Frasers Found

Cousin collaboration for the win! After a reference to “the memoirs of John Fraser Sr.” on a Find-A-Grave page led me to a new cousin, I was able to connect my 5th great grandmother, Mary Ann Fraser, to the rest of her family tree. Apparently, her branch was the “long lost” branch and I’d found the rest of the tree. My new cousin-in-law had a copy of these memoirs written by Mary’s father, John Fraser Sr. 

The memoirs were dictated by John and recorded by his son, Simon. Simon then compiled them, along with his own narrative, about March 1853. The original handwriting was quite difficult to read, so my cousin-in-law transcribed them into a typed document.

The memoir describes John’s place of birth, Muirton, as being one mile west of Inverness, Scotland. Their plot of land had a full view of Inverness, Fort George and Red Castle. His family lived there from “time immortal.”

Family members identified were:

• Father, John
• Grandfather, John
• Great grandfather, Alexander
• Brother, Simon. Died about 1820, leaving one son, John, a schoolmaster in the Highlands.
• Sister, Margaret, who was “deaf and dumb,” immigrated to NY with him and died in 1835 aged 81.
• Mother, not named, but was previously married with children.

He also describes the family of John’s wife, Mary MacDonald. They were married in 1794; he was about 30 and she was 26. Her family consisted of:

• Brother, John
• Brother, Dugald
• Brother, George

He tells of his family of 7 emigrating to the US in 1803. Their traveling party included John and Mary; their children, Donald (age 7), John, Mary, Simon (7 days old); and his sister Margaret. An older, unnamed daughter died before they left Scotland. The daughter Mary died once they arrived in New York. They sailed from Glasgow to New York, then took a sloop to Albany and eventually made their way to the Genessee Valley. Someone even made a map plotting the route they’d traveled. They’d emigrated with 4 other families from the same area in Scotland and all settled in the same area; they named their new little colony Inverness.

The memoir continues with descriptions of his acquiring land and farming. It also tells of his children and their marriages. About Mary, he wrote: In April 21st, 1836 Mary the youngest daughter was married to Amos Smith, a blacksmith to trade, moved to Wisconsin where they still reside.

The following children of John (siblings to Mary) are mentioned in reference to their marriages:

• Donald, the oldest son
• John
• Simon
• Alexander
• Jannette, the oldest daughter
• Thomas

John Fraser Sr. died in 1847 and was buried at the Inverness Cemetery in York Township.

The Long Lost Branch

So this is a continuation of sorts of my research into Amos Smith and his wife, Mary Frazier. And it’s more of a road map of how I got from point A to B. Based on his biography in The History of Waukesha, Wisconsin I knew that Mary was from Livingston County, NY, which is also where they were married. The bio stated that Amos was born in Oswego* County.[1] His land patent for land in Waukesha County also identified him as a resident of Livingston County so I figured they lived there after they were married.[2]

I went looking in Livingston County to see what I could find. I don’t know if this is a New York thing or a North Eastern USA thing, but it seems as if many of the towns and counties have a historian on staff. And lucky for me, the Livingston County historian’s website has a lot of information. I think I clicked on just about every link to see what was there. But the one that was the turning point was for land records. This link took me to New York Land Records 1630-1975, a searchable database with images on Family Search. I decided to browse the images myself and looked for an Amos Smith in Livingston County.  In 1844, he bought/sold land to John Frazer Sr. in the Town of York.[3] Could John be a relation to Mary? Maybe a brother or even her father?

I went back to the town historian’s website and used their searchable database to look for this John Frazer Sr. There was death information for a John Fraser Sen. who died 24 Oct 1847 in York. He was 83 years old. In the notes, it states his place of birth was Inverness, Scotland and that he’d settled in York in 1804. He was buried in a cemterey bearing the same name as his birth city, Inverness.[4] There weren’t any results for John Fraser Sr. in the newspapers so I went to Find a Grave.

John Fraser Sr.’s grave at the Inverness Cemetery in York, New York is photographed on Find A Grave. Linked to his listing are his wife, Mary McDonald Fraser and four children: Simon J. Fraser, Alexander Fraser, Janet Fraser Blair and Thomas Alexander Fraser. No Mary Fraser and also no John Fraser Jr. So I clicked on each of the childrens’ graves to see what I could learn. Alexander, Janet and Thomas all had a small paragraph referencing “the memoir of John Fraser Sr.” A memoir?? How could I get my hands on this thing? I googled, but nothing came up.

