With Christmas 1880 approaching, the Cincinnati Enquirer announced on December 7th that “Frank Freitch” had released a new book, “The Snoozer”. Translated from a German book and illustrated by Farny, Matt Morgan, and others, the comic creation was “funny beyond belief”. According to the brief article, Frank was hoping to find agents for the book. I searched all over hoping to find any evidence of the book, but had not luck. I also didn’t learn any more about Frank “Freitch”.
However, I now believe that Frank’s lat name was spelled incorrectly, likely missing an “s”. His last name should be spelled “Freitsch”. While no Frank “Freitch” is shown as living in Cincinnati during the 1880s, A Frank “Freitsch” was born in 1858 and died in 1940, having lived in Cincinnati likely all of his life. He married Sophia Twatchmann around 1890 (1910 census), who appears to be the younger sister, by six years, of John Henry Twachtmann, a well-known artist based artist. Twatchmann studied under Frank Duveneck.
If all this is true, then Frank Freitsch would have been twenty-one when he wrote “The Snoozer”. Given his parents were born in Germany, it would seem likely that he spoke German as well and also likely he read the German version of “The Snoozer” as a youngster. It also appears that he left his authoring days behind and spent most of his later working-life in the Hamilton County Auditor’s office.
