Frederick W. Maurer’s life took him from small-town life to harrowing adventures in the Arctic and ultimately to his heroic death 4000 miles from home.
David Maurer (1845-1926) was born in Germany in 1845 and learned the tailor’s trade as a young man. After he finished his training, he moved briefly to Switzerland before he set out for a new life in the United States. When David arrived in February 1872 he moved to Canton, Ohio. There he continued to correspond with a young lady he met while in Switzerland. A year after his arrival she, Marie Maier (1850-1926), also made the journey and the two were married in 1873. David and Mary at first tried to live in New Orleans before they returned to Ohio and established themselves in New Philadelphia. David built a stable life as a tailor, residing on West High Street with Mary and their four young sons and a daughter. David worked as a tailor at the Senhauser’s Clothing Store in New Philadelphia before going into business himself.
David opened his own tailor shop on the 200 block of West High Street in 1893, a location that eventually served as both his business and residence for years to come. Maurer’s two eldest sons worked in the tailor trade with their father and another son learned the mercantile business. The Maurer family welcomed their youngest son, named Frederick William Maurer (1893-1923), in 1893 and the household remained busy with both family life and the tailoring trade. David passed the business to his son John by 1907, though he continued to be listed as a merchant and tailor in later census records.
The Maurer family, newly arrived in New Philadelphia, Ohio, recorded on West High Street on the 1880 census. (Source: familysearch.org) 
New Philadelphia, Ohio newspaper advertisement for David Maurer’s tailor shop on West High Street, September 1893. (Source: newspaperarchive.com) 
The Maurer tailor shop and residence depicted on the 1901 Sanborn Insurance Map for New Philadelphia, Ohio. (Source: loc.gov) 
Detail from a later postcard showing the Maurer tailor shop and residence on West High Street in New Philadelphia, Ohio, c. 1923. (Source: ebay.com)
Frederick, or Fred as he was called, was ten years younger than his nearest sibling and was attending school when the 1900 census of New Philadelphia, Ohio was taken. Whether David intended for Fred to become a tailor, or Fred rebelled against the idea, is unknown. When the 1910 census was taken, Fred was recorded as having no occupation, though it is hard to imagine he did not do work in the family’s West High Street tailor shop. Perhaps it was while working in the shop that he dreamt of a more exciting life than that of a rural Ohio tailor.
Fred Maurer’s life of adventure began when, shortly after turning 17 years old, Fred and a childhood friend named Donald Linn (1895-1958) travelled all over the United States and eventually made their way to San Francisco to look for work. Unable to do so, in early 1911, they signed up to be seamen on the steam-and-sail powered whaling vessel Belvedere headed later that year for Alaskan waters and the Arctic. The young men anticipated being at sea for two to three years before they could return to the United States and their families. It was during this trip that Fred Maurer met the famous Canadian Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962).
New Philadelphia, Ohio newspaper article about Fred Maurer and Donald Linn’s plan to serve on a whaling vessel, August 1911. (Source: newspaperarchive.com) 
Photo of the whaling vessel Belvedere wintering in Alaskan ice, 1913. (Source: wikimedia) 
New Philadelphia, Ohio newspaper story of Fred Maurer meeting Canadian Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Sefansson, September 1912. (Source: newspaperarchive.com) 
Photo of Fred Maurer, c. 1913. (Source: “The Adventure of Wrangel Island” by Vilhjalmur Stefansson via archive.org)
Stefansson and Maurer hit it off and, as Maurer’s friend Donald Linn returned to a normal life in Illinois, Maurer decided to hitch his fate to that of the Canadian explorer and signed on for his planned exploration of the Arctic and the northern coast of Canada in 1913. When he signed on to the expedition, Maurer already had two years of Arctic experience on the Belvedere so he was brought on as an Able Seaman on the expedition’s vessel, previously used as a whaler, named the Karluk. The Karluk sailed from Esquimalt, British Columbia on June 17th, 1913 with New Philadelphian Fred Maurer on board.
After stops in the Alaskan ports of Nome, Port Clarence, Point Hope and Point Barrow, the Karluk headed northeast into the Arctic Ocean and its quickly freezing ice pack. It was not long after passing Point Barrow that the Karluk began to have trouble navigating the growing, and constantly moving, ice. Eventually the ship was completely locked into the ice and the crew, well-supplied for the winter, prepared to over-winter in the ice pack in the Arctic Ocean. They, including Fred Maurer, did not realize at the time that this was the beginning of an ordeal that by December 1913 appeared to have a tragic ending.
Photo of Canadian Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 1915. (Source: wikipedia) 
Map of Alaska and the lower Arctic Ocean, 1916. (Source: loc.gov) 
Expedition members surrounding the Karluk as it is stuck in an Arctic ice flow, 1913. (Source: “The Adventure of Wrangel Island” by Vilhjalmur Stefansson via archive.org) 
New Philadelphia, Ohio newspaper headline reporting the fear that the Karluk had been lost in the Arctic, December 1913. (Source: newspapers.com)
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© Noel B. Poirier, 2025.
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