From Janet’s grave:[5]

Per the Memoir of John Fraser, Senior:
1837, November 23rd, married Jannette the oldest oldest daughter to James Blair, an industrious, moved to Mumford, Monroe County, N.Y. where they still live and carry on the business of machine making extensively to advantage (thrashing machines). They have a family of 4 girls and 1 son, James, at this time 1853.

A few things looked familiar here: the surname Blair and the “thrashing machines.” Sounds a little like someone else I’ve recently learned about.

But it was Thomas’ that proved most helpful:[6]

Per the Memoir of John Fraser, Senior:
1839, September 27th married Thomas Fraser, the youngest son to Anna Fraser from Scotland. About the 3rd of October they emigrated to Illinois, Kane county, about forty miles from Chicago, where he purchased two hundred acres of land on which he lives till this day March 1853.
Contributor: xxxxxxxx

His entry had a contributer identifier (someone who didn’t manage the listing submitted the information) . So I wrote a message to this contributer, explaining who I am, that I’m researching Mary Fraser who married Amos Smith who bought or sold land to John Fraser Sr, and where can I find this memoir? And then I crossed my fingers that it was someone who checked their (likely spam) email and hit send.

All the genealogy stars aligned because later that day I received my reply:

So . . the long lost branch of Mary (Fraser) Smith has been found!
She IS mentioned in the memoir as the youngest daughter of John Fraser Sr (22146178) and Mary MacDonald Fraser (73506008). I received a copy of the “memoirs” from a Fraser relative, but have been unable to track down “who” had the original. I have lots of other items as well, so would love to connect.

!!!!!

*After further research, I now think that Amos Smith was actually born in Oneida County, NY.

[1]: The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Western Historical Company, Chicago 1880. Entry for Amos Smith, page 944. Linkstothepast.com [online database].

[2]: Bureau of Land Management, “Land Patent Search,” digital images, General Land Office Records (http://glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch : accessed [9 Jun 2020]), Amos Smith (Waukesha, WI), certificate no 7852.

[3]: United States, New York Land Records, 1630-1975, [database with images, familysearch.org] Livingston County>Grantee Index 1821-1921 S-Z>image 75 of 339; multiple county courthouses, New York.

[4]: County Historian, Livingston County New York, County Historian Records Index, searchable index (http://depot.livingstoncounty.us/HISTORIAN/HISTORIAN2.pgm) death information for John Fraser Sen.

[5]: Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 10 September 2020), memorial page for Janet Fraser Blair (1808–26 Jan 1894), Find a Grave Memorial no. 15711922, citing Mumford Rural Cemetery, Mumford, Monroe County, New York, USA ; Maintained by Donna Ruhland Bonning (contributor 46786861) .

[6]: Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 10 September 2020), memorial page for Thomas Alexander Fraser Sr. (12 Aug 1812–30 Nov 1882), Find a Grave Memorial no. 44787419, citing Memorial Washington Reformed Presbyterian Cemetery, Elgin, Kane County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Suze (contributor 47016239) .

Amos Smith, blacksmith

After finding the family of my brick wall ancestor, John Smith, my 4th great grandfather, I set out to see what more I could discover about them. I should note here that I found his parents, Amos and Mary Smith, in Waukesha County, WI. This is very “small world” to me because this is the very town where my husband grew up and where his family still lives. So it’s a little wild that the only branch of my family that lived in Wisconsin did so in the same town. My husband’s mind is still blown by this fact.

John was born in New York, so I knew the family had started out there. According to Amos’ biography, he was from Oswego County, NY and his wife, Mary Frazier, was from Livingston County, NY, where they were married. ¹ Amos was born about 1816 and Mary about 1818. They were living in Mt. Morris, NY in the 1840 census with 2 children and Amos was identified as being employed in manufacture or trade.² They moved to Wisconsin after 1840. He acquired some land south of Waukesha via a cash entry land patent in 1843. The patent identifies him as a resident of Livingston County, NY. ³ Interestingly, the land he bought is now a subdivision with streets all named after locations in Scotland. This could be a coincidence, but in a later post will seem a little less so.

In 1850, the family was living in Pewaukee, a village near Waukesha, and consisted of Amos, Mary and their 6 children. Amos was listed as a farmer. ⁴ By 1852, Amos partnered up with William Blair to operate an implement manufacturing business. I suspect Amos was the blacksmith behind this venture and William was the businessman. As a side note, William Blair became a very well known figure in Waukesha and Wisconsin history. He later served on the state sensate for 3 terms. There’s a road and a school named for him in Waukesha and his house is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1860 the Smith family was enumerated in Waukesha and Amos is finally listed as a blacksmith. ⁵ Plat maps for Waukesha show Amos as having property in downtown Waukesha, near the foundry he and Blair operated.

