My Genealogy Hound

FRECH, JACOB, boot and shoe maker, P. O. Kane. Jacob Freeh is a native of Germany, born in 1837; at the early age of fourteen, he embarked on board a sailing vessel and crossed the Atlantic for America; landing in the city of New Orleans, he remained a short time when he took passage on a steamer bound for St. Louis, where he became the apprentice of a shoemaker, becoming a skillful journeyman workman, in after years he conducted a business on his own responsibility. Formed the acquaintance of, and married Miss Catherine Rettig in 1867. Mr. Freeh moved with his family to Illinois, locating in the village of Jalappa, where he became employed three years in the grist mill of Lewis Sundle; at the expiration of this time opening a shoe shop, where he remained until his location on his farm consisting of 115 acres of valuable land. When the war broke out Mr. Freeh enlisted in Battery C, 1st Ill. Reg., and proceeded from Ottawa to the scene of warfare, and became a participant in many important battles, among them Resaca, Atlanta, Buzzard Roost, Dalton, etc., etc.; when the war closed he was honorably discharged at Springfield, Ill.