Arfst Frederich Frudden was born in
Toftum,
Föhr,
Denmark (later
Germany) to Cornelius F. and Elke (Namens) Frudden on September 10, 1854. In 1871, following the
Franco-Prussian War, he emigrated to the
United States, ending in
Clinton, Iowa. He worked on his cousin's farm near
Sabula, Iowa for a year and a half. Some acquaintances that Frudden met during his emigration offered to give him a warehousing job in Clinton with Curtis Brothers & Company. In 1880, Frudden joined W. W. Carr & Company in
Dubuque, Iowa. The next year, he rejoined Curtis Brothers as the foreman of their factory in
Wausau, Wisconsin, staying there for three years. Frudden returned again to Dubuque and again worked for his previous employer there, now known as Carr, Ryder & Wheeler. By 1888, Frudden had saved enough to found his own company with his two sons and brother, the Frudden Lumber Company. Reorganized in 1894 as the Rumpf-Frudden Lumber Company, it grew to handle over 20 million feet of lumber per year. Frudden remained in Dubuque until 1919, when he retired to
California. He married Philine Johannsen on November 30, 1877, and had seven children. He was a
Shriner and 32nd degree
Mason. He died in
Beverly Hills, California, on April 8, 1931, and was buried in
Linwood Cemetery, Dubuque. ==References==