Fries

Napoleon Fries b. 1856

/ Kirstin Miller

Napoleon Fries 2nd great uncle on RootsMagic tree.

Napoleon Fries was born in 1856, in Kentucky to Charles and Emma Fries. HIs middle initial is B, middle name could have been Bonaparte. Napoleon had a sister Josephine and brother William. Their mom Emma died around 1870, when Napoleon was 14. His dad Charles married Mary, a widow with 2 kids. Charles and Mary had 5 kids together so Napoleon had 9 sisters and brothers.

Around 1875, Napoleon married Etta, they had 3 daughters and a son: Minnie, George, Josie and Emily. They lived in Kentucky and Illinois until 1891 when Napoleon was in a Denver, Colorado city directory. City directories gave a person’s address – no phones or phone numbers then- and sometimes their job. When Napoleon first moved to Denver he was a car cleaner. Then, a conductor, a brick layer, a motorman and a guard at the county jail for several years.

Fries, Napoleon worked at Denver County Jail

Denver County Jail

Napoleon’s first address was 55 S 11th, he lived there for a couple years then by 1920 moved to 549 Kalamath where he and his family lived for 20 years. At the S 11th address then and today there are businesses on the street level and apartments above. At the 549 Kalamath address today is a huge storage unit business, across the street are a few remaining cute family homes from the 1920s.

The 1930 census shows Napoleon owned this home, valued at $3800. In the home were Napoleon, his wife Etta and their daughter Josie with her husband James, a railroad worker. On the 1940 census Napoleon is in the same home- his wife, daughter and son in law had died. Napoleon died in 1942. He, his wife, daughter and son in law share a headstone at Crown Hill Cemetery in Wheat Ridge, Jefferson, Colorado. A cemetery record shows Napoleon as a Woodman of the World, his son in law James was a Mason.

Sources

Lora Fries b. 1875

/ Kirstin Miller

Lora Fries 2nd great aunt on RootsMagic tree.

Lora was born in September 1875 in Kentucky, the first daughter of Charles Fries and Mary Moore. Charles and Mary were both widowed and had children from their first marriages, Lora was the 4th child in their shared family. Lora grew up in Cave In Rock, Illinois right on the Ohio River across from Kentucky. In the late 1700s Cave In Rock attracted frontier outlaws: bandits, pirates and highwaymen. By 1850 church services were held inside the big cave. Current population of the town is about 350.

Cave In Rock, Illinois postcard

Cave In Rock, Illinois postcard

Lora married John Wesley Jackson on October 4, 1899. She and John stayed in Cave In Rock and had 2 sons and 2 daughters Their son Millard was a Major in the US Army, he lived in Maine, New York, New Hampshire and Virginia; was posted in the Philippines and other locations. Their son Russell may have died young. Their daughter Pearl married Roy Perry of Greene, Iowa who worked with his cousin Ewing Lambert in Des Moines. The youngest daughter Marion “Effie” married William Padon and stayed in touch with her aunt Mary Fries Lambert Cable and cousin Gladys Cable Miller and visited Greene, Iowa several times. One visit in the Iowa (Greene) Recorder August 24, 1924, “Mrs Wm [Effie] Padon and little son left Friday, for her home in Paducah, Ky, She has been here for some time, visiting her sister, Mrs Roy [Pearl] Perry and family, and an aunt, Mrs Wm [Mary] Cable and family”.

Lora Fries  and John Jackson’s death date are unknown. Lora’s sisters and brother Millard lived into the 1950s and 60s, Lora probably did too.

Sources

Charles Fries b. 1820

/ Kirstin Miller

Charles Fries 2nd great grandfather, on RootsMagic tree

Charles Fries was born about 1822 and probably came to America from Baden, Germany around 1840. Charles married Emma. On the 1860 census they have 4 children and are living in Kenton, Kentucky. Charles is a teamster, in 1860 this person drove a team of animals: ox, horses, mules.  Charles’s next record is the 1880 census, Emma has died and Charles has married Mary, also a widow with children. The Fries family is living in Cave In Rock at the southern edge of Illinois, across the Ohio River from Kentucky. With Charles’s youngest son, Mary’s son and daughter and their shared 4 daughters, they are a family of nine. They’ve also got a hired man in the home, they all lived on a farm that included 7 acres of potatoes and a 3 acre apple orchard.

The farm is owned with 60 acres tilled land, 20 acres meadow, 15 acres woodland and 10 mown acres. The farm value is $2000 total, with $20 machinery, $400 of livestock, $30 spent on buildings and repairs. $80 is the total amount paid for wages for 25 weeks hired labor. $1135 is the total value of all farm productions which are: 8 tons of hay, 2 mules on hand, 2 working oxen, 2 cows, 1 other cow, 1 cow born, 2 cows sold, 1 cow purchased. And 175 lbs of butter, 100 pigs, 20 chickens with 175 dozen eggs, 20 acres of Indian corn produced 800 bushels, 20 acres of oats produced 150 bushels, 5 acres of wheat produced 160 bushels, 7 acres of Irish potatoes produced 1200 bushels. 3 acres of apple trees had 60 fruit bearing trees and 25 cords of wood were cut.

Sources

  • 1860 and 1880 United States census database at FamilySearch.org
  • Illinois Non-Population Census Schedules 1850-1880 at FamilySearch.org