Kroesing, Frederice Leo "Fred" or "Frederic"

1890-1968 | Businessman


Frederice “Fred,” or “Frederic” Leo Kroesing was born on February 14, 1890 in Riedishhelm, in Alsace, then part of Germany, but now in northeastern France. He immigrated to the United States in 1921 and, as a trained chef and baker, worked in various New York hotels before taking a job as chef in a southeast Alaska cannery. He then moved to the state of Washington.

On April 2, 1926, Kroesing was married to Ida Emilia Johnson in Mount Vernon, Washington. She was born in Monson, Maine, in 1893. She was working in a cannery in Anacortes, Washington when she met Fred. [1]

In 1928, the Kroesings moved to Anchorage, and Fred was hired as a cook at the Alaska Railroad Hospital. On the side, he started raising mink, as mink farming was considered a good investment. In 1938, he traded some mink pelts for land at 10th Avenue and M Street for his mink farm. However, the noise made by aircraft landing on and taking off from the adjacent airstrip between 9th and 10th Avenues, caused the mink to kill their young, forcing him to leave the mink business.

Kroesing had built a small apartment house on M Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues, on the outskirts of Anchorage. After the end of World War II, he built a cold storage plant there and it was eventually named 10th & M Lockers and then evolved into 10th & M Seafoods. At 10th & M Lockers, he cleaned and stored fur coats during the summer, and butchered, packaged and stored meat the rest of the year. In 1950, he built the B & C Auto building at 4th Avenue and Eagle Street and another building on 6th Avenue between F and G Streets.

In 1928, Kroesing filed a declaration of intention to become an American citizen in Superior Court, Skagit County, Mount Vernon, Washington. In 1932, his petition for naturalization to become a U.S. citizen was approved by the U.S. District Court at Anchorage.[2]

The Kroesings retired to Anacortes in 1960. Frederice Leo Kroesing died on January 29, 1968, in Anacortes. The given name of "Fredice" appears on his grave marker.  Ida E. Kroesing died in October 1972, in Anacortes. They are buried in the Grand View Cemetery in Anacortes.[3] They were survived by their daughter, Diane M. Kroesing.  Their son, Lloyd Frederick Kroesing, died in an automobile accident on the Glenn Highway in 1955.  His remains are buried at Angelus Memorial Park in Anchorage. 

 


Endnotes

[1] Fred Leon Kroesing and Ida E. Johnson, Washington, Marriage Records, 1865-2004 [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed August 8, 2016).

[2] Index card, Frederice Leo Kroesing, June 10, 1932, U.S. District Court, Anchorage, AK, National Archives Microfilm Publication M1788, Indexes to Naturalization Records of the U.S. District Court for the District, Territory, and State of Alaska (Third Division), 1903-1991, Roll 10, U.S., Naturalization Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project) [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed August 8, 2016).

[3] Fredice L. Kroesing, U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-current [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed August 8, 2016); and Ida E. Kroesing, U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-current [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed August 8, 2016).


Sources

No entry for Frederice "Fred" or "Frederic" Kroesing was published in John P. Bagoy, Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1935 (Anchorage:  Publications Consultants, 2001).  See also the Frederic L. Kroesing file, Bagoy Family Pioneer Files (2004.11), Box 4, Atwood Resource Center, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Anchorage, AK.  Edited by Mina Jacobs, 2012.  Note:  edited and revised by Bruce Parham, August 8, 2016.

Preferred citation: Bruce Parham, “Kroesing, Frederice Leo ‘Fred’ or ‘Frederic’,” Cook Inlet Historical Society, Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1940, http://www.alaskahistory.org.


Major support for Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1940, provided by: Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Atwood Foundation, Cook Inlet Historical Society, and the Rasmuson Foundation. This educational resource is provided by the Cook Inlet Historical Society, a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt association. Contact us at the Cook Inlet Historical Society, by mail at Cook Inlet Historical Society, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, 625 C Street, Anchorage, AK 99501 or through the Cook Inlet Historical Society website, www.cookinlethistory.org.