Henry Frerk was born in Germany in 1848. In the mid-1860's, he immigrated to the United States and settled in Brownsville, Ohio, where he met and married his first wife. After her unexpected death a few years later, he decided to make a new start and moved to Chicago.

It was in Chicago that he met Charles Bothfield. In the early 1870's, Henry and Charles purchased two buildings on the 1400 block of Milwaukee Avenue and opened a grocery and provisions store.

Milwaukee Avenue was the main road into the city from the northwest. It was a planked road and it was necessary to pay a toll in order to use it. The local farmers found that it was not profitable to pay the toll to get into the city to sell their small loads of produce. Recognizing their dilemma, and a business opportunity, Henry decided to become a commission merchant. He bought small the small loads, and delivered the produce in the city. The farmers, in turn, purchased their necessary supplies at Henry's store.

Henry was very lonely during this time. He hired a distant relative, Albertine Belitz, to take care of his house and they fell in love and got married. In 1874, they had a son, Alfred; three years later, a second son, Otto, was born.

The records do not indicate what happed to Charles Bothfield, but in 1884, Henry Frerk purchased property on the 1800 block of Milwaukee Avenue and opened his own hay, grain and feed store. Then, in 1887, he purchased additional property and expanded his business to the present location at Belmont, Kedzie and the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. Before long, Henry added a lumber, door, and sash business. This larger property, and the proximity of the railroad, enabled Henry to increase his business. He included coal, and stocked large quantities of hard building materials, such as sand, gravel, cement, and plaster. The aggregate was delivered in railroad gravel cars to the yard at Belmont Avenue. The sand and gravel in the cars was hand-shoveled by laborers who worked for only a few dollars per day.

There was a tremendous building boom taking place in Chicago during this period due to the rebuilding of the city after the Chicago Fire. The company used 20 teams of draft horses to make their deliveries. They traveled as far north as Half Day Road, which as the name implies, took a half day to reach by horse and wagon. A two-story stable with an elevator was built to house the horses. This building, on Fletcher Street near Albany Avenue, still stands today. The draft horses were raised on the company farm located in what is now the Barrington Hills area. The drivers came to work at four o'clock in the morning to groom and harness the horses. Henry Frerk personally inspected each harnessed team, and, the drivers weren't paid until they passed Henry's inspection.

Sometime in the late 1890's or early 1900's, Henry closed his hay, grain, and feed store on Milwaukee Avenue. On May 7, 1910, Henry Frerk died. He was 62 years old.

The company continued under the direction of his two sons, Alfred and Otto. They decided to drop the lumber portion of the business and concentrate on coal and hard building materials. Then, in 1925, Alfred died, leaving Otto to run the company. Even though the depression hit the building industry very hard, Otto was able to keep the company afloat in spite of filing for bankruptcy.

In 1946, just after his son, Rodger, returned from the war, Otto Frerk passed away. Rodger was the only child interested in taking over the company and became president of Henry Frerk Sons. In 1951, Rodger married Anne Galbavy. Loren, their only child and daughter was born in 1955. Loren married Kenn Wolf in 1978. Their child, Matthew, was born in 1984, a fourth-generation offspring of Henry Frerk.

In 1966, Henry Frerk Sons entered the ready mixed concrete industry. In order to be responsive to their customers' needs, they purchased a mobile concrete truck, an unconventional route to take. Starting with only one truck was risky business, and having only been introduced in 1964, the concrete mobile truck was still in it's infancy. The standard barrel mixer was familiar and popular in the Chicago area. Yet, Henry Frerk Sons wanted to provide their customers with the best and most economical product possible. The concrete mobile truck is a combination materials transporter and on-site mixing system. The mobile truck arrives on-site with dry, unmixed materials. Then, it precisely proportions and mixes fresh concrete. The concrete is proportioned and mixed only as needed, guaranteeing a fresh, high-strength product.

Since that small beginning of one truck, Henry Frerk Sons has added to their fleet. Today, they are one of the largest mobile concrete companies in the midwest.

Always responding to the needs of the customer, Henry Frerk Sons expanded their business in 1982 to include specialty concrete, such as latex modified, superplasticized, and low slump. These specialized concretes are used primarily to repair bridge decks and parking lot structures. Henry Frerk Sons has been able to satisfy both the rigid specifications of large government contracts as well as the problems associated with small jobs for the homeowner.