Chalmers Gideon Frick
By Mamie Frick Page:

C. G., the name he was commonly known by, was born on the outskirts of Liberty, Rowan County, NC, on 3 Aug 1882. Originally known as Garfield, the village had a post office on the Campbell family property on the Stokes Ferry Road east of the crossroads. C. G.'s parents, Levi Frick and Julia Stoner, were descended from the Germans who had settled eastern Rowan County. Julia served as the mid-wife for the community.

C. G. was a man of slight build, hazel eyes, dark hair which grayed early, and a man who moved with haste. His attempts at saying the letter V always came out W, so by his pronunciation he was a man of "wim, wigor, and witality."

Of the seven children of Levi and Julia Frick, only C. G. and Amanda lived beyond age 38. Most died as young adults from cancer of the digestive system. Levi died when C. G. was 13, and he lived with his mother until about age 20, working on the farm and going to school 3 or 4 months each year until he finished 7th grade. He was especially fond of arithmetic. During this time he also worked at several odd jobs including some time with Graff-Davis Lumber Company.

While still single, C. G. bought a small farm and built a house on his property adjoining Liberty Methodist Church. His 32 acres were bought in three separate tracts for $12.50, $20, and $25 per acre respectively.

On 11 Feb 1906 C. G. married 19 year old Mary Christina Eagle of the Liberty community. They had wanted to marry much earlier but had waited because of the objections of Mary's father.

About a year later C. G. transferred his church membership from St Matthews Lutheran Church to Liberty Methodist Church where it remained until his death.

Soon after marriage C. G. was seriously ill with measles and its complications and confined to bed for seven weeks. Relatives and neighbors helped Mary with the farm and brought the family through its first crisis.

After farming a few years C. G. took a job in the local general store of F. M. Tyack. His work included wagon trips to Salisbury to sell eggs and other farm produce which had been traded for merchandise at the store. While in Salisbury he purchased stock for the store and usually arrived home very late. Although the job had no stated hours, C. G. was expected to be on the job from about sunrise to sunset.

He returned to farming and purchased the "Graff Place" about two miles south of his home. It was mostly wooded, so one of his projects was clearing "new ground". While the brush fires were burning C. G. suddenly missed his son Harvey. He ran frantically among the acres of burning brush until he found the small boy soundly sleeping near a burning heap. "This 10 acre 'new ground' was a source of pride to its owner, but to the children who would later follow its long rows of corn and cotton it was a grim symbol of toil and sweat." [MFP, who was one of those children.]

The year 1917 brought World War I, and C. G. joined the labor force in the construction of Fort Bragg. This was "essential" work making him exempt from the draft. For a few years in the early 1920's he operated the new general store in Liberty. Mary helped in the store, and they also kept the farm in operation, but in spite of these successful enterprises C. G. wanted to move on to new ventures. He aspired to the saw-milling business, and Mary would not agree. She was planning a new home with modern conveniences and their priorities were in conflict. Finally a compromise was reached. C. G. sold the store and used the money to enter the lumber business. The farm was deeded to Mary so that it could never be taken by creditors. First the saw-mill operated locally, then in Montgomery County, and finally near Wilmington. The venture proved to be a disaster. C. G. lost all his assets, 18 months of work, and returned home broke. The next years were spent clerking at Salisbury Hardware and commuting 10 miles each way daily by automobile, but C. G. was never satisfied working for someone else.

By this time all eight children had been born and the older ones were leaving for high school and college.

