My paternal grandfather, Joseph Fries is the 2nd boy on the left ( the guy with the dark socks ). The other boys in the photo are his siblings. I believe the fellow standing to his left is my great Uncle Eddie Fries and the little guy to his right is John ( I believe he was a twin but the other twin died). The guy to his right was named William ( Willie ). I do not have too good a grasp on the Fries family history because my father was not as much into Geneology as my mother. This is the history I remember hearing over the years. My paternal great grandfather, Jacob Fries, emigrated with his parents from Laufach, Germany in October 1860 when he was 9 years old. They settled in a German section of Brooklyn ( East Williamsburg “German Town” ). At the time of WW II the name of one of the streets in this German neighborhood was Hamburg Street. Because the Germans were none too popular, the street was renamed Wilson Avenue. The Fries Family attended Most Holy Trinity Church on Montrose Ave. My grandfather, Joseph Fries, was a glass cutter ( I have a punch bowl downstairs in a box in our basement that he cut), before he joined the NYC Police 👮 Department. He retired as a Sargent and went to work at Packer Institute in Brooklyn. My grandfather married my grandmother, Elizabeth Daniels in the early 1900’s at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church on Montrose Ave. My father, Charles Anthony Fries, ( their second child) was born on November 2, 1915 in the front bedroom of the home they bought at 8 Vermont Ave (eventually became known as 64 Interboro Parkway when the Parkway was built in front of their house connecting the borough of Brooklyn to the borough of Queens. My father remembers studying in his room during his college years and hearing the construction of the highway outside his window.
My father’s grandfather, Jacob Fries, died in the fall of 1918 of Flu Pneumonia. His son, Charles J. Fries also died of the flu one month apart from his father ( one died in October and one died in November of 1918 - discovered that my great Uncle, Charles J. Fries actually died on
Dec. 24, 1918).
My father’s Uncle Charlie had been scheduled to be ordained a Catholic priest two months after his untimely death. My father, Charles A. Fries, was 3 years old at the time of his Uncle Charlie’s death but I believe he and his immediate family did not live in the same household and therefore did not succumb to the virus. When my Dad was ready to enter High School, his family encouraged him to go to a pre-seminary school in Garrison, NY to begin his studies to become a a priest ( OFM Cappuccin - Order of Friar Minors). It was thought that the family was looking for a replacement to the priesthood after Uncle Charlie died prior to his ordination. My father enjoyed his two years in Garrison, NY but when he was brought back up to Garrison to start his 3 rd year, he refused to stay and came back to Brooklyn to finish his Junior and Senior Years at Bushwich HS.
My Dad use to say by his 3rd year in high school he realized that girls were more than simply “soft” boys.
My grandfather also had two younger sisters, Mamie and Anna, who are not pictured above. My Great Aunt Anna Fries Dannenhoffer lamented that she wished God would have taken her instead of her brother, Charlie, because he was going to enter the priesthood and she considered that so very important. Great Aunt Anna always spoke about the good old days when she was a child. I got the impression that she was somewhat of a golden child to her father and brothers.
