Kurth,  Frederick  W. A. — This  popular  arbiter  of  justice  and  counselor-at-law,
was  born  near  Berlin. Germany,  June  6,  1844. His  mother  dying  when  he  was  a
child  he  was  brought  to  Detroit  when  a  lad  of  eight  years. William  A. Kurth  is  re-
membered by  hundreds  as  deputy  sheriff  for  thirty  years  and  constable  for  Spring-
wells  ;  he  is  is  still  living  in  Detroit  at  the  age  of  eighty-two,  a  hale  and  companion-
able old  gentleman. Frederick  W. A. received  his  education  mainly  in  the  German
Seminary. His  father  then  worked  at  the  shoemaker's  trade;  Fred  also  learned  it
and  worked  with  him  as  a  boy  and  then  clerked  in  various  stores  until  his  nineteenth
year,  when  he  enlisted  in  the  regular  army. The  19th  Regiment  was  then  stationed
at  Fort  Wayne,  but  it  was  soon  after  transferred  to  Kansas  and  the  Indian  Territory
and  held  the  garrisons  at  Fort  Smith  and  Fort  Gibson,  and  was  for  some  time  at  the
Little  Rock  Arsenal. While  at  Little  Rock  the  cholera  broke  out  in  1866,  Fred
being  the  first  one  to  take  it  and  never  fully  recovered  from  its  effects. For  some
years  after  his  service  he  was  working  as  bookkeeper. He  was  chosen  as  school
superintendent  for  two  terms,  previous  to  1879,  when  he  was  sent  as  representative

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to  the  State  Legislature  for  the  Second  Wayne  county  district. The  following  year
he  was  elected  justice  of  the  peace  in  Springwells  and  has  held  that  office  contin-
uously since. He  read  law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1886,  and  is  now  in  part-
nership with  his  son,  Charles  W. Kurth,  a  graduate  of  the  Detroit  College  of  Law,
and  they  have  a  nice  practice  besides  doing  a  general  insurance  business. Judge
Kurth  is  one  of  the  brightest  minds  in  the  town  of  Springwells  and  holds  the  confi-
dence and  esteem  of  his  townsmen  in  a  high  degree. Keeping  in  close  touch  with
public  matters  his  voice  is  often  heard  in  his  party's  councils  as  well  as  m  the  various
courts  of  his  practice. February  14,  1870,  the  married  Matilda  A. Zimmerman,  and
thev  have  four  children:  Luella  M.,  wife  of  Fred  W. Hawes  of  Newark,  N. J.;
Charles  W. of  Detroit;  George  D. of  Newark,  and  Albert  L. of  Detroit. Judge
Kurth  is  a  communicant  in  the  German  Evangelical  church. 