Jacob Grenz

Family Photos and Information

Wedding Day - 13 MARCH 1930

Family of Jacob and Lucy Grenz - 2008

Jake was famous for standing on his head. He would often do it on the tractor seat according to Florence, Marvin's wife.

One day in the mid 1950's during a visit to see Adam Grenz his brother, Adam took the family and Jake to the Oregon Coast. I was in the back seat. I was perhaps ten. Jake asked Adam to stop at a view point turnout. There was a stone wall edging the turnout protecting the viewing public from a two hundred foot plunge on the other side. Jake climbed up stood on his head on this narrow strip of stone and would not get down until dad took a picture. Meantime I was in the back seat wide eyed sure that I was about to witness a plunge to the death.

Stanley Grenz

The funeral for Jacob Grenz, 84, Napoleon, N.D., will be at 2 Friday in United Methodist Church, Napoleon. Visitation will be ongoing at Nickisch Funeral Home, Napoleon, and one hour before services in the church. He died Tuesday, Dec. 8, 1992.

Mr. Grenz was born Dec. 30, 1907, near Napoleon. He grew up and attended school in the Burnstad, N.D., and Napoleon area. He married Lucy Freier March 13, 1930, near Streeter, N.D. They lived on various farms in the Napoleon area before settling on a farm near Napoleon. They retired in 1954 into Napoleon. He later resumed farming and became a resident in March of Napoleon Care Center.

He is survived by his wife; a son, Marvin, Napoleon; three brothers, Ernest, Mesa, Ariz., and John and Roland, both Bismarck, N.D.; a sister, Lydia Schauer, Bismarck; six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Obituary for Lucy (Freier) Grenz

The Jamestown Sun
Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Lucy Grenz, 99, Napoleon, N.D., died Friday, Nov. 14, 2003, at Wishek Nursing Home, Wishek, N.D.

Lucy Freier was born Sept. 28, 1904, in Friedenstal, Bessarabia Russia, the daughter of Phillip and Dorothea (Ehli) Freier. In 1909, she emigrated with her parents and her brother, Jacob, to the United States. They settled on a farm in Campbell County near Eureka, S.D. In 1913, they moved to a farm southwest of Streeter, in Grenz Township, North Dakota. She grew up on the family farm and attended country school in the area at the schoolmaster’s house. She married Jacob Grenz on March 13, 1930, at Hope Evangelical Church near Streeter. They lived on several farms in the Napoleon area. She enjoyed homemaking, working in the farm, raising chickens and milking cows. In 1943, they bought the Hoffman farm in Grenz Township, where they lived and farmed until they retired from farming and moved to Streeter. They later built a home in Napoleon. He died in 1992. She became a resident of the Wishek Nursing Home in 1995.

She is survived by a son, Marvin (Florence), Napoleon; six grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; a son, Alan, and three brothers, Jacob, Edward and Gust.

Services: 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, United Methodist Church, Napoleon, with the Rev. Ron Wilke officiating.
Prayer Service: 7 p.m. today, Dahlstrom Funeral Home, Napoleon.
Visitation: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today at the funeral home and one hour before the service at the church.
Burial: Napoleon City Cemetery, Napoleon.