The Fritch Family

Dr. David Dry Fritch Circa 1914

The progenitor of the Fritch family in America was Johannes Fritch, who was born on June 14, 1744, in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany. In 1764 he emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled in “Long-a-thal” (Long’s Valley), near Longswamp, Berks County, where he established a grist mill. In 1769 he married Maria Palsgrove, with whom he had five children. The mill was later operated by his youngest son, John George Fritch. Nathan, the eldest son of John George, was born on the homestead in 1806, and succeeded his father in operating the mill. Nathan married Mary Dry, a daughter of Jonathan Dry, with whom he had 12 children, many of whom engaged in the milling profession. The most prominent was David Dry Fritch.

David Dry Fritch was born on the family homestead near Mertztown on February 4, 1848. After receiving his preliminary education in township schools and in Reading and Collegeville, he entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1876. He then entered the practice of medicine in the village of Longswamp with Dr. Peter Wertz, who was married to his sister Mary. After two years, he decided that he preferred business to medicine and would continue the family tradition by engaging in milling. In October 1877, Dr. Fritch and his brother, Nathan, purchased an old frame gristmill from the George Miller estate, situated along the Swabia Creek northeast of Main Street in Macungie. The estate also included property on the southwest side of Main Street on which the Fritch brothers decided to build a new modern mill of brick. The site was between Race Street and the East Penn Branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, from which a siding was extended to the mill. They invited Harry F. Bogh, who was married to their sister Emma, to become a partner in the enterprise. Flour was originally ground by traditional water-powered grist stones, but it soon became obvious that the Swabia was an inadequate and unreliable source of power, and a steam plant was installed. In 1882, another major improvement was made by the introduction of steel roller mills to replace the grist stones. This project, which was personally planned and supervised by Dr. Fritch, was completed in only three months. Afterwards, the name of the business, “Keystone Roller Mills”, along with the names of the proprietors, “Fritch Bros. & Bogh,” was prominently painted on the Main Street side of the mill.

In an 1884 history of Lehigh & Carbon Counties, Attorney E. R. Lichtenwallner wrote that the mill’s operators were able to “Convert daily from eight hundred to nine hundred bushels of wheat into the best quality of flour, for which they find a ready market throughout the entire state.” The popular brand names were“Triumph Spring Patent”, “XXXX Fancy”, “Eagle Star Spring”, and “Keystone Rye”. For many years these brands were household names throughout eastern Pennsylvania. The company also had the distinction of being the first, or at least one of the first, in the country to produce rye flour by the roller process.

Within a few years, the partners felt prosperous enough to build substantial new homes on West Main Street, just a short distance from the mill. They employed the services of a prominent Allentown architect, Louis S. Jacoby, to design the house, then realized economies by building all three homes to the same plan. The homes were built next to one another sometime between 1886 and 1888. Harry and Emma Bogh occupied the home at 16 West Main, Dr. D. D. Fritch lived in the middle house at 20 West Main, and Nathan occupied the one at 24 West Main. Immediately to the northwest of Nathan’s residence stood the old frame Black Horse Hotel, the patrons of which sometimes became extremely rowdy and engaged in unseemly activities. Dr. Fritch soon decided that the hotel was inappropriate for his neighborhood, so he bought the hotel, razed it, and donated the property to the Lutheran congregation at Solomon’s Church. In 1893, the Lutheran congregation left Solomon’s Union Church and built a chapel on the former Hotel site; and in 1898, built a new Grace Lutheran Church.

The mill prospered well into the twentieth century. In 1911, a large addition was made to the south end, and new and improved machinery was installed which increased production to 500 barrels per day. The plant was now operated 24 hours a day and employed a work force of 25 men. Storage capacity was increased to 100,000 bushels, which included a large grain elevator in East Greenville. Storage capacity was further increased in 1948, when four 80 foot-high grain elevators were installed under the supervision of Dr. Fritch’s grandson-in-law, Robert I. Aten. From the outset, Dr. Fritch was the motivating force behind the Keystone Roller Mills. In February 1898, Harry Bogh withdrew from the firm for medical reasons, and in August 1898, moved with his wife to Albuquerque, New Mexico. In later years, Nathan was unable to play an active roll because of illness, and died on July 23, 1916.

