HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



401 



ia, June 30, 1831, was reared in that town- 

 ship and acquired his education in Samuel 

 Aaron's Academy at Norristown, Mont- 

 gomery county, and at the Bellevue Acad- 

 emy, at Langhorne, Bucks county. He was 

 a successful farmer and a fine type of Amer- 

 ican citizenship, taking a lively interest in 

 the affairs of his township, county, state 

 and nation, but neither seeking nor hold- 

 ing public office. He died January 9, 1885, 

 in his hfty-fourth year. He married jNIary 

 Buckman, daughter of Spencer W. and 

 Sarah Ann (Williamson) Buckman, of 

 Falls township, an account of whose an- 

 cestry is given later in this narrative, 

 and they were the parents of the following 

 named children : Lucy, married Elwood 

 Tyson, and resides in Chester, Delaware 

 county, Pennsylvania. Alice, married 

 Charles E. Hayes, and resides in Penn Val- 

 ley, Pennsylvania. Sarah B., married M. 

 Harvey Ivins, and resides in Langhorne, 

 Pennsylvania. Mary, married Henry Pal- 

 mer, and resides in Langhorne, Pennsyl- 

 vania. Elizabeth, married W. Coates Fores- 

 man, and resides in Chicago, Illinois. Mar- 

 garet, married Edmund D. Cook, and re- 

 sides in Trenton, New Jersey. Charles A., 

 married Elsie Fox, and resides in ^Morris 

 Heights, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. 



REV. ABRAHAM J. FRETZ, of ^lil- 

 ton. New Jersey, to whom we are indebted 

 for much of the information contained in 

 these pages in reference to the early Ger- 

 man settlers of Bucks county, was born 

 in that county, February 7, 1849, a descend- 

 ant on several lines from early immigrants 

 to Upper Bucks, mostly of the Mennonite 

 faith, who had fled from Germany and 

 Switzerland in search of religious free- 

 dom. 



John Fretz, with brothers Christian and 

 Mark, (the last of whom died on the voy- 

 age) emigrated from near the city of Man- 

 heim, grand duchy of Baden, about 1725, 

 and settled in Bucks. John settled on the 

 "old Fretz Homestead," in Bedminster 

 township, still occupied by his descendant, 

 Mahlon M. Fretz, where he died in 1772. 

 He married Barbara i\Ieyer, daughter of 

 Hans Meyer, who came to America abour 

 1720, and they were the parents of five 

 children : John, Jacob, Christian, Abraham 

 and Elizabeth. He married, second, Maria 



, and had children Alark, Henry and 



Barbara. 



n. Christian Fretz, born in Bucks coun- 

 ty, 1734, died there May i, 1803, inherited 

 the Bedminster homestead, added to it la- 

 ter by purchase, making it two hundred 

 and sixty acres. He became a prominent 

 man of his time in church and local af- 

 fairs, adhering, like his ancestors, to the 

 Mennonite faith and worshipping at the 

 old Deep Run Meeting House. He mar- 

 ried Barbara Oberholtzer, born in Bucks 

 county, in 1737, daughter of Martin Ober- 

 holtzer, a native of Germany, born 1709, 

 died April 5, 1744, in Bedminster. Chris- 

 26-3 



tian and Barbara were the parents of 

 twelve children : John, Agnes, Joseph, Hen- 

 ry, Martin, Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, Barba- 

 ra, Christian, Mary and Elizabeth. 



III. Abraham Fretz, born March 30, 1769, 

 died March 7, 1844, Hved and died on tn<y 

 old homestead in Bedminster. He was an 

 honest, upright citizen, a conscientious and 

 consistent Christian and was much esteem- 

 ed in the community in which he lived. He 

 was a deacon of the Deep Run Mennon- 

 ite congregation. He married, April 30, 

 1793, Magdalena Kratz, daughter of John 

 Kratz, of Hilltown, born August 30, 1776, 

 died January 9, 1840, and granddaughter on 

 the paternal side of John Valentine and 



. Ann (Clemens) Kratz, and on the matern- 

 al side of Christian Meyer, an early imi- 

 grant from Switzerland. John Valentine 

 Kratz was born in Germany, 1707, came 

 to America 1727, settled in Montgomery 

 county where he died in 1780. He married 

 Ann Clemens, daughter of Gerhart Clem- 

 ens, born in Germany, 1680, came to Mont- 

 gomery county 1709, and died there. Abra- 

 ham and Magdalena (Kratz) Fretz were 

 the parents of ten children — Anna, Rebec- 

 ca, Jacob, Christian, John, Isaac, Martin, 

 Elizabeth, Barbara and Abraham. 



IV. Martin Fretz, born September 12, 

 1808, died July 13, 1882, married Eliza- 

 beth Kratz, daughter of John and Cath- 

 arine (Johnson) Kratz, and great-grand- 

 daughter of John Valentine Kratz, be- 

 fore mentioned, and they lived for a time 

 in Montgomery county, later on a portion 

 of the old homestead where he built a 

 stone house in 1838, now occupied by Reu- 

 ben JMiller. He was a trustee of the old 

 Mennonite congregation, but in the division 

 of 1847 cast his lot with the new church 

 and was one of the leading spirits in the 

 founding and building of the New Men- 

 nonite church at Deep Run, and was one 

 of its first ministers, serving in that capac- 

 ity for about four years. In 1854 lie re- 

 moved to Sussex county. New Jersey, 

 where he had purchased a mill property 

 the autumn preceding, and which he con- 

 ducted for three years, and then moved to 

 a farm in Warren county. New Jersey. 

 After a few years of retired life in New- 

 ton, New Jersey, he removed to Stillwater 

 and engaged in mercantile business. In 

 1882 he returned to the farm in Warren 

 county, and died there the following July. 

 He was ordained a ruling elder of the Pres- 

 byterian church at Stillwater, and was 

 highly respected by the people of that com- 

 munity. He married (second) a widow, 

 Margaret E. Hill, nee Wintermute, on Feb- 

 ruary 14, 1857. His children by the first 

 marriage were Mary, Magdalena, Catha- 

 rine, Leah, Elizabeth, John, Aijna, Theodore, 

 Abraham, Martha, Edwin and Albert, and 

 by the second, Alva, Lucilla and David. 



Rev. Abraham J. Fretz, the subject of 

 this sketch, is a son of Martin and Eliza- 

 beth (Kratz) Fretz, and was born in Bucks 

 county, February 7, 1849. He attended the 

 public schools of Sussex and Warren 

 counties. New Jersey, and the Newton 



