One of the stops on Herman Frey's delivery route for St Louis Dairy was the Crumb household where Sophia
Koelling worked as a domestic servant. They met and love blossomed!
On Oct 6, 1910, at the Third Baptist Church, Herman Frey and Sophia Koelling were married in a double ceremony with her sister
Katie Koelling and Henry Bell.
SOPHIA
AND HERMAN FREY WEDDING PICTURE
Sophia and Herman Frey first lived on Idaho Ave but then settled on Morganford Road in St Louis where he practiced his trade as a
plumber for George T Meyer & Brothers.
Hold CTRL and click here.
In 1915 Sophia Frey purchased her first automobile. It was Ford Model T Touring which cost a total of $507.70. She paid
cash for it. Hold CTRL and click here.
In 1920 Herman was operating his own plumbing business out of the family home on Morganford Road. In 1925 he moved his family to
St Louis County on Gravois Road where it intersected with Sappington Road in what is now the City of Sappington. He opened a
hardware store from which he ran his plumbing business on the ground floor with the family living above the store.
ORIGINAL FREY
PLUMBING BUILDING c1925
He soon remodeled the building to fit his family's needs:
FREY PLUMBING BUILDING c1927
Herman ran their business while Sophia took care of the family and through their hard work the business prospered even through the early
years of the Great Depression. Herman Frey as postmaster in Sappington for 18 years and the Frey Plumbing building became a
landmark on Gravois Road. Hold CTRL and click here. Within a few years Herman again
found it necessary to remodel the building:
 
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FREY PLUMBING BUILDING c1933
Under Herman's guidance, Frey Plumbing Company developed a reputation for quality and craftsmanship throughout the St Louis
Metropolitan area.
As the family business grew, so did the children. Both William and Edna attended Sappington Elementary School:
 
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WILLIAM CLASS PICTURE
 
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EDNA 2ND GRADE CLASS PICTURE
 
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(2nd row 2nd from left)
Sophia and Herman remained married the rest of their lives and celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1960. They spent their entire
lives together in their home in Sappington.
Herman Frey died on May 30, 1964, at the age of 81 from a cerebral hemorrhage:
Casper Heinrich Kolling was born in Hullhorst, Nordrhein-Westpahlia, Germany
(Hold CTRL and click here) on July 7, 1835, the son
of Henric Junger Kolling and Anne Maria Klausing Kolling. His father died when he was 9. At the age of 23
his mother brought him and his older brother to America.
Not all families came to America through New York. When Anne Marie Kolling and her
two sons arrived here, they first set foot in New Orleans on October 16, 1858, having sailed from Bremen, Germany, on the
bark Anna Delius with a group of fellow Germans:
AD FOR ANNA DELIUS SAILING TO
QUEBEC
 
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PICTURE OF BARK TYPE SHIP
From New Orleans, they headed up the Mississippi River to settle in Warren County, Missouri, just west of St
Louis, where they Americanized their name to Koelling. Casper made his living as a farmer and a preacher.
January 22, 1865, Casper Koelling married Sophia Dorothea Maria Mestmacher in the Immanuel Lutheran Church at Warrenton,
Missouri. Casper and Sophia had 10 children.
CARRIE AND KATIE KOELLING
FLORENZE KOELLING FAMILY
 
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JENNY KOELLING JURGEONS FAMILY
LINDY & KATIE KOELLING
February 2, 1888, Casper Koelling married Margarett Loeher Thee in the Smith Creek Methodist Church in Warrenton,
Missouri. Casper and Margarett had three children.
Casper Koelling died Nov 15, 1930, at Champion City, Missouri, where he is buried in the Methodist Episcopal
Cemetery.
The youngest daughter of Casper and Sophia Koelling was Sophia Margaret Koelling born Dec 10, 1886, in Franklin County,
Mo. By 1910 she was living in St Louis in the Starka Crumb household where she and her sister Katie worked as
servants.
[After you watch the "They Coming To America"
video above, click on the play button on the audio panel underneath it to hear DeeDee
talk with her Storyteller Karen Mack about her German roots!]
When we think of our families coming to America, pictures of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island roll through our mind--just like this
video. But the Statue of Liberty wasn't there until 1886 and Ellis Island wasn't processing immigrants until 1892.
When Peter and Louisa Huy Frei first set foot in America together as husband and wife it was at the Castle Garden Immigration Depot in New
York Harbor:
He first came to America at the age of 15 sailing on the ship Saxonia from Hamburg, Germany, and then Southampton, England, and
arriving in New York on November 1, 1865. From New York he made his way to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where he was living with his
Aunt and Uncle May and Andrew Frey on the 1870 census. Family lore has it that his brother Philip also came to America but that he
settled in New York.
Peter returned to Dallau in late 1876 where he married Louisa Huy (Hold CTRL and click
here) in January, 1877:
 
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PETER & LOUISA WEDDING PICTURE
Peter brought his bride to America on the ship W A Scholten sailing from Rotterdam and arriving in New York after a two week
voyage on May 28, 1877:
From there they traveled west and settled in Dutchtown, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, near Peter's Aunt and Uncle, and
Americanized their name to Frey as they had. Peter and Louisa lived on a small farm in Dutchtown.
Peter and Louisa had 6 children before Peter died in 1890 (hold CTRL and click on a name for their story):
Peter Frey died Jan 20, 1890, of "intermittent billious" fever after a 10 day illness. He is buried in the
cemetery of the German Evangelical Church in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
 
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DUTCHTOWN, MO, GERMAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH
 
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Herman Carl Frey was born Sept 12, 1882, in Cape Girardeau, Mo, where he was baptised at the Trinity Lutheran
Church.
Hold CTRL and click here. By 1900 he had
moved from Dutchtown where his dad and mom had settled back to Cape Girardeau, where he and his brother Emil lived with and worked for the
Chris Haman Dairy family.
By 1910, Herman Frey moved to St Louis, Mo, where he worked as a dairy deliveryman while he attended trade school to become a
plumber.