, 1813. John and Anna 

 Kratz Fretz were the parents of nine 

 children, viz: Christian; Susan, wife of 

 William Garges; Elizabeth, wife af 



Thomas Z. Smith; Mary, wife of Henry' 

 Gill; John; Rachel, wife of Abraham F. 

 Stover; Barbara, wife of John Smith; 

 Anna, wife of Samuel Dungan, and Phil- 

 ip, died young. 



Christian, eldest son of John and An- 

 na (Kratz) Fretz, was born in Bedmin- 

 ster township, November 17, 1782, and 

 was reared from the age of ten on the 

 Fretz Valley farm in Doylestown town- 

 ship, where he spent the remainder of 

 his life. He was a successful 'business 

 man and acquired considerable real es- 

 tate. He was a farmer and hotelkeepr- 

 er, establishing the "Fretz Valley Inn," 

 near the homestead on the Easton road, 

 opposite the almshouse, which he con- 

 ducted for a number of years. He 

 died January 28, 1840. -He married April 

 14, 1808, Mary Stover, daughter of 

 Ralph and Catharine (Funk) Stover, 

 and granddaughter of Henry Stauffer 

 above referred to, and a great-grand- 

 daughter on the maternal side of the 

 pioneer. Bishop Henry Funck. 



Ralph Stover, father of Mary (Stover) 

 Fretz, was born in Bedminster, Bucks 

 county, January 10, 1760, and died there 

 November 7, 181 1. He was one of the 

 prominent business and public men of 

 his time. For many years a justice of 

 the peace, he did a large amount of le- 

 gal business pertaining to the transfer 

 of real estate and the settlement of es- 

 tates. He was a member of state assem- 

 bly from 1783 to 1799, and was one of 

 the first board of directors of the goor, 

 created under act of assembly of April 

 10, 1807, ^nd superintended the erection 

 of the almshouse opposite the Fretz 

 homestead. His daughter Mary was 

 born December 15, 1787, and died in 

 New York, where she had gone to un- 

 dergo a surgical operation, November 

 I7i 1855. The children of Christian and 

 Mary (Stover) Fretz were six in num- 

 ber, as follows: 



I. Ralph Stover Fretz, born in War- 

 wick, November 13, 1809, died in Cali- 

 fornia, June 6, 1867. He had an event- 

 ful career. Early in life he engaged in 

 business in Philadelphia and later in 

 New York city. At the latter place 

 he met Commodore Garrison and be- 

 came interested with hiin in several im- 

 portant enterprises. For some years he 

 ran a line of steamboats on the Missis- 

 sippi river, and later engaged in a trad- 

 ing and shipping enterprise with Com- 

 modore Garrison at the Isthmus of Pan- 

 ama, in which he was later joined by his 

 brothers John and Christian Augustus. 

 In 1849 he sailed from the Isthmus to 

 San Francisco, where in connection 

 witli the commodore he established a 

 bank and amassed a fortune of a half 

 million of dollars. The eighth clause 

 of his will reads as follows: 



"Eighth: Considering that I have been 

 greatly blessed and that I have an un- 

 dying attachment to the Government of 



