Biographical Sketch of Edwin FRICK (1893); Chester County, PA

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Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl-
vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley
and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila-
delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 768-9.

"EDWIN FRICK, one of the leading citizens of Matthews, is a fine old
gentlemen who has spent a long life engaged in agricultural pursuits, and
is universally esteemed by his fellow citizens.  He is the only surviving
son of John and Sarah (Dunn) Frick, and a native of Chester county, having
been born in East Vincent township, October 12, 1819.  The Frick family is
of Swiss origin, though some of its members have been scattered in Germany
and England for several generations.  This branch was planted in America
by Jacob Frick (great-grandfather), who was born in 1717, and came over
from Rotterdam, Germany in September, 1733, in the merchant ship Pennsyl-
vania, of London, John Stedman, master.  He was one of a number of German
Baptist emigrants who came at that time and settled along the Schuylkill
river in Chester and Montgomery counties.  Jacob Frick was accompanied by
a brother named John, and they first settled one mile east of Pottstown,
but afterward removed to Chester valley, two miles from Valley Forge,
where they lived during the revolutionary war.  They were located near the
scene of the Paoli massacre, and on their farm the British and Hessians
encamped after the battle of Brandywine.  Jacob married Elizabeth Urner,
of this county, who was born in 1724 and died in 1757.  He died in 1799,
aged eighty-two years.

"Their son, John Frick (grandfather), was born in Chester Valley, and died
in East Coventry township, this county, at an advanced age.  He was a
farmer by vocation, and married Catharine Grumbacher, by whom he had a
family of eight children; and John Frick (father), who was born in Coventry
township, this county, in 1787, and died in West Vincent township in 1852,
aged sixty-five years.  The latter was a farmer by occupation, an old-line
whig in politics, and married Sarah Dunn, a daughter of Philip Dunn, then
of Crawford county, this State, to which he had removed from New Jersey.
By this marriage John Frick had a family of eight children, four sons and
four daughters: Susan Acker, Edwin, Hazael, David (dead), Catherine,
Bertolett (deceased), John, Sallie Savidge (dead), and Lizzie Bertolett.

"Edwin Frick was reared on the old homestead in West Vincent township, and
received such education as could be obtained in the country schools of
that early day.  After attaining his majority he engaged in farming, and
has spent all his active life in that occupation.  Since 1882 he has
practically retired from business and is taking life easy.  In politics he
was a whig during his early years, casting his first vote for William
Henry Harrison in 1840, but has been a stanch republican almost from the
time that party was first organized in Pennsylvania.  He is a leading
member of the Baptist church at Vincent, in which he has served as trustee
and deacon for many years.

"In December, 1853, Mr. Frick was married to Hannah Laferty, a daughter of
Daniel Laferty, of West Pikeland township, this county.  To them were born
two children: Allen, who died October 6, 1889; and Mary, who married Irvin
Hallman."