My Genealogy Hound

REV. ALLEN MYERS FRETZ, pastor of Zion Mennonite church, at Souderton, Pennsylvania, is a native of Tinicum township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and was born December 12, 1853. He is the son of Ely and Mary (Meyers) Fretz.

Ely Fretz (father) was the oldest son of Christian and Mary (Leatherman) Fretz. He was born September 9, 1825, in Bedminster, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. His wife, Mary Meyers, born October 18, 1830, in Pipersville, Pennsylvania, was the daughter of William and Barbara (Schimmel) Meyers, who were members of the new school or General Conference Mennonites, whose church is at Deep Run, Mr. Meyers being one of the organizers of the church in 1849, and for many years its deacon. Ely Fretz is a prosperous farmer, and for many years a director of the Sellersville National Bank. He is a member of the new school Mennonite church at Deep Run, of which his son Allen is pastor. The couple have eight children.

Christian Fretz (grandfather) married Mary Leatherman. Ha was a prosperous farmer, and for many years a director of the Doylestown National Bank. He was the founder of Bedminsterville. In religious faith he was a Mennonite. He had four children.

Abraham (great-grandfather) married Magdalena Kratz, also of a very numerous Mennonite family, whose ancestor emigrated to America in 1727. Abraham Fretz was a farmer and a deacon in the Deep Run Mennonite church. He had ten children.

Christian Fretz (great-great-grandfather) married Barbara Oberholtzer. The couple were Mennonites. They had twelve children, and died at a good old age, honored and respected by all who knew them.

John Fretz (great-great-great-grandfather) and his brother Christian emigrated from near the city of Manheim, in the grand duchy of Baden, Germany, formerly known as the Palatinate, or Rhenish Prussia. Many Fretzes still live in the province of Alsace, on the opposite side of the Rhine, which was annexed to France in the year 1648, and again ceded to Germany after the Franco-Prussian war, in 1871. In more than two centuries the people of Alsac became French, although of German origin. John Fretz and his brother came to this country about 1715, possibly a few years earlier or later, as the exact date is not known. Driven from the fatherland on account of religious persecution, they were among the founders of the Mennonite church at Deep Run in 1746. John settled on the bank of the Tohickon creek, near the present Bedminsterville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He was one of the citizens who resided in Bedminster township at its organization in 1741. The village of Bedminsterville was founded by his great-grandson, Christian Fretz. John Fretz was a farmer and weaver. Allen M. Fretz, the subject of this sketch, now owns the farm of Christian Fretz, his grandfather, on which he started building the village, while Allen’s brother Mahlon owns part of the original farm of John Fretz. John Fretz, the immigrant, married Barbara, daughter of Hans Meyer, an ancestor of the numerous Meyer family in Montgomery county. He came to this country from Germany or Switzerland about the same time as the Fretz ancestors. Hans Meyer settled in Upper Salford township, Montgomery county, near the branch of the Perkiomen, about two miles east of Salfordville. The Meyers were Mennonites in their religious belief, and farmers by occupation. John and Barbara Fretz had five children, John, Jacob, Christian, Abraham and Elizabeth.

Rev. Allen M. Fretz was reared on the homestead at Bedminsterville, attending the public school at that place. For six months, from October, 1869, to April, 1870, he attended the Mennonite Seminary at Wadsworth, Ohio. He then attended one term at Excelsior Normal Institute at Carversville, Bucks county. He also attended one session at the West Chester State Normal School and taught school eleven terms, working during vacations on his father’s farm. In 1883 the new school or General Conference Mennonite church at Deep Run called him to be its minister, and he was accordingly ordained by Elder Moses Gottschall, of Schwenksville, Montgomery county, on October 13, 1883, and formally installed as pastor of the church. On November 24, 1892, he was ordained by Elder William S. Gottschall, of Schwenksville, to the office of elder in full charge. He was elected pastor and elder in full charge of the Souderton church, on February 8, 1893, which position he still holds. In politics Mr. Fretz is a Republican and Prohibitionist. He was nominated by the Republicans of Bucks county as a candidate for member of the lower house of the state legislature in 1882, but with the rest of the Republican ticket that year was defeated at the polls. He is opposed (as a Mennonite) to secret societies. He is a member and worker in the Christian Endeavor Society of the church of which he is the honored pastor. He is a member of the Pennsylvania organization of the National Christian Association, and was elected its president for 1904.

Rev. Mr. Fretz has been twice married. His first wife was Sallie, daughter of Abraham L. Leatherman, of Plumsteadville, Bucks county. She, with an infant child, died in March, 1882. His present wife is Anna, daughter of Jacob F. and Agnes (Wismer) Rittenhouse, of Campden, Ontario, Canada. The marriage was solemnized on March 5, 1884. Mrs. Fretz is a descendant of John Fretz, son of the immigrant, John Fretz. He went to Canada in 1800, and was the first deacon of the Mennonite church in Canada. On the Rittenhouse side of her ancestry, Mrs. Fretz is descended from William Rittenhouse who came from Holland in 1683, and settled at Germantown, establishing the first paper mill in America on the bank of the Wissahickon, near that place, and was the first Mennonite minister in America, having been elected to that position in the Germantown church. The famous astronomer, David Rittenhouse, who observed the transit of Venus in 1769 from his farm in Norriton township, Montgomery county, was of the same family.

Mr. and Mrs. Fretz have six children as follows: Jacob Rittenhouse Fretz, born July 22, 1886, completed his studies at the Perkiomen Seminary, at Pennsburg; Ely R. Fretz, born November 27, 1888; Viola R., born March 22, 1891; Allen R., born October 11, 1893; Agnes R., born August 18, 1896; Osmund Philemon, born March 22, 1899.