My Great-Great Grandfather

My sister, Nonie, is the renown genealogist in our family. She has gathered information on our family since she was just a young teenager. Truly, Karen and I benefit from Nonie's labor of love as we sit back and read all of the information she collects and enjoy photographs of kinfolk whom we never knew.

Her recent addition is this wonderful newspaper article on the Hon. John Frazee who is my grandmother Effie Tolle Meyer's grandfather, my dad Byron Meyer's great grandfather, my Great-Great grandfather, Amy's and Chip's Great-Great-Great Grandfather, and who is the Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather of my grandchildren: Jarrett, Isabella, Josh and Jaden.

I publish this with heart-felt gratitude for my ancestors and so many more who endured so much to make our Great Country what it is today, with thanks to Nonie for sharing it with me, and in gratitude to my Heavenly Father for His wonderful gift of life. And now, the article.....

New Hampton Tribune
New Hampton, Iowa

17 Jan 1917

INTERESTING FACTS OF EARLY LIFE IN THIS COUNTY STAN IN STRONG CONTRAST TO LIFE OF PRESENT DAY

The Tribune numbers among its list of subscribers quite a number of the first and earliest settlers of Chickasaw county, and the following brief, but general history of one of these pioneers will be interesting reading to all of our readers, not only the older ones but those of the second and third generations, and we doubt not but there are quite a few of the fourth generation, since Chickasaw county was first settled, who will read the history of one of our citizens with much interest.

The information here contained has been secured in talks with the subject of this sketch. His life history impressed us as being of such intense interest that we are glad to publish it for the benefit of New Hampton Tribune readers.

The subject of this sketch is the Hon. John Frazee, known practically to every resident of the county.

John Frazee was born in Owen township, Clinton county, Indiana, near the little city of Frankfort, the fifth day of February, 1841. His father, James L. Frazee, was born in Pennsylvania and was a descendant of a long line of French Huguenots, who came to America in a very early day. His mother, Susanah Harris-Frazee, was a native of Maryland and a descendant of sturdy German stock.

John Frazee was the youngest of a family of four children. Benjamin, the oldest, died February 8th, 1914, at the age of 85 years. Nancy J. Frazee-Campbell, the elder of the two sisters, lives near Fairfield, Nebraska. Elizabeth Frazee-Jarrad, the younger, lives at Independence, Missouri. John, the subject of this sketch, makes his home with his children, who live near Bassett.

In the autumn of 1851, his parents moved to Clinton, Iowa, where they resided until the fall of 1852, at which time they moved farther west, arriving in Chickasaw county the 17th day of October. On this trip the family traveled north from Clinton county to Dubuque and thence west through Elkader to the little town of Auburn, located on the Turkey river, but now known as Douglas. From there they journeyed on west to a place called the Brink House, which was located some little distance east from the present town of New Hampton. This was practically the end of travel west so far as roads were concerned at that time in this part of the state and from there the family were compelled to make their own track across the prairies, through the forests and across the streams. They finally located on what is now section 5. township 95, range 14, arriving there the 17th day of October. Immediate preparations had to be made for winter. Trees were felled, logs hewn and in a short time a log cabin was erected, but not before the first wintry blasts had swept down from the north.

Mr. Frazee states that the winters of 1852-1853 were the earliest he ever experienced. Snow began falling the night of the 9th of November, covering the ground to a depth of six inches, increasing constantly all through the winter until well into March. That first winter was one of indescribable hardship. There were no neighbors for several miles and the family was poorly provided to withstand the rigors of the severe winter.

The log home was not completely finished when winter overtook them. All members of the family took the part of master architects in this erection of their first home in Chickasaw county. They succeeded in getting the roof on and the logs plastered with mud up to the windows before the snow came. The remainder had to be plastered with mud on the inside, getting the material and making the mud under the floor.

Like the first winter was made doubly hard from the fact that all grain and provisions had to be hauled from Elkader and during the winter Mr. Frazee's father was compelled to make a trip to the Mississippi river at Lyons, where the family had left some household goods and clothing they needed badly, including several head of hogs, intended for the winter's meat supply. At the time this trip was made the weather was very cold and stormy and on this account it took fourteen days for him to make the trip. All this time the sturdy wife and children were alone, many miles from other neighbors and with hardly the bare necessities of life, and anxiously awaiting the husband and father's return. On this trip his feet were badly frozen but otherwise he got through with the goods and live stock safe and sound.

The following spring and summer the family were enabled to prepare for the winter. Some crops were harvested and the home put in better condition. During the summers of 1854 and 1855, quite a number of settlers came in, so that by fall of 1854 there were several near-by neighbors. All these pioneers were imbued with a progressive spirit, characteristic of those who blazed the way for others to follow.

The trip of the Frazee family and the subsequent trip of Mr. Frazee to the Mississippi river was quite different then to what the same trip is now. Instead of the trip consuming fourteen days, it can now be made there and back in a few hours by train or auto.

It was not long before the one thing needed was a school house, but how to get it was the query. However a meeting was held, at which time the settlers decided that each one would haul a certain ____________all turn in and raise the building which they did without any hitch. The lumber for the floor was hauled from Bradford. The roof was made of clapboards and "shakes". (We will guarantee there are but a few of our younger readers who will know what "shakes" are.) That old log school house was only a few rods east of where the Bassett school house now stands. The only compensation any of the builders ever thought or expected to receive, was that it might be instrumental in every possible way to advance the interests and better the condition of their children. There are no reliable statistics at hand but it is generally conceded that this log school louse was among the very first rural one erected within the county.

It was here in this school house, with its slab benches, that John Frazee attended school in Chickasaw county, at the age of sixteen years, and it was one of the first in after years he taught. To a man who has reached the ripe old age of nearly four score years, it must surely be a pleasure for the mind to revert back to these days so full of hardships, yet not without a large degree of joyful pleasure, and especially is this true when there are still a number of people residing in and near New Hampton, who were friends, neighbors, school mates and pupils of the pioneer teacher.

After having taught one term of school, Mr. Frazee entered the Upper Iowa University at Fayette, which he attended summers and falls for three years, teaching school during the winter season of each year.

Mr. Frazee has been more of a public man than private citizen and has served in various capacities as a public official, including school treasurer and secretary of the district township for ten years. He was township assessor two terms, a member of the board of supervisors three years and was twice elected to the legislature of the state as a member of the 25th and 26th general assembly. While a member of this honorable body he served on the committees on claims, animal industries, fish and game, public lands and buildings, mines and mining, medicine and surgery, appropriations, agriculture and insurance.

In 1865 he was married to Miss Cyrena Beckwith, a native of the state of New York, and who died November 9, 1909. To this union was born six children. J.A. died in infancy, Jas. J. at the age of twelve years, Susana L. at the age of ten years, Glencora E. Frazee-Tolle, Lenora J. Frazee-Waidelich and John D. Frazee, still survive and live near the old homestead and with whom Mr. Frazee has lived since his wife's death.

The life's story of this honorable gentleman, while not romantic or filled with tragic deeds, has been one fraught with all the hardships, the joys and successes of pioneer life. He has been enabled to witness the transition of this county from a savage wilderness to one of great progress, prosperity and intellectual advancement, and now as he spends his declining years among peace and plenty, it must be a source of great pleasure for memory to look back to the time when Chickasaw county was in its primitive state and note the difference of then and now.