In 1929 Mary died of cancer on her 43rd birthday. The following summer C. G. had mumps and a long illness followed. "It was impossible to say how much was physical and what part was emotional. The farm was neglected, household tasks and his nursing care were performed by the children. The family did little more than exist." [MFP]

By the time C. G. was recovered the Great Depression was on, and with five children at home, he looked for a way to make a living. "Things had more or less fallen apart after Mary's death. The farming became mere "patches", the healthy stock of cows, chickens, and pigs dwindled then became practically non-existent." [MFP]

In 1931 C. G. bought a 1929 Chevrolet truck with money borrowed from Mary's uncle, Bill Kirk, and began a new career hauling corn and later peaches from the NC sandhills. During peach season he hauled a load every day, buying for 25¢ per bushel and selling for 50¢ a bushel. In the fall he added a new one and a half ton Chevrolet truck and started hauling citrus fruit from Florida. Sometimes he had a load of apples on his return trip to Florida. This kept him away from home most of the time except for Sunday. His truck ran almost continuously, day and night – citrus fruits, bananas, apples, corn, cabbage and other vegetables or fruit from any point where it was in season. He rarely undressed or slept in a bed, instead stopping for short naps by the roadside or sleeping while his helper drove.

C. G.'s produce business came to an abrupt end in 1940. He was beaten and robbed in his basement warehouse on East Council Street in Salisbury when he went to show bananas to a couple of thieves posing as customers.

More illness followed with months in and out of hospitals. After an appendectomy at the hospital in Albemarle, C. G. became mentally disturbed and was moved to Rowan Memorial Hospital in Salisbury and then Duke Hospital. The doctors at Duke seemed to consider him more or less a hypochondriac.

By this time most of the children had left home, Pearl had died, and Nelle and her daughter, Kay, had moved back to the homeplace.

In 1943 the war was the dominant fact of American life and C. G. was functioning again, now filing saws at a shipyard in Norfolk. He married his double sister-in-law Emma, sister of Mary and widow of his deceased brother, Jones. This was a mistake and they lived together only briefly. However they never divorced even though both lived for many more years, and they had very little contact while living in the same community.

C. G.'s later years were spent alone except for brief periods with Mamie or Elizabeth when unable to care for himself. He tended his peach orchard, raised vegetables for market, and cared for the house, all with very little help. He had no hobbies and work was all he knew or enjoyed other than reading. "He thought idleness was of the devil and placed most sports in about the same category." [MFP] Mary had said that he was an extremist who could not walk in the middle of the road – that inevitably he would move either to the left or the right.

Except for the time spent in field work or at messy jobs, C. G. was always neat and loved to be well-dressed. He was especially pleased on those occasions when he was mistaken for a minister. This was the image he liked to create, and at times he seemed to feel that he had missed his calling. He was married and the father of several young children when he once expressed the desire to go to school and enter the ministry. Mary had disagreed, and he sometimes spoke of this even late in his life.

Finally the time came when he could no longer live alone. At age 85 he had to give up driving, and though this was a demoralizing experience for him, it was necessary. For years he had been a hazard on the roads. His vision was dim, his reflexes slow, and his hearing very poor. Mental deterioration made it impossible for the family to care for him, and most of his last three years were spent in nursing homes. After successive strokes, he died at age 89 on 28 Mar 1972 at Smith's Rest Home, Old Concord Road, Salisbury. His son-in-law, Franklin Page, was sitting with him when he died. C. G. quietly stopped breathing and passed peacefully out of this life. He was buried beside Mary at Liberty Methodist Church on 30 Mar 1972.

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Footnote by Nelson Page:

Grandpa Frick did not know how to relate to children, and when young, his grandchildren were not attracted to him. He preferred only "serious" conversation, his favorite topics being religion and politics, both of which he felt very strongly about. His Republican stance was demonstrated when he refused to call President Roosevelt by name, always referring to him as "that man" instead.

Grandpa was widely read, highly articulate, spoke flawless English (except for his problem with ‘v’), and had an extensive vocabulary. Had he moved in certain circles, he might have been mistaken for a college professor. Though his formal schooling ended with the 7th grade, he was a scholar of the first order who loved to read and study.

