The following is excerpted from Gebhard Schoech's Story. It appeared in issues of the Ottumwa Courier in late 1927.
Excerpts
Postscriptum: I feel mortified that now I recollect not having mentioned a single word about my lifelong friend Benedict Fritz, and will now make amends for the unintentional omittance.
The way I came to make his acquaintance is this way: I was working in a shaft on our gold claim near Placerville when a man called down to me, inquiring if I had a job for him. We agreed upon terms and I hired him and afterward sold him a third interest in the mine worked by Karl Walther and myself. He as Benedict Fritz and was a countryman of mine, although I had not made his acquaintance previously. Together we three worked in the claim for two years and we became very close friends. He remained in California two years after I left there, and soon after I arrived in Iota he also came to that state and then settled down near Blakesburg and remained my most cherished and intimate friend.