HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
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fraternities, and is a member of the Columbian Club, the Elks and other organizations. In politics he is a Democrat and takes a leading part in political affairs. His wife, Mary (Loser) Fraey, is a daughter of John Loser, a merchant of Aurora.
PHILIP FREILER, distiller and wholesale liquor-dealer, Elgin, Ill., was born in Hartford, Conn., April 3, 1860, son of Joseph and Mary (Bachrach) Freiler, and was educated in Chicago, whither his parents removed in 1867. In early life he became connected with the liquor trade, in which his father and brother-in-law were engaged in Chicago. After some years the elder Freiler established a wholesale liquor house in Elgin, and in 1883 Philip Freiler purchased the business of which he has since been the head. In 1902 he bought what was known as the Stitzel Distillery at Louisville, Ky., and organized the Century Club Distillery Company, which has since operated the plant. Mr. Freiler is a director and the principal stockholder of this company. He is also interested in banking operations in Elgin, where he holds considerable banking stock. During Governor Altgeld's administration he was Treasurer of the Illinois Hospital for the Insane. In Masonry he has attained the Thirty-second Degree, and is a Noble of the Mystic Shrine; is also connected with several other fraternal organizations, including the Elks and Knights of Pythias. In 1883 he married Miss Lizzie Ehrlich, of New York City, and they have had the following named children: Florence J., now at Wellesley Hall, Mass.; Hilda Valerie and Ruth Beatrice.
OTTO FRELLSEN, hotel proprietor, St. Charles, Ill., was born in Denmark Dec. 8, 1866, came to the United States in 1888, and after stopping for a few months in Chicago removed to Geneva, where he found employment as a farm laborer for three years. In 1892 he returned to Chicago, where he kept a saloon for two years. In 1894 he came to St. Charles, and was there engaged in the same line for a time, when he started in the hotel business as landlord and proprietor of the White Front Hotel, which soon became the leading hostelry of these regions. Mr. Frellsen is a member of the local lodge of Knights of Pythias. He was married Jan. 4, 1896, to Miss Kristine Maree Pettersen, of St. Charles.
BENJAMIN F. FRIDLEY (deceased), pioneer lawyer, Aurora, Ill., was born in Elmira, N. Y., May 10, 1810, his birthplace being next door to that of the famous Democratic leader of more modern times, ex-Governor and ex-United States Senator David B. Hill. Left an orphan at two years of age, Mr. Fridley was reared mainly by an elder sister who lived in Baltimore, Md. As a youth he was thrown almost entirely upon his own resources and, as a consequence, enjoyed but limited opportunities for acquiring an education. He early gave evidence of a remarkable energy and tenacity of purpose, as indicated by the fact that, when he determined to study law and wanted to procure a copy of "Chitty's Pleadings," he walked all the way from Elmira to Philadelphia for the purpose of securing the needed work. Through the assistance of his brother-in-law, who was a man of some means, he later went to New York and completed his law studies in that city. Mr. Fridley came to Illinois in the fall of 1834, bringing with him a small amount of capital which he had saved from professional earnings, and for a time made his home near Oswego, Kendall County. The following year he removed to Aurora, having in the meantime
