History Is Just a Handshake Away With Friendly Fred

If you saw Old Fred and didn’t know him you would think he was one of the legion of America’s homeless, a drifter perhaps. But you can’t always tell a book by its cover.

Fred Litzner--known to everyone in this area as Old Fred--wears a well-worn flannel shirt, old trousers, a seedy black coat and faded black hat, walks with a cane and always carries a shopping bag. His get-up belies his standing as an extraordinary historian.

For 20 years, Litzner, 75, has lived in a tiny house filled floor to ceiling with hundreds of his handwritten notebooks, with boxes brimming over with historical records, with books and artifacts. He has no telephone or TV. There’s hardly room for him to move about in his one-room modest dwelling.

Old Fred is the best-known character in the small towns along the byways and highways in the sparsely populated counties where Lakes Michigan and Huron come together separating Michigan’s Upper Peninsula from the Lower.

“He waves at everybody, talks to everybody. Tell him your name and if you’re from around here he’ll tell you all about your family, tell you things about your ancestors you have never heard before. He’s uncanny,” said Joe Nowak, 48, a long-time Michigan state trooper.

“Old Fred hitchhikes everywhere. He doesn’t have a car. He’s a roamer. Everybody picks him up. He’s such a friendly, fascinating person. He’s a walking encyclopedia. And, he traces everyone’s family tree,” said Janet Peterson, 33, executive secretary of the St. Ignace Chamber of Commerce.

“The Ballad of Old Fred,” published in the St. Ignace News, captures the essence of this remarkable man. It begins:

This is a story of a man named Fred

It’s true and correct and should be said,

For he’s not a bum or tramp as seems,

But a gentle old man who shares his dreams.

Ain’t that something though, Old Fred,

You keep a record of everybody, living and dead.

You knew my uncles, my aunts and even my paw;

Tell me their life, then say “good luck to ya.”

Litzner grew up on a Michigan farm. His grandparents came to Michigan from Germany in 1885 after seeing signs painted on barns urging Germans to migrate to Michigan, where the land was good, plentiful and almost free. The Germans came in droves.

Litzner graduated from high school in Saginaw. He farmed. But history was his avocation, his passion, his obsession. He purchased historical items at auctions and presented them to universities, museums, historical societies.

“He is known to historians at the University of Michigan, at Michigan State, to historians and librarians throughout Michigan. He is a most extraordinary person,” said James Moody, 53, professor of history at Lake Superior State University, Sault Ste. Marie.

“I would like to sit down with Mr. Litzner for six months and tape everything he knows. He is a tremendous resource. I have just completed a paper for the National Academy of Sciences on the history of railroads in the Upper Peninsula and the industries that grew up with the advent of the railroads.

“Fred knows more about this than anyone I know. He knows the players. He knows the location of dozens of sites of towns that no longer exist. He can take you right to them. He has a tremendous collection of books and artifacts not only in his humble home but in storage that he maintains. He talks to everyone. He is as close to St. Francis of Assisi as anyone I have ever met.”

Katherine Punch, 72, a librarian at the Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, library from 1937 to 1981 and on the library board ever since, is one of numerous librarians throughout Michigan and Ontario befriended by Litzner over the years.

“He knows history on a personal basis. He does so much for history. I’ve never met anyone quite like him. For 25 years he has been hitchhiking to our library from his home, bringing information to add to our historical collection,” Punch said.

“I won’t hear from him for months. Then one day he appears. He searches out small clues. Anything he runs across pertaining to the history of our area he collects, saves, then presents to us--papers, maps, photo documents. He has added immeasurably to our collection.”

Litzner sends information to libraries as far away as Switzerland, Germany and Sweden about immigration to Michigan that might be of interest to them. He often hitchhikes to Detroit, Lansing, Ann Arbor and other places in Michigan to do his research.

“He is an incredible human being. He digests everything. He has an uncanny memory. He does all sorts of wonderful things for so many people out of the kindness of his heart,” said Donald Heldman, director of archeology at the Mackinaw City State Historic Park.

Ft. Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City, population 900, was built by the French in 1715, and occupied by the British from 1761 to 1781. Litzner is an authority on the period and has closely followed Heldman’s excavations at the site.

“You would think Old Fred was dirt poor, a lost soul in his old clothes carrying a shopping bag, hitchhiking all hours of the day and night. On the contrary, he is brilliant. He speaks beautiful German. He is an historian’s historian,” Heldman said.

So, if you see Old Fred standing by the road,

And, it’s starting to rain, it’s windy and cold,

Pick him up, don’t hesitate,

For the stories he’s got are really great. ...