A source of tension between Grandpa and some of his grandchildren was his refusal to countenance sports in his yard on Sunday or card playing in his house at any time. Fortunately the Morgan School playground was nearby and shielded by woods from the view those at his house. I am sure he knew what we were doing there, but off his property and out of his sight seemed to be sufficient. Likewise, Lib's house, also an easy walk away, was a refuge for card playing. His distaste for sports in general and Sunday sports in particular made for an uncomfortable situation on a number of occasions when he was forced to co-exist with the NFL.

Grandpa helped Norman move and re-construct the Fort Bragg army barracks which became The Furniture Hall. He was Norman's only help in the early years, and Grandpa and Mother kept the business in operation when Norman was called-up as a Marine reserve for active duty during the Korean War.

No matter how many ripe peaches were in baskets on his porch or ready for picking in his orchard, no peach was ever picked or sold on C. G. Frick's property on Sunday.

Peach harvesting was a frantic time for Grandpa and all who worked with him. This included most of the available grandchildren when they reached about age 14. If there is a worse job than picking peaches, I do not know what it is. It is always late July or early August when NC heat and humidity are at their peak. The peach fuzz is so irritating that most pickers must wear long sleeves and a buttoned neck. This was certainly my experience, and no bath was ever more appreciated than the one following a day in the peach orchard. Breaks were a foreign concept to Grandpa, and one was hard pressed to get out of the orchard except briefly at lunch. The expectation was sun-up to sun-down work. Mercifully it was all over in less than two weeks, and there were probably only several days each season of the type I have just described.

Grandpa had many regular customers, and many of these would have delighted in picking their own fruit. Afraid they would damage either his trees or the other fruit, this was never allowed. Some years he set up roadside stands to sell his crop, and I manned two of these. One was under some trees on highway 52 where the I-85 overpass is now located, the other under the cover of an abandoned gas station in Rockwell.

Mother once told her Sunday School class that she would give $100 to anyone who saw her Dad go into an ABC store. Someone suggested that Mother didn't really mean this, that all she had to do was get Grandpa to step in and quickly out, and they'd split the $100. Mother, with some emotion, replied that she would give $1000 to anyone who could get her Dad willingly to step through the door of an ABC store. And she added that she could make such a statement confident that no loss was being risked.

Head injuries sustained in the robbery permanently damaged Grandpa's vision. He could not locate the center of a stick or piece of wood visually. At times reading was difficult or impossible depriving Grandpa of a cherished activity. I recall occasions when I read to him. His hearing was poor, and I do not know whether this was related to the beating at the time of the robbery. All his attempts at using a hearing aid seemed to prove unsatisfactory.

Grandpa had a small book-lined study on what had once been part of the side-porch. Access was from the living room. He could converse on current and historical events at a level far above what is commonly found in college-educated people of the late 20th century.

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By Nelson Page from conversation with Norman Frick, 7 June 1998:

Norman was with his brother, Fred, in Hickory when his father was beaten and robbed (about 1940). At that time C. G. Frick's wholesale produce business was doing very well. His warehouse was located on East Council Street in Salisbury. C. G. was supplying produce to most of the grocery stores in Salisbury and Albemarle.

The robbery occurred on a Saturday afternoon. C. G. was taken to a banana treatment room in the basement, beaten with a hammer, and left there. Some folks looking for C. G. and finding the business open but him not there, went across the street to a grocery store operated by a Mr. Lash, a black man. He had seen C. G. at his business not long before, and told the seekers that he should be there somewhere. They returned, went to the basement, and on opening the banana room found C. G. unconscious at the door where he had crawled and passed out. A lengthy stay at Lowey Hospital in Salisbury followed.

Salisbury Post account of C. G. Frick Robbery:
http://lavonpage.com/family/external/robbery/robbery.pdf

"Lavon, I remember your grandfather C.G. well--he was a good old guy-- boy did he love to talk. He would come and visit with us and he and my father would talk for hours, ususlly on Sunday afternoons. We bought peaches out of his orchard before we started growing them ourselves." Everette Frick 02/18/06

Correspondence between C. G. Frick and wife Mary:
http://lavonpage.com/family/external/cg-mary/cg-mary.pdf