My Genealogy Hound

George Fry, a well-known citizen of Jefferson Township, was born in Delaware County, Ohio, April 2, 1835, and is the son of Isaac and Margaret (Allen) Fry. The father was a native of Westmoreland County, Penn., and was of German descent. He died in Van Buren County, Iowa, in 1881, and was sixty-four years of age at the time of his decease. He learned the machinist’s trade in Detroit, Mich., when young, but followed farming the last twenty years of his life. He was a boy when his parents moved to Ohio, and when about eighteen years of age he went back to Pennsylvania, where he married. He then moved back to Detroit, Mich., and after living there for about six years, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was engaged in the planing mill business for a number of years. He moved to Van Buren County, Iowa, in 1852, purchased a farm, and engaged in farming, which occupation he has since followed. The mother of our subject was born in Westmoreland County, Penn., and was a young woman at the time of her death, which occurred in 1844. Our subject went to live with an uncle, Jacob Fry, in Delaware County, Ohio, where he remained for four years, when his father was again married, and was living in Cincinnati, where our subject went and remained with his father until they moved to Iowa. At the age of twenty he moved to St. Louis, and engaged in the planing mill business with Ladd, Patrick & Co., for seven years as foreman. From St. Louis, he went to Potosi, Washington Co., Mo., where he remained until 1871 in business with the Pennsylvania & Missouri Lumber Company, and three years with the St. Louis Lead Mining Company. In the last named year he moved to Memphis, Scotland County, where he built a store room and engaged in merchandising, which he continued for three years after which he sold out and purchased his present farm. For three months during the year 1863 he belonged to St. Louis provost guard, being lieutenant, and was guard on the levee. In 1856 he married Miss Elizabeth H. Smith, of Elizabethtown N. J., and a daughter of Jonas Smith. The fruits of this marriage were eight children, seven living: George A., Lola B., Nettie M, John I., Charles A., Kittie J., and Clarence S.; Maggie died in 1873, when a mere child. Our subject and wife are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The former is a member of the I. O. O. F. and A. O. U. W., and is a Republican. He is an active and enterprising citizen of the county. His son George A., is now in Choteau County, Mont., engaged in merchandising, and his daughter, Lola B., is with George A.