Milton F. Fritts

MILTON F. FRITTS. The Codell State Bank was established in 1906 under a state charter and has been furnishing a general banking service to that section of Rooks County for over twelve years. Its capital is $10,000 and its surplus $10,000, and through the personnel of its officers and directors the bank enjoys the strict confidence of that large and prosperous agricultural section. The officers of the bank are: S. R. Tucker, president; Isaac Conger, vice president and Milton F. Fritts, cashier.

Mr. Fritts, the cashier, has lived in Western Kansas nearly all his life, and has had a varied experience ranging from farming to merchandising. He was born in Luray in Russell County, Kansas, December 17, 1875.

His father, Capt. John Fritts, a well known citizen of Western Kansas, was born in Fayetteville, Ohio, August 22, 1839. He was a school teacher in that place before the war. Capt. John Fritts enlisted in Company B, Fifth Regiment, Ohio Cavalry, September 6, 1861, made up at Cincinnati, Ohio, and was mustered out in Company E, same regiment, October 30, 1865. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Pittsburgh Landing, also first battle of Corinth, thence to Memphis, Tennessee, battles of Coldwater, Mississippi, Hernando, Matamora or Hatchie, Tennessee, was taken prisoner on scout duty and held a prisoner for nineteen days, spending a part of the time in Castle Thunder, Richmond, Virginia; was paroled and sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, returned in time to take part in battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, on from Chattanooga through to Atlanta, Georgia, participating in many of the engagements through that campaign, thence with Kilpatrick's Cavalry through to Savannah, Georgia, and also from there to Raleigh, North Carolina, acting through directions of General Sherman, protecting the flanks from the enemy cavalry, participating in many of the skirmishes and also the battles of Averysboro and Bentonville, North Carolina. In this campaign they were more or less engaged each day and many exciting episodes occurred which history does not mention. Captain Fritts was at the surrender of Johnston and then after that was retained to protect in lieu of civil government until government was organized under the United States. This called on them to establish courts composed of army officers, of which he was one, which position he filled until mustered out, October 30, 1865. He was in the service of the Union Army four years and by merit and bravery was promoted to the rank of captain. After the war he returned to Ohio and took up farming, and in 1869 came to Kansas. After a brief stay in Franklin County he moved out to the frontier in Russell County, and the homestead of 160 acres he took up was his place of residence for forty years. He increased his farm to 320 acres. In 1912 he retired from the farm and is now living at Dowling Park, Florida. In 1872 was appointed county commissioner and helped organize Russell County, and was elected county commissioner in the fall of 1872. He once represented Russell County in the Legislature, being elected in 1873, attending the extra session of 1874, and for several years was a trustee of Luray Township. Captain Fritts is a sterling republican and was affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees, and is in the Grand Army of the Republic. He married in Ohio Charlotte Wright, a school teacher. She was born in Blanchester, in that state, in 1841 and died at Luray, Kansas, in 1885. She was the mother of eight children: Manie, who died in Oklahoma the wife of L. D. Smith, a farmer now living at Fallis, Oklahoma; John E., railroad agent at Wakeeney, Kansas; Edgar V., a dairyman at Paola, Kansas; Gladis, wife of John McReynolds, cashier of the Farmers National Bank at Lincoln Center, Kansas; Milton F.; Naomi, wife of Bert B. McReynolds, cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank at Plainville, Kansas; Ethel, who married Logan Miller and lives at Stockton, Kansas; and Ada, wife of Hans Nygaard, who is employed by the Boise Fayette Lumber Company at Idaho Falls, Idaho. Captain Fritts married for his second wife Laura North, a native of New York State. She was the mother of two sons: Rollin Lewis, who died in infancy, and Chester A., who is in Company E, Twenty-Eighth Field Artillery, Camp Funston, Kansas.

Milton F. Fritts received his education in the public schools of Luray and also attended the State Agricultural College at Manhattan. His varied experience included five years of farming in Russell County, eight years as a grain buyer at Luray, then on the farm again for a year, farming near Siloam Springs, Arkansas, for a year and on returning to Luray in the fall of 1911 he worked one year with the Farmers Elevator Company. Following that he was cashier of the Paradise State Bank three years, then spent a year farming at Emmett, Idaho. In 1917 Mr. Fritts returned to Kansas and located at Codell, and on January 1, 1918, took his present responsibilities as cashier of the Codell State Bank. He also owns a farm of 240 acres in Osborne County. The chief crop is wheat. Mr. Fritts is a republican and is affiliated with Codell Lodge No. 418, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Codell Camp, Modern Woodmen of America.

August 17, 1902, in Clay Center, Kansas, he married Miss Helen Dillinger, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. R. Dillinger, who reside at Bennington, Kansas, where her father conducts an elevator. Mr. and Mrs. Fritts have six children: Donald, born on August 27, 1904; Everett, born November 9, 1906; Theodore, born February 11, 1910; Roger, born April 3, 1911; Helen, born November 13, 1912, and Lucile, born November 14, 1918.

Pages 2141-2142.