Fritsch: The road to Spencer

Continued from previous week

Crescentia and Christian Younker married in 1875 in Bavaria and came to the U.S. in the spring of 1882, settling on a farm west of Dorchester.

The couple had four children: Anton, Joseph, Mary and finally Anna, who was born there in July 1884.

Four short years later, Christian drowned while logging near the town of Phillips, north of Dorchester.

Crescentia remarried William Miller and added two more children: William and Bertha, continuing to live in the Dorchester area.

Meanwhile, by March 1902, Anton and Anna Fritsch had had enough of the trials that Manitowoc County held and moved to Dorchester.

There, Anton and Anna’s son, John, now 24 years old, met 18-year-old Anna Younker.

The couple was married Oct. 28, 1902, at St. Louis Catholic Church in Dorchester, just seven months after John arrived.

“The bride is an estimable young lady who has always made this place her home, and she has a large acquaintance of friends here and also in the surrounding country where she is well known,” the Dorchester Reporter stated following the marriage.

“The groom who has been here only a short time is not very widely known, but those who know him prize the acquaintanceship.”

John’s sister, Mary, served as one of Anna’s attendants.

John and Anna lived in Dorchester for two years before moving to Abbotsford.

In Abbotsford, John worked for the Soo Line Railroad and they welcomed their first child, Larry, in 1906, then Emery in 1908 and Floyd in 1911.

Floyd died at the age of two.

The family moved to Spencer in February 1913, where John was made a foreman for the railroad.

Myron arrived in 1913, Lucille in 1914, Ted in 1920, Jim in 1926 and Robert in 1929.

All of the Fritsch children attended Spencer public schools.

Larry followed his father into work with the railroad company following his graduation from high school in 1925, while Emery went to the state teachers’ college in Stevens Point and was hired by Dorchester High School following graduation.

Emery’s career path may have eventually inspired his younger brother, but Teddy was just seven years old when his older brother left for college.

In 1928, the Marshfield News Herald tells the story of a young Teddy Fritsch, who was then in “primary school,” falling from the merry-go-round at school.

While the injury wasn’t considered serious, the next morning, a nearby Colby doctor discovered that Teddy had a broken forearm.

His tolerance for pain would set the stage for what was to come.

To be continued