While D. D. Fritch’s success as a miller brought him financial security, his innovations in agriculture brought him regional and even national recognition. After experimenting with improved strains of wheat on a test plot near the mill, he purchased the 137 acre Shaffer homestead, on the northeast border of the Borough, from Jacob Shaffer in October 1898. The farm was rundown when he bought it, but within a few years it became one of the most productive in the area. The key to this success was his introduction of a three-crop rotation system. In the first year potatoes were planted, in the second, wheat, and in the third, hay or some other cover crop. Before Fritch’s time, potatoes were not a major crop locally. But through the introduction of better varieties, the use of high-quality fertilizers, and scientific spraying practices to control potato blight and the Colorado potato beetle, potatoes became the main cash crop in western Lehigh County for more than 40 years. Fritch soon became known as the “Potato King of Lehigh”. In 1908, Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson said “Mr. Fritch, of Macungie, Pennsylvania, is the most competent person in the country to give advice on potato farming.” Fritch’s primary motivation for promoting potato farming was to secure better quality wheat for his mill. For many decades, the thrifty local farmers refused to invest in fertilizers and relied solely on manures, which were unbalanced in nutrients; so their yields and quality were mediocre. By following Fritch’s rotation, the residue from the high application offertilizer required for potatoes carried over for the following year’s wheat crop. The result was higher production and a better quality grain.

Despite the demands of supervising his farming and milling operations, Dr. Fritch also found time to engage in the civic and social affairs of the community. He served two terms on town council, four terms as burgess, and was active in the affairs of Grace Lutheran Church, serving as superintendent of the Sunday school for many years. He was a director of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Mt. Airy and a trustee of Muhlenberg College. He was also one of the founders of the Macungie Silk Company and for a number of years served as its president. In 1930 he achieved the distinction of being the first person in Lehigh County to receive the Pennsylvania Master Farmer award. Dr. Fritch died September 10, 1931, and is buried in the family plot in Solomon’s Union Cemetery.

Robert I. Aten Circa 1955

Dr. Fritch was married in 1878 to Sarah Weiler of Longswamp Township, and they had three children; Luther W., Minnie I., and M. Marie. Minnie died at the age of 6 and Marie never married. Luther was born March 13, 1879. He attended the local schools and graduated from Muhlenberg College in 1899. He then became assistant manager of his father’s mill and was actively involved in many local social and fraternal organizations. He was one of the organizers of the Macungie Fire Company and became its first president. In 1901, Luther married Cora Hagenbuch Clauser of Allentown. They had two children, Sarah Elizabeth, who married Dr. Ralph H. Henry of Allentown, and Mary Clauser, who married Robert I. Aten of Lexington, Ohio in 1931.

Since Luther, who died August 15, 1925, had preceded his father in death, the responsibility for running the mill and farm passed to Robert and Mary Aten. Bob successfully operated the mill for many years, and in the early 1950s, farmed around 500 acres in the Macungie area. The milling of flour was continued until 1954, by which time it was no longer possible to compete with large western mills. The roller equipment was then dismantled and the space used for storing grains. In 1955, a steel molasses storage tank was purchased and installed, which increased storage capacity by 100,000 bushels. The firm continued in the grain brokerage business until 1960, when the property was sold to grain dealer Paul Marsteller.

Robert and Mary Aten had three children; David, Barbara, and Richard. Until 1957, they resided at 16 West Main Street, the house originally built for Harry Bogh, and in which Luther and Cora had lived. They then built a new house at 98 South Maple Street, and the 16 West Main home was converted into apartments. Bob Aten died in August 1974, and Mary died in 1997, after which the property was sold, thus ending 110 years of Fritch family ownership.

Copyright ©2005-2006 by the Macungie Historical Society, Inc. All rights reserved.

Reference Sources:

A History of Lower Macungie Township. Lower Macungie Township Bicentennial Committee, 1976; second edition, Lower Macungie Township Historical Society, 1996.
Knauss, Oscar Penrose. News articles from the Macungie Progress, 1898.
Mathews, Alfred, and Austin N. Hungerford. History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Everts & Richards, 1884.
Roberts, Charles Rhoads, et al. History of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. 3 vols. Allentown: Lehigh County Historical Society, 1914.