Information from Enoch’s records and Findagrave. 1
Frank was born in La Salle County, Illinois to Harriet (née HAGENBACH) and Elias Isaac ERB.
Elias came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and homesteaded in north-central Illinois.
Frank was a brother to Melinda, Henry, Enoch, James, Lewis (Louis), and Elias.
When Frank came of age he traveled northwest to Dakota Territory where he homestead on a federal land grant patent. He obtained 160 acres, the Southwest Quarter of Section 2, Township 109 North, Range 70 West, on 20 January 1888, in Hand County.
With him were brothers Henry and Enoch, who would obtain there own homesteads in September of 1889. Henry would eventually move on to San Diego, California, and Enoch would go on to farm in Neosho County, Kansas.
Frank married Mary Elizabeth Millan, in Ames, Hand County, South Dakota, on 6 April 1890.
Mary and Frank soon had their first child, Lewis S. born in April 1891.
In 1892 Frank, Mary, and baby Lewis moved to Lime Lake Township, Murray County, Minnesota. Also with them where Mary’s mother Priscilla and Mary’s brother Perry. While here Chester Lee (1892), Verlie Leslie (1893), Mark VanBuren (1894), and John Elias (1896) were born.
The family returned to South Dakota in 1898. Frank again obtained a land patent in Hand County, this time for 160 acres, the Southeast Quarter of Section 29, Township 109 North, Range 69 West, on 23 May 1898. The family lived in nearby Virgil, Dearborn Township, Beadle County.
After the new century the family moved to Roswell, New Mexico.
Mary died in Roswell in early 1914. In the summer of that same year Lewis married Alice I. PRATER in Roswell.
Frank soon remarried, to Jennie M. RICHMOND, in Roswell.
As the boys came of age they became drillers in the oilfields. This would lead to the family’s gradual migration to Oklahoma City during the 1920s, with some of them stopping in Amarillo along the way before continuing on.
Chester died in Roswell on 5 October 1928.
After Jennie died in Roswell the following year, 1 March 1929, Frank soon decided to join the remaining children in Oklahoma.
In December 1934, Frank married for the third time, to Rachel Broun, in Oklahoma City.
NOTE: According to the 1940 census he was divorced from 3rd wife Rachel Brown and living with his son Mark V. Erb. [FROM: Renee Pierce Smelley; email]