From the 1858 City Directory. I might be biased, but I think this a pretty cool logo.

 

In 1861, Amos and Mary’s youngest child, Charles, was killed in a shooting accident. He and a friend were practicing shooting at a target; the friend held up the rifle when Charles suddenly stepped in front him as he took the shot. Charles was shot in the head, causing “instant death.” He was 12 years old. ⁶

A few years later, Blair and Amos dissolved their partnership. ⁷ Amos apparently went back to “rural” life in Pewaukee after that. There are newspaper accounts of his Aldernay cow producing 20.5 lb of butter per week. ⁸ In 1872 he sold off a number of animal and farm implements and in 1879 there is an account of his return from Nebrasksa, where he was so impressed by the soil and weather that he bought another farm. The article noted that he had no intention of leaving the village though. ^{9 10}

Less than a year later, Amos was dead. He drowned while ice fishing on Pewaukee Lake in late January of 1880. ¹¹ The mortality schedule lists him as a retired blacksmith. His probate was adminstered by his eldest son, Albion B. Smith. ¹²

I am not yet sure what became of Mary after this point. I have a found a couple possibilities for her in the Wisconsin Death Index, but I suspect she died prior to 1900 because I haven’t found her after the 1880 census.

As for their children:

• Albion B. Smith moved to Minnesota where he married and had 2 children. He became a railroad engineer and at one time was the oldest engineer in America. He was in charge of the locomotive “William Crooks” at the Alaska-Yukon World’s Fair in 1909. He died shortly after that. The William Crooks is now in a museum about 4-5 hours away from me and I think I’d like to go visit it sometime. I may also do a write-up in Albion.
• John Smith, my 4th great grand father left Wisconsin sometime between 1850 and 1863 when he married my 4th great grandmother in Bannack, Montana. I have previously written about him.
• Luke Smith disappears right along with John. They show up together in Oregon in the 1880 census and that’s the last I hear of them.
• William Henry Smith also married and moved to Minnesota. He also became an engineer.
• Mary Jane Smith married and moved to Illinois.
• Charles Smith died at the age of 12 due to a gunshot wound.

 

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1. The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Western Historical Company, Chicago 1880. Entry for Amos Smith, page 944. Linkstothepast.com [online database]. ↩
2. United States of America, Bureau of the Census. 1840 United States Federal Census, St. Morris, Livingston, New York; Entry for Amos Smith; Roll: 294; Page: 192; Ancestry.com [database online]. ↩
3. Bureau of Land Management, “Land Patent Search,” digital images, General Land Office Records (http://glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch : accessed [9 Jun 2020]), Amos Smith (Waukesha, WI), certificate no 7852. ↩
4. United States of America, Bureau of the Census. 1850 United States Federal Census, Delafield, Waukesha, Wisconsin; Entry for Amos Smith, line 2; Roll: 1009; Page: 390A; Ancestry.com [database online]. ↩
5. United States of America, Bureau of the Census. 1860 United States Federal Census, Waukesha, Waukesha, Wisconsin; Entry for Amos Smith, line 1; Page: 262; Ancestry.com [database online]. ↩
6. Waukesha Freeman, Waukesha, WI; Tue, Dec 10, 1861, “Died.” NewspaperArchive.com [online database]. ↩
7. Waukesha Freeman, Waukesha, WI; Tue, Jan 20, 1863, “Dissolution of Co-partnership.” Newspaperarchive.com [online database]. ↩
8. The Superior Times, Superior, WI; 1 Jul 1875, page 2; “Waukesha County,” Newspapers.com [online database]. ↩
9. Waukesha Plaindealer, Waukesha, WI; Tue, Sep 24, 1872, “Auction Sales,” Newspaperarchive.com [online database]. ↩
10. Waukesha Freeman, Waukesha, WI; Thu, Apr 24, 1879, “Correspondence,” Newspaperarchive.com [online database]. ↩
11. Waukesha Daily Freeman, Waukesha, WI; 4 Mar 1880,  page 1; Newspapers.com [online database]. ↩
12. Waukesha Freeman, Waukesha, WI. Thu, Nov 25, 1880; Newspaperarchive.com [online database]. ↩