Frederick W March, Bishop Post, G.A.R.

Frederick William March was the son of Johann and Anna M. Merz.  After arriving in America in 1847, someone in the family decided to "Americanize" the name.
As the Defiance Evening News wrote, changing a name was not disrespectful to Germany, but instead a sign of wanting to be a good American. 
"The German name of our highly esteemed German-American citizen Frederick W. March is Herr Merz; of Henry J. Smith, Herr Schmidt.  The same is true of hundreds of other cases...Though of Teuton blood, they are now children of the great American republic and have a right under the constitution to anglize their names if they so desire."

Frederick Merz came to America on the ship, New York, on August 9, 1847, from the port of Bremen with his parents, Johann Merz, 54, and Anna Margaretha, 50, and his brother Joh. Michel, 19.  Friedrich Wilhelm was 14 at the time, stated the ship's manifest.  At some point between their arrival and the census of 1850, it appeared that the father, Johann, died.  In 1850, an older son, John, 30, (who many have come earlier) was named as head of the household with brothers, Michael, 24, and Frederick, 20, and their mother, Ann M., 56.  They were farmers in Adams Township, Defiance County.

In 1857, at the age of about 37, Frederick married Christina Souder and they had children, John, Henry and Christina.

Fred served in Company E of the 67th Regiment, Ohio Infantry.  According to his reporting on the 1890 Veterans Census, he enlisted on November 1, 1864 and was discharged on October 31, 1865, serving 11 months and 30 days. 

In 1866, Christina had a son, Frederick, on August 23, and on September 2, 1866, Christina died, perhaps of some complications of childbirth.  Left with four small children, Frederick wasted little time in marrying again on June 13, 1867, to Anna Maria (nee Schliesser) Stetter, a widow.  From his second marriage would come daughter Philopena.  On March 2, 1872, Anna Maria died and by October 20, he was married to Maria Hartman.  She was about 22 and he was 42; they would have four children together: Lydia, Edward, Dora and Karl.  On a public ancestry tree, the record of the marriages may be seen HERE.

Frederick moved to Defiance before the 1870 census and worked as a clerk in a store before acquiring his own dry goods store.  By 1880, he gave his occupation as dry goods merchant and his son, Henry, worked as a store clerk.  Son, John was a sadler (saddler).

Frederick W. March died on August 27, 1900.  He was buried at the Independence Cemetery, and strangely, his obituary never listed his military service. There is also a variation in the birth of Frederick. Was his mother Christina or Anna Maria - a job for the March family researchers to confirm.  But, for the genealogist, the naming of his village of birth in Germany is invaluable!

Fred March at www.findagrave.com