Frederick Sann, Local Musician, Expires at 76
Survived Flood of 1889 By Floating On Rooftop Overnight

Frederick Sann, 76, of 404 Wood St., member of a well-known musical family of Johnstown, died at 6:30 o’clock this morning at his residence. He had been bedfast for over a year. Mr. Sann was a former coremaker of the Cambria Iron Company, and before retiring seven years ago, for the Johnstown Lorain Works, Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation.
Mr. Sann was born at Langd Hessen, Germany, a son of Frederick Sann Sr. and Maria (Shaffer) Sann. His father came to this country and Johnstown in 1887 to work for the Cambria Iron Company, and a year later his son, Frederick Sann Jr., came also to work for the company. The two floated overnight on a rooftop during the 1889 Flood. The following year Mrs. Sann and the remainder of the family came to Johnstown.
A clarinetist, Frederick Sann Jr., along with several of his brothers, became identified with the city’s musical life. He was a member of the Jaffa Shrine Band and the Johnstown Reed Band. He played in numerous parades and at dances and for a number of years the Cambria Theater before the development of sound motion pictures. Fifty years ago he played at a gubernatorial inauguration at Harrisburg with the old Mineral City Band of Johnstown, directed by Herman Baumer.
Active in Masons
The deceased was a member of Cambria Lodge of the Odd Fellows. He was identified with numerous Masonic organizations, among them Johnstown Lodge, Portage Royal Arch Chapter, Oriental Commandery, Knights Templar, and Jaffa Temple, A.A.O.M.S. He was also a 50-year honorary member of the American Turners, having been admitted on Mar. 16, 1890.
In 1896 Mr. Sann was united in marriage to the former Amelia Garhardt. Two children were born to this union – Ms. Loretta Roth, 358 Somerset St., and Wilbert H. Sann, who served in the South Pacific in World War II, and is listed as missing in action since May 18, 1944.
Six years following the death of his first wife, Mr. Sann was married to the former Anna Engel Foelsing, who survives him. He also leaves two grandchildren–Francis Roth and Frederick Roth, both of Washington, D.C., and two step-children–Lena Foelsing, Baltimore, Md., and Carl Foelsing, Providence, R.I.
Mr. Sann was a brother of Mrs. Maria Nau, 368 Ohio St.; Otto Sann, 531 Grove Ave., prominent in musical life here and director the Johnstown Reed band; Charles Sann, Topeka, Kan.; Ralph Sann, 331 Ohio St.; Mrs. Mathilda McAchren, Lorain Bor.; Hugo Sann, 934 Lemon St., Dale, and Mrs. Anna Bantley, 631 Coleman Ave.
Funeral on Thursday
Friends will be received after 7 p.m. today at the Geisel Funeral Home. Services will be held at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home by Rev. Theodore Buch, D.D., pastor of Zion Lutheran Church. Interment will be in Grandview Cemetery.

Source: THE JOHNSTOWN TRIBUNE (Johnstown, Cambria, Pennsylvania) Tuesday, 7 January 1947, “Obituary,” page 26, column 5; Cambria County Public Library, Johnstown, Pennsylvania