PROF. JOSEPH FRICK is the Principal of the German department in the public schools of Freeport, Ill. He was born Jan. 20, 1820, at Weingarten, Kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, and was educated in that country, graduating from the college at Augsburg, Bavaria. In August, 1849, at the age of twenty-nine, he came to this country, where he secured and held a position as teacher near Buffalo, N. Y., for about five years. In 1854 he came West and located at Freeport, where he established a school known as the “German Free School,” and where he was employed as a teacher of the English and German languages, and various other branches of education, for a period of sixteen years. In the year 1870 he was engaged as teacher of the German language in the public schools, which position he has since held, being Principal of this department, with his daughter Matilda as assistant the last five years. He is the oldest teacher in the city of Freeport, and in Stephenson County, and counts the highest number of years, thirty-three, in continuous service.

During his third of a century of service as teacher, the schools of this country have undergone a remarkable change. At the time Prof. Frick landed in America, the schools in all that section of country west of Ohio were in their most primitive stage. The few colleges and academies scattered here and there, were in their infancy, and institutions of learning which have since become noted, were then struggling for a bare existence. As an enthusiastic educator, Prof. Frick has watched the rise and progress of educational interests in the West with much pride and enthusiasm, and it affords much satisfaction to him to know that he has given his best efforts to the general movement in advancing educational matters, as it is largely due to his efforts that the German branches in the public schools of Freeport have attained their present standard of excellence. Mr. F. is still in the harness, and as enthusiastic as he was the first day he identified himself with the educational interests of Freeport.

Contributed by Carol Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888)