George D. Frey Papers

George Frey (Johannes Eberhardt) was born on March 1, 1732, in Germany. He sailed by ship to Philadelphia, PA in 1749 at the age of 17. He arrived in Pennsylvania as a redemptioner – a person who went into voluntary servitude for a certain period in exchange for passage to America. On a trip near Fort Hunter, he was captured and mistaken for a runaway indentured servant. He cried out, “Ich bin frei” (I am free). He was able to prove that he was, indeed, a free man and thereafter was known as Frey. He came to Middletown, PA in April of 1752, where he found employment as a farmer with George Fisher, the founder of Middletown.

George Frey was a Lutheran and one of the most active laymen in the early years of St. Peter's Church. He worked hard and spent little. He was a savvy businessman selling merchandise to the Indians and frontier settlers. He started his own store and also worked at importing and exporting. He went into partnership with John Hollingsworth at a grist mill (where what is now the east end of Mill Street). He rebuilt the property along with a mill stream. He bought up more parcels of land whenever he could. At one point he owned much of the land in what is now Hummelstown and Middletown.

Many years before his death in 1806, George Frey wanted to build and fund a home for orphans. He and his wife, Catherine were childless. He actually started the frame of a log building and it had a roof but it was never finished and was later sold. In his will, he left his property (over 1,415 acres) for an orphanage to be built and for its maintenance, once his wife had passed on. He wanted the orphanage to be called “Emmaus”* (perhaps from the reference in the Bible that we follow Jesus with little steps) and be under the care of the Lutheran Church.

There were some legal disputes among his siblings and their heirs that lasted years and drained a large portion of the money, but the brick building was finally erected in 1837 between Union and Spring Streets (at St. Peter’s Parish House). George Frey’s dream had come true. In 1840, a school for their education was started. Instruction was given in both German and English. The building was enlarged in 1841 and thirty-three children enrolled in the school.

* The early spelling of “Emmaus” and later “Emaus” refer to the same and are used interchangeably.

Sources Consulted: "Emaus Orphans Home", Lower Swatara Township Historic Preservation Societ, https://www.lsthistoricpreservation.org/emaus-orphans-home, accessed Jan 31, 2022.

"Middletown: Home of a 200-year-old rags to riches story", by Danielle Wadsworth, https://dreamhrpa.com/george-frey/, accessed Jan 31, 2022