Reuben Fritz
On North Main Street in Fairmount, the mat market enterprise of R. Fritz & Son has been a very successful establishment since its opening in the fall of 1901. Mr. Reuben Fritz with his son is a practical butcher and meat man, and they conduct a high class shop, with all the facilities for serving their customers with good meat. They kill all their own stock, and buy their cattle and hogs from the local farmers. They also manufacture the by-products into salable stuffs for the local market, and both in their slaughter house and shop have everything arranged for sanitary and expeditious handling.
Reuben Fritz was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, January 22, 1851. His grandfather Peter Fritz was born near Pottstown, Pennsylvania, was a farmer and of good German stock, known in that locality as Pennsylvanian Germans. His wife was a native of the same State, and soon after their marriage, they moved to Ohio with a little colony of Pennsylvania people, numbering about half a dozen families. They made settlement on new land in Liberty Township of Fairfield County. There the grandparents developed a fine farm, and prospered. They died when well past seventy years of age, and were members of the German Reformed Church, where the grandfather was a Democrat in politics. There was a large family of children, and two sons and about half a dozen daughters grew up, were married and had children. Two are still living. Mrs. Rachel Bowser is a widow living in Allen County, Indiana, while Mrs. Mary Mauger now lives at Etna, Ohio, with a daughter.
Martin Fritz, father of Reuben, was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1828, and died in the latter part of 1851, soon after the birth of his first and only child, Reuben. He was married in Fairfield County to Catherine Soliday, who was born in the at county about 1830. Her parents came from Pennsylvania, at an early day, and were among the pioneers of Fairfield County, where they lived and died as prosperous farmers, and as members of the German Reformed Church. Mrs. Catherine Fritz after the death of her husband married Absalom Arnold, of Fairfield County, where he was a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold lived in Fairfield County until their death, she at the age of seventy-six, while he preceded her in death. There were five Arnold children, and Nansen, George, Frederick and Emma all married and have families, and all are residents of Fairfield County, except the daughter, whose home is in Denver, Colorado. Mr. Arnold married for his first wife a Miss Weist, and two sons and two daughters, of whom the two sons are still living.
Martin Fritz was a member of the German Reformed Church, while his wife after her second marriage joined the United brethren Church. Reuben Fritz, after the death of his father, lived in the home of his grandfather Peter Fritz, until he was about twelve years old, and after that with his step-father Mr. Arnold. When he reached his majority, he started out to make his way as a farmer. He was married at Baltimore, Ohio, to Catherine Gehring, who was born in Licking County, Ohio, a daughter of Henry and Mary Gehring, natives of Wuertemberg, Germany, and married in Newark, Ohio, where they lived, and also in many other places in that State until locating at Baltimore. Mr. Henry Gehring died at Baltimore fifteen years ago at the age of sixty-four, while his widow later moved to Fairmount in Grant County, and lived with her daughter, Mrs. Fritz, until her death in November, 1910, at the age of seventy-six. The Gehring Family were Methodists. There were a large number of children, and two sons and two daughters are still living.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Fritz lived in Baltimore, Ohio, where he learned the trade of butcher, and did business in that line there until 1900. He then moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and eighteen months later to Fairmount.
Mr. and Mrs. Fritz are the parents of two children. Nellie is the wife of William H. Lamb, a stock buyer and real estate dealer in Baltimore, Ohio. They have three children, William, Catherine L. and Virginia. The son Harley H., the partner of his father in the meat market at Fairmount, was born, reared and educated in Baltimore, Ohio. He learned the trade of butcher under his father, and has been in partnership since 1890. He was married in Fairmount to Miss Myrtle Hart, who was born and reared near Warsaw, Indiana. They have no children. Both Mr. Fritz and his son reside on South Main Street in Marion. Both are loyal Democrats, and all the family attend worship in the Methodist Church.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.