Biography :

Joseph Fronville, father of Louis Fronville, and his family emigrated to the United States in 1856. They came in the States with the ship "Mathilda" by way of New York, landed 15 May 1856 with their children Florent, 18 years old, Louis 15 years old and Marie Thérèse 11 years old and settled around Clifton, Iroquois County, Illinois.

The wife of Joseph Fronville died the subsequent year, to say September 9, 1857, and Joseph contacted such sickness as intermittent, remittent, bilious fever and dysentery as rendered him afterward unfit to do any heavy work. Fronville, till 1862 lived in a place most exposed to malaria at the immediate junction of a river and a creek of stagnant water both overrun with weeds. (Louis was listed with household #1520 Chebanse township)

In 1862, to survive, Joseph had only the labor or wages of his son Louis and a few dollar additional from a younger(?) son, and, since 1859, he was not able to do any more than part of small chores, being disabled by old age, ague and accident. The death on his son Louis reduced Joseph to poverty.

Georges I. Robinson, Captain of Co. D, 89^th Illinois recollect the circumstances of the death of Louis Fronville at Louisville, Kentucky : I was well acquainted with Louis Fronville, who was a private in my company. The said Louis Fronville was suffering from Diarrhea or dysentery and obeying the wants of nature was going towards the common privy for soldiers, a small distance outside the lines, when in going there, the intensity of his disease forced him to stop and he stooped. He was noticed by the guard who tried to make him get up. The man Fronville could not understand the English language or could not get up and the guard shot him in the basin and femoral region from which shot he died in the Louisville hospital; that said Louis Fronville was a very brave and honorable fellow who always behaved himself as a true soldier in the service of the United States.