CLAYTON D. FRETZ, M.D., a son of Abraham and Sarah (Detweiler) Fretz, was born in Bedminster, Bucks county, November 16, 1844. His paternal ancestor, who with his brother Christian established the family in America, emigrated from near Manheim, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, in 1720. He spent his boyhood on the "old homestead" in Bedminster, attending the public schools, and later taught in the county four years. He chose medicine as a profession, and graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, March 13, 1868. He commenced practice at Sellersville immediately thereafter, and in 1872 also opened a drug store. On November 16, 1871, he was married to Kate B. Everhart, a daughter of Charles W. Everhart, who was a graduate of Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Four children were born to them, of whom a son and a daughter died in infancy. Alfred E. Fretz, M.D., a graduate of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, of the class of 1896, was born August 30, 1874. He served the appointment as resident physician at Mercy Hospital, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and returned to his native town to begin the practice of his profession. S. Edward Fretz, M.D., a graduate of the same institution in the class of 1900, was born August 30, 1878. He served as resident physician in Cooper Hospital, Camden, New Jersey, and two years as assistant physician to the Relief Association of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He is now in practice at Denver, Pennsylvania.

On September 1, 1898, Dr. Clayton D. Fretz’s wife died, aged fifty-two years. He was married to his second wife, Annie M. Fackenthall, a daughter of Aaron Meredith, late of Doylestown, and the widow of Alfred Fackenthall, Esq., of the same town, on August 14, 1900.

The study of botany and the collection of plants and flowers has afforded Dr. Fretz much pleasure during his long career as a country practitioner. He has added many new and rare plants to the known flora of Bucks county, and about forty to the state flora. His herbarium contains a complete set of nearly all the plants in the county, and a large majority of the plants east of the Mississippi, including about 10,000 specimens, and 4,000 species and varieties. He has just completed a revision of Dr. I. S. Moyer’s catalogue of the plants of Bucks county.

Politically Dr. Fretz is a Republican, and was a delegate to the state convention of 1895. He served as a school director for a period of fifteen years; is a member of St. Paul’s congregation of the Reformed church, and has been president of the Sellersville National Bank since 1893. He is a member of the Bucks County Historical Association, the Bucks County Branch of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association, the Philadelphia Botanical Club, the General Alumni Association of the University of Pennsylvania, MacCalla Lodge No. 596, F. and A. M.; Doylestown Chapter, R. A. M.; Pennsylvania Commandery, Knights Templar, of Philadelphia; and Sellersville Lodge No. 658, I. O. O. F.