BIO:  William Frey, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Spring Garden Township, Pg 189

WILLIAM FREY was born February 7, 1834, a son of George and Mary (Spangler) Frey.  His 
grandfather, George Frey, a native of Spring Garden Township, died of apoplexy in 1849, aged 
sixty-eight years.  He was a veteran of the war of 1812; served in Capt. Spangler’s company; 
marched from York to Baltimore, and engaged in the battle of North Point, his wife becoming a 
pensioner until her death in 1872, at the age of ninety-two years.  They had seven children:  
Charles, George, Frederick, Enos, Catherine, Mary and Leah.  Subject’s father, George Frey, was 
a captain of militia some years, and private in a company of Independent Blues, under Col. Alex 
Hay, at the Catholic and Native American riots, in Philadelphia, in 1844; also a private in the 
Second Maryland Regiment in the civil war of 1862-1865; he died in 1882 of apoplexy, aged 
seventy-two years.  He had five children:  William, John, Charles, Lewis, and Eliza.  William 
Frey was married, December 24, 1854, to Elizabeth Boekel, daughter of Michael and Anna Maria 
Boekel.  By this union they have had the following children:  William B., Flora M., Rouse, 
Ferdinand C., Emma E. Christine, George T., Katie, Anna M., Robert E., Mollie E., Hattie M. and 
Harry S.  Mr. Frey is the pioneer of the Spring Garden Band, starting in 1855, and held the 
leadership over twenty-three years.  He took the band into the United States service, and it 
served one year as regimental band of the Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers.  He also held 
the office of treasurer of York County, having been elected in 1876, and having served three 
years.  He is the owner of forty-nine acres of finely improved land, and raises vegetables, 
fruit, etc., for market.  He makes a specialty of bee culture.  The family are members of the 
German Reformed Church.