BIOGRAPHY: Charles F. KRESS, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 160-1
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CHARLES F. KRESS, a typical representative of that intelligent and progressive 
class of citizens of German birth or lineage to which the progress and 
development of Cambria county owes so much, is a son of Rev. Charles F. and 
Henrietta (Freymuth) Kress, and was born in October, 1837, in Hesse Darmstadt, 
Germany.
     Rev. Charles F. Kress, father, obtained his education under that excellent 
system of schools for which Germany has for centuries been noted, completing his 
education in that famed institution, the University of Geissen. He was ordained 
to the ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran church in his native country, and 
preached there about eighteen or twenty years, up to the time of his coming to 
America. In 1848 he came to the United States. He received his first appointment 
in this country in the divine vineyard at Newark, New Jersey, and after laboring 
at other points throughout the country came to Johnstown in 1856, and took 
charge of the church of his denomination at that place, and remained in that 
charge until his death, in 1859. His marriage resulted in the birth of seven 
children.
     Charles F. Kress obtained a liberal education, partly in the public schools 
of his native country and partly under the instruction of private tutors. At the 
age of about fourteen years he began life on his own account, when he accepted a 
position as a clerk in a dry-goods store at Zanesville, Ohio; then, after 
several years of clerical experience in Newark and Dresden, he came in 1857 to 
Johnstown. Jacob Fronheiser was then, as well as many years afterwards, one of 
the most prominent business men of the place. Mr. Kress secured a position with 
him as bookkeeper, and remained with him a number of years, and then went into 
the confectionery business for a short time. Later he founded a brewery, and 
until 1895 successfully conducted that line of business. Upon the latter date he 
relinquished that line, and having previously invested largely in real-estate in 
the city has since devoted himself to looking after these interests.
     Mr. Kress has been actively interested in every measure intended to promote 
the material interest of Johnstown, and holds a number of positions of trust in 
connection with its enterprises. He is vice-president of the Citizens' National 
bank, member of the board of directors of the Johnstown Electric Light company, 
of Johnstown Passenger Railway company, the Johnstown Chemical company, trustee 
of the Grandview Cemetery association, of the Johnstown Savings bank, and a 
member of the Board of Park commissioners.
     March 20, 1866, Mr. Kress married Justina Fronheiser, a daughter of the 
late Jacob Fronheiser, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. Five 
children have blessed this union: Jacob F., who married Myrtle Zimmerman, and 
now lives with his father, by whom he is employed as book-keeper; Carl F., who 
took a course in mechanical engineering at Cornell university, New York, and is 
now in the employ of the Johnson company; and Edward H., a medical student in 
Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia.