The Colorful Fraser family
Percy Barrett’s Mother, Grandparents and Great Grandparents on the Fraser Side
To start with the very most basic point, Percy Barrett is my grandfather. He is the father of my mother. Of course, he is also the grandfather of all my first cousins on my mother’s side of my family. For the record, at one time, I had 36 first cousins on this side of the family.
Percy Barrett’s mother was Flora Fraser Barrett. She was born on Jan 4, 1851 in Patterson, New York and died July 10, 1925 in Danbury. Flora’s father, who is of course, Percy’s grandfather, is JD Fraser. He arrived in the United States from Dundee Scotland in 1838. JD’s parents were Andrew and Grace Ann Fraser. We are not sure what Grace Ann’s maiden name was.
Andrew and Grace Ann came from Scotland to Patterson, in 1832. They paved the way for their son JD and their two daughters, Catherine and Jane. How all five managed to end up in the same place in those days when they headed out at different times I do not know, but Andrew, Grace Ann, JD, Catherine and Jane all ended up in Patterson together.
JD was married in Patterson to Olive Eastwood in probably 1850 or a bit before. They had four children all in Patterson. One of these children, of course, was Flora Fraser, Percy Barrett’s mom.
One of JD’s sisters was older than he was and the other was younger. His older sister was Catherine M Fraser Pettis. She was married to Joel Pettis (1800 -1882). As of yet, I don’t know of any children they may have had, or in fact, either sister had. His younger sister was Jane Malvina Fraser Crosby. She was married to Harvey Crosby (1803 – 1870).
It seems both Joel Pettis and Harvey Crosby were men who possessed some wealth. However, they outlived their wives and therefore, there were no Frasers in either of their wills. After Jane Fraser died, Harvey Crosby married Laura Baker. She was 17 years younger than he was. After he died, everybody and his brother were chasing after Harvey’s dough! However, no Frasers were a part of this pursuit. Harvey was a “Merchant” and I get the idea Joel was a lawyer. The marriage certificate below is what makes me think so. Also, this certificate tells us the head of our clan, Andrew Fraser, was also a lawyer.
I never before saw August abbreviated as Augus. Also, though it is a bit difficult to read, the firm Pettis, Howland was in Richfield, Otsego County, New York. Cooperstown is in Otsego County as well.
Joel and Catherine Fraser Pettis, Harvey and Jane Fraser Crosby as well as Andrew and Grace Ann Fraser are all buried in The Presbyterian Churchyard on Maple Ave in Patterson. This is the same cemetery in which Olive Eastwood’s parents, John and Ann Ludington Eastwood are buried. Col Henry Ludington and Sybil Ludington of Revolutionary War fame are buried in very close proximity to them as well.
The four Fraser children of JD and Olive Eastwood Fraser who came from Patterson to Danbury with them, from oldest to youngest were Flora, born in 1851, Andrew J, born in 1852, Margaret, better known as Maggie, born in 1854 and Joseph S Fraser, born in 1858. For clarification, because JD Fraser has a father named Andrew and a son named Andrew, we will always refer to the younger one as Andrew J as he is referred to this way in all of the documents about him.
To throw a little genealogy into the mix, Flora Fraser, who would later marry Robert Barrett in which year we are not certain is my great grandmother, her parents, JD and Olive Eastwood Fraser are my great great-grandparents and Andrew and Grace Ann Fraser are my great-great-great grandparents.
I’m also not sure of the exact date that JD and Olive Eastwood Fraser came to Danbury with their four children but they were in the 1870 census as residents of Patterson but in the 1880 census as residents of Danbury, CT. Also, as we will see shortly, JD and Olive’s son, Andrew J Fraser, was “of Danbury” when he married Phoebe A in 1874. So, I think it is safe to say that Andrew J, his brother and sisters and parents (Olive and JD) were all Danburians by 1874.
.Our first colorful story about these colorful Frasers comes from something we see in the 1900 census. In this census, Flora says she was married for 22 years as of this time. This is interesting because Robert and Flora’s first child, Maltby,` was born in 1875.
Birth record of Maltby Barrett’s birth from Danbury City Hall and Flora Fraser Barrett’s 1900 census.
At 24 years old, Flora was plenty old enough to be married in 1875. Plus, both Robert and Flora were from New York State. So, they could have gotten married there before they set out for Danbury, Connecticut in 1874. If the had done so, they would have been married for 26 years in the year1900, that would have been enough time to have a baby in 1875. However, Flora said she was married for 22 years, so …this means they were married 22 years by August of 1900 (August is when the 1900 census came out) and Maltby, who was born on September 15, 1875 was about to turn 3 years old when she married Robert Barrett. If true, that’s pretty colorful stuff!
It’s alright with me though. Back then, people had it difficult enough without somebody from the future playing holier than thou with them. They had a lot to do just to try to get their family to a place they could start a new life without going through the rigors of a marriage ceremony. Besides, these people didn’t even have indoor plumbing. In my mind, that makes them much, much better than we people of the future! (End of Editorial Number 1)
With that background in place, we will move on to Percy Barrett’s aunts and uncles and first cousins on his mother’s side of his family. We will also talk about Percy’s children’s 2nd cousins on this same side of the family. Pretty much we are talking about Percy’s mother’s family from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. We already know a bit about JD Fraser’s oldest child Flora because she is my great grandmother and we have already covered her immediate family in the Barrett Roots post, “The 7 Children of Robert and Flora Barrett.” So, we will start with Percy’s uncle Andrew J Fraser.
Andrew J Fraser and His Family
Andrew J and Phoebe A
Obviously, Andrew J Fraser was named after his grandfather, Andrew. There are no childhood records of Andrew J Fraser, but he was married in Danbury, Ct in 1874 to Phoebe A, and she divorced him in 1877. We do not know Phoebe A’s maiden name. We will keep looking for it but for the time being we’ll just assume she was from the Danbury area. The more immediate point though is she divorced Andrew J after about three years of far less than matrimonial bliss.
After the divorce, in the 1880 census, we see Andrew J listed as single living with his younger brother Joseph S Fraser. The address was South Footer St. South Footer St is now just part of South St. It is the part that connects to Grand St.
Andrew J and Nellie and Children
Around January 25, 1882, Andrew J Fraser and Helen “Nellie” Birdsall were married. I say about January 25th because the record I have only tells us the date of the Danbury News Times issue in which the marriage notice was published. This was the January 25, 1882 issue. January 25th 1882 was a Wednesday. Still, this could be their wedding date because I asked AI if people got married on weekdays before the year 1900 and it told me they did! It even said Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays were very popular wedding days.
A couple years before the wedding, Miss Helen Birdsall was shown in the 1880 census as 17 years old, living with her parents and siblings in Cold Springs, NY. Cold Springs is a part Philipstown, New York, which is in Putnam County on the Hudson River.
On the date I calculate to be March 31, 1883, Andrew J and Nellie had their first child. Her name was Linnie B Fraser. Linnie’s death record below shows us she died on July 9, 1883 at 3 Months and 9 days of age. Seeing as these two dates had to be accurate, her birth date must have been March 31, 1883.
It would seem “Linnie” was a nickname. So, with the help of AI I discovered Linnie is sometimes used as a nickname for Linnea. Therefore, we can only assume her real name might have been Linnea.
Andrew J and his family lived in many places and in many city directories from different years, no place of employment was given. When he did say he was employed, he said he was a salesman. In the 1900 census, he and his family lived on 10 Liberty St and he was a salesman in a hardware store. He was 48 years old at that time and Nellie was 37. 10 Liberty St today is a big building. It is the part of Liberty St that is close to Main St. Some of the other places he and his family lived were: 16 Park Ave, 27 White St, 52 Division St, and 29 City Hamlet which is where he lived in 1925. This was the year he passed away.
On March 1, 1888, Nellie Fraser gave birth to her second child. This child was named after her grandmother with a middle name added. She was Olive Eunice Fraser.
On May 1, 1890, Nellie gave birth to their first son, James Irving Fraser. He usually referred to himself as Irving and everyone else called him Irving. It seems like few people even knew his name was James. I guess using middle names was a trend in the Fraser family. Irving had a cousin named James Donald Fraser and he was better known as Donald.
Nellie and Andrew J’s last child was Walter C Fraser. Unfortunately, he didn’t last very much longer than Linnie did. He was born on August 14, 1894 and died on June 20, 1896. We have no record of what brought on this poor boy’s passing.
Still, more terrible fortune would befall the Andrew J Fraser family on October 28, 1916.
The above is the medical examiner’s report for the death of Olive Eunice Fraser. Of course, the medical examiner wouldn’t be the one who decided whether or not this was a suicide or murder or an accidental death these days. In 1916 however, it seems this document is telling us this death was an accident. Even though this is true, I would have to think the news of how this 28-year-old girl died would really rock her friends and family, especially her parents.
Andrew J and Nellie had to be very upset at this point in their lives. At this time, they had already lost three of their 4 children, the oldest one being 28. The only thing that could be worse would be if their only remaining son actually did commit suicide in a very spectacular way. In a few paragraphs, we shall see that this is actually what Irving did! At least though, Andrew J and Nellie wouldn’t be around to see it happen!
In 1917, Andrew J filled out his draft registration. It shows he was 63 years old at that time, had one dependent, who was his wife Nellie. It also informed us he could ride a horse but couldn’t drive a car. Most people couldn’t in drive a car 1917. This document shows he did four years in the national guard as well.
City Hamlet – Andrew J’s Last Home
Andrew J’s WWI registration painted the picture of a healthy individual. However, there is no doubt he really struggled in many ways all his adult life. He had a divorce, resulting from his own actions after a three-year marriage, which might have been more like a slug fest and then ended up without a job, living in his younger brother Joseph S’s house. On January 25, 1882, he married a woman, Nellie, who seems like she was a loving individual. Certainly though, it couldn’t have been easy for her to stick with him as they seemed to move from apartment to apartment at least yearly as he usually remained unemployed. He lost three of his four children in very heartbreaking ways and financially speaking he had to be dead broke. Put this all together and the result was he and Nellie ended up in City Hamlet.
City Hamlet was the slums of Danbury from the early 1900s to 1955. It was a mixture of tiny broken-down wooden buildings and tents and even homeless people wandering around the area. In 1925, only the well to do had running water AKA bathrooms in their houses. Certainly, there was no such thing in City Hamlet. Because the conditions were very unsanitary and the housing was so small, dirty and smelly, most people who had houses in City Hamlet spent most of their time on their front porches which were cluttered mostly with garbage. It wasn’t just unsightly; it was an outright dangerous place to live and diseases flourished there year-round. City Hamlet might have been Andrew J Fraser’s only option but seeing as he passed away within only living there for a few months,it turned out to be his Waterloo. He died on March 18, 1925. He was 73.
Nellie’s Widow Years
After Andrew J passed away in 1925, in 1926 we see Nellie living at 149 Main St in Danbury. Even though this was an apartment above one of the stores on Main St, it was quite an upgrade from City Hamlet. Perhaps she was tired of moving because she stayed in that same apartment at 149 Main St until at least 1935. Typical of the times, a widow living in an upstairs apartment on Main St in Danbury would be able to find work in one of the stores on Main St, or perhaps a close by hat shop. It would be a meager living for sure, but it would earn her enough money for her to pay her rent and buy groceries. Compared to living in City Hamlet, she was sitting on top of the world!
I haven’t been able to find anymore records about Nellie Fraser other than she died on January 27, 1938. She was 75 years old. Both Andrew J and Nellie Fraser are buried in Wooster Cemetery though not in the same area of the cemetery. That wasn’t necessarily a personal choice. It was just the way it was if you didn’t have much money in the depression era of 1938.
The Sad Story of Irving Fraser
As we have mentioned, the surviving member of the Andrew J Fraser family was Irving Fraser. He was born May 1, 1890. On July 28, 1916 he married Mamie Wolfe. Her real name was Mary but she always went by Mamie. Her father was from Germany and her mother from Poland. She was born, like a lot of members of the extended Fraser family, in Patterson. NY.
Before Andrew J’s death in the 1920 census, we see Andrew J and Nellie living in an apartment on Main St with their surviving son Irving, daughter-in-law Mary (better known as Mamie) and 1 year old granddaughter, Blanche. Actually, she was 3 years old as we have found documentation showing she was born on March 31, 1917. However, by the time Andrew J and Nellie resorted to living in City Hamlet, Irving, Mamie and Blanche high tailed it out of the Andrew J Fraser household and moved to an apartment on 16 Park Ave, which was a much more desirable part of town. By this time, they had added a son, Richard James Fraser to the family. Richard James was born to Irving and Mamie on November 20, 1920.
In all the censuses he filled out, his occupation was consistent, James Irving Fraser was always a painter, house painter or painting contractor. He did move around a little bit with one of his addresses being “Beaver Brook District.” None of his addresses were in the lower rent areas of Danbury. It seemed like he was a good provider.
He filled out his name in the World War I registration as Fraser – Irving. His education level was listed as High School – 2nd year. Whether he had completed the 2nd year of high school or dropped out in the 2nd year, that was a pretty good education for someone born in 1890!
Of course, we know it is possible that anyone can have psychological problems or even become a psychoneurotic patient, However, little did the house painters of the early to mid 1900s know how much they were up against it with the dire effect of lead paint. This is true of those painters who needed to scrape lead paint off of the outsides of houses. Lead paint dust could bring about an entire array of health consequences ranging from intestinal to psychological disorders. These psychological disorders could include depression and hallucinations.
Also unfortunate as it was, it was a common practice for painters of the day to actually lick their brushes when trying to make them come to a point so as to better get paint into tight corners. All the time they were doing this they were dampening their ability to think rationally. It is a shame that for many years nobody knew this practice was gravely harmful to brain health. What a tough break for a guy just trying to make a living when he has no idea the material he handles everyday is making him insane! (End of editorial number 2)
As we know, Irving and Mamie already had a daughter Blanche and a son Richard James by the end of the year, 1920. In 1926, they added Dorothy Evelyn Fraser to their household and in 1929, they welcomed Betty Ann Fraser aboard.
Because he was no longer alive by the 1920 census, we missed the fact that Mamie also gave birth to a son named James Irving Fraser Jr. This son was born September 24, 1919 and died on the same day, September 24, 1919. So actually, Irving and Mamie had five children altogether with only four surviving into their later years.
Below is a record from Wooster cemetery showing some of the members of the Irving Fraser family who are buried there. As a recap, Andrew J, was Irving’s father, James I Jr. was his son and the other three were Irving’s siblings.
In 1942, James Irving and Mamie Fraser’s children and their ages were, Blanche 25, was already married and living in Yonkers. Their other three children, Richard 21, Dorothy 16 and Betty Ann 12, were still living at home. Below is the newspaper article about Blanche’s wedding in 1940.
Blanch Fraser Minovich Wedding 9-9-1940 The Herald Statesman (Yonkers, NY)
“Escorted to the alter by her father.” The more we hear about Irving, the more he sounds like your run-of-the-mill nice guy.
Anyway, here’s what happened to Percy Barrett’s 1st cousin, James Irving Fraser on April 11, 1942. Before you read it, fasten your seat belts!!!
Irving was buried in Wooster Cemetery in Danbury and was listed as Age 51 yrs, 11 mos, 10 days old. It is worth taking note that Irving died on April 11, 1942.
Where this occurred was Bahr’s crossing, not Barr’s Crossing. Bahr’s crossing was a railroad crossing that connected Beaver Brook Rd with Route 7. If you were driving down Route 7 from Brookfield, the crossing was just past where Mitchell’s is now. I have ridden through this crossing with my father driving many times. I asked AI when it closed and it answered 1994. This is definitely a wrong answer. If I was on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and “What year did Bahr’s Crossing close?” was the last question for a million dollars and I had no life lines, my answer would be 1965. I would have lost everything but I would be much closer than AI is. The article below is from Tuesday, February 12, 1963.
If you drive past where Barh’s Crossing used to be, you will either be on RT 7 or Beaver Brook Rd. If you are on the Beaver Brook side of the crossing, Old Newtown Rd will be close by. Perhaps some road construction was done in the area that changed where Old Newtown Rd is now.
Enough about geography though. After this tragic suicide, Irving’s kids grew up fast, left the area, married and started a new life far away from Danbury. All of the James Irving Fraser’s children lived the rest of their lives in places other than Danbury, and in fact, other than Connecticut. We already saw that Blanche was no longer a Danburian by the time her father committed suicide. Remember that all four of James Irving and Mamie Fraser’s children were 2nd cousins to Natalie Barrett, Milton Barrett, Arnold Barrett and the rest of Percy Barrett’s children.
Though she was married in Yonkers in 1938, Blanche Myrtle Fraser (31 May 1917 -Danbury, Fairfield County, Connecticut – March 1980 – Silver Springs, Montgomery County, Maryland) moved back to Danbury for a short time then moved to Maryland where she and her husband lived out their years.
Richard James Fraser (19 November 1920 – Danbury, Connecticut – 23 June 1991 – Clay, Florida) married in 1944, Jane Audrey Lyle. She was from Pennsylvania and the two were married in Philadelphia. She was one of ten children in her family. Here is her picture:
However, before he was married, Richard James joined the army. He enlisted on February 9, 1943. For all we know, he might have even left Danbury before that. He was discharged on October 8, 1943. There was no explanation about why he was discharged so soon. Usually, when when a person is discharged after only a short period of service, it is an honorable discharge. It was after this discharge, he found himself in Philadelphia married to Miss Lyle. The point is he left home soon after his father’s death.
The Government Girls
The youngest two children of Irving and Mamie were both girls and they were 16 and 12 years old at the time of Irving’s death. In the 1950 census we see Dorothy Evelyn Fraser, the older of the two girls was living with her husband, Vernal Campbell in Washington DC. We also see from the marriage certificate of the youngest daughter, Betty Ann, that she was married to Harold Bowker in 1947 in Washington DC. This leads me to believe the two moved away from home, very likely well before before 1947 and possibly even in 1942, just after their father’s tragic death. It seems like all her children blamed Mamie for driving their father to commit suicide. While this might not have been at all true, there certainly seemed to be discord in the family.
Of course, we all know Irving’s problems were more internal than external because we have the benefit of knowing lead paint was taken off the market in 1978 because it caused psychotic problems for very many people, without them having any idea what was happening to them. Blanche, Richard James, Dorothy Evelyn, Betty Ann and even Mamie were completely unaware of this! How could they not be? It wasn’t 1978 yet.
So, why did the youngest two girls go to Washington? There was a lot of work during WWII that young girls, even teenage girls were doing in Washington DC. A lot of these jobs such as, Nurses’ Aides, Civil Defense Workers, Red Cross helpers, were jobs teenage girls were doing. The housing was pretty much taken care of for you when you filled these potions.
Another wrinkle to this part of the story is the fact their older sister Blanche went to Washington DC before Dorothy or Betty Ann. So, it could be that no matter what circumstances occurred, the two younger sisters might have been destined to go to DC anyway.
A “Government Girl” was even a more respected and better paying position young girls were filling in Washington DC during the war. To be a “Government Girl” you had to be 18 years old or older and Dorothy Evelyn would have been 18 in 1944. There were over a million Government girls who came from all over the country to Washington DC during the war. They were basically secretaries for government agencies and they were in high demand! Still, there was a place for those who weren’t 18 years old yet, too.
We know Dorothy Evelyn and Betty Ann lived in Washington DC in the late 40’s, and in 1942 it seems they wanted to get away from Danbury and their mother. These government jobs gave them an escape hatch. This makes me sure they left home before the war was over in 1945 and quite possibly even in as early as April 1942. I pick this date because Irving committed suicide on April 11, 1942. I’m not sure this suicide is what propelled the girls to go to Washington DC but it looks like it did propel them to never returned to Danbury.
The following is what AI had to say about the million or so teenage and slightly older girls who came to Washington DC to work for the government during World War II.
“These women were a part of a social revolution, breaking free from the limitations of their small hometowns and contributing significantly to the war effort, including working as codebreakers (often referred to as “code girls”) and taking on professional and technical jobs previously held by men. For many, it was a life-changing experience that offered new professional prospects and personal independence.”
To close the book on Irving and Mamie’s children, we will start Blanche’s husband’s obituary. It is quite impressive!
Clinton (Maryland) Register 8-1-1989
The following is Blanche’s Social Security Death record.
Here is Richard James Fraser’s Obituary:
You will notice the Fraser sister, Betty is Smades in this obituary but she was married several times. Her name was Smades 1991. Actually, Betty died one month after this obituary.
Dorothy Evelyn Fraser was the 3rd child of James Irving and Mamie Fraser. Below are her cemetery record and her obituary.
After Dorothy Evelyn Fraser Campbell died, Vernal Campbell married Doris Bond and she was still alive when he Passed away in 2012. Vernal, who was originally from Kentucky has been known in his retirement years as Sgt. Vernal Campbell, and is buried with his first wife, Dorothy Evelyn Fraser Campbell under that name.
Dorothy’s first child was born in Washington DC. Her name is Linda Campbell Curry. She is still alive as of December 29, 2025. She is my 3rd cousin. Here is her picture.
Betty Ann Fraser was sometimes referred to as Betty Lou Fraser but I believe this was just a nickname. The following is her Social Security Death report. If you pay close attention to the “notes” you will see it looks like she has been married a few times.
The Social Security department doesn’t miss much but they missed one of Betty Ann Fraser’s husbands. By adding together, Social Security’s records of Betty’s different names and then adding in the information found in her Daughter Karen Kay’s obituary, we can make a pretty good guess as to how many times she has been married and for how long.
Yes, it is unfortunate that one of Betty’s daughters died at 25 years of age.
Social Security’s account of Betty Ann Fraser’s marriages:
Aug 1947: Name Listed As Betty A Bowker; Apr 1964: Name Listed As Betty A Fisher; Sep 1969: Name Listed As Betty Ann Smades; Aug: Name Listed As Betty Ann Fraser; 03 Jun 1993: Name Listed As Betty Smades”
Plus, Obituaries below
Social Security information and obituaries add up to the table below.
|
Year Married or Born |
Name |
Husband Name |
Ist Child/Born |
2nd Child/Born |
3rd Child/born |
|
1929 |
Fraser |
Maiden Name |
|||
|
1947 |
Bowker |
Harold E |
Cheryl 1949 |
Debbie/1952 |
Kenneth/1954 |
|
1956 |
Hitsman |
? |
Karen Kay/1957 |
||
|
1963 |
Fisher |
? |
Sandy/1965 |
||
|
1969 |
Smades |
? |
Kim/1971 |
Betty Ann Fraser had six children by 4 different husbands
Betty Ann Fraser Bowker Hitsman Fisher Smades
There are a lot of records from the 1950s to today that are not yet available. Genealogy is basically meant for tracing ancestors. This family history article is similar to a study of ancestry but it includes the study of people of more recent generations. At this time, ancestral records are mostly from the year 1950 and before, even back to the year 1400 in some cases. So, the summaries we have for people born in the year 1947, for example, will sometimes be incomplete.
In the second Obituary above, we can seen Betty Ann’s son Kenneth Bowker had a daughter he named Debbie. This might be confusing because he had a sister named Debbie. It was however, common for people to name their children after their brothers and sisters in generations past. Though it is not as common today.
The only husband of Betty Ann Fraser we know anything about is Harold Eugene Bowker. Betty Ann and Harold were married in 1947 in Washington DC. We know she was married to a guy named Fisher because she had a daughter name Sandy Fisher, born in 1965, but I don’t have any record that shows that she married anybody named Fisher and though we see her name was Smades in the year 1991, which was her final year, I have yet to find out who Mr. Smades was. His name wasn’t on her death record. This makes me think this marriage didn’t go too well. When I researched this, I found out the name “Smades” was much more common than I thought it was. This is particularly so in Michigan. I think I researched them all but I still couldn’t find proof of the one who was married to Betty Ann.
What Happened to Mamie Fraser?
The final person we need to cover in Percy Barrett’s Uncle Andrew J Fraser’s part of the family exposé is James Irving Fraser’s wife, Mary “Mamie” Wolfe Fraser. Though we have already said quite a bit about her, we are not finished yet.
To start this story, we will back up to 1946. At this time, you would think Mamie would retreat into a rocker after bringing up 4 children who all moved out of town and seeing her husband commit suicide at the age of 51. However, she did not!
So, what did Mamie do? Well, I guess it was the only logical thing a woman could do under the circumstances; she married a man 20 years younger than she was. This man was Manuel Andrade. He was born in 1913. Mamie was born in 1893. They moved into an apartment together on Center St. Center St is the street just past St Peter’s Church. Their wedding date was August 22, 1946.
August 22, by the way, was her daughter Betty Ann’s birthday. Was this just a coincidence?
We don’t know if the relationship between Mamie and any or all of her children was an amicable one by this time. It would seem it may well have not been. For some reason all her children left Danbury before Mamie married her new flame. Maybe the marriage date was set for awhile and her children didn’t want to see their mother remarry under these circumstances. Or maybe, they all left town before they knew she intended to remarry. In any event, we don’t know if Mamie choose this date to honor her daughter or if it was meant to upset her. It is also possible it truly was done totally by coincidence.
All the indications are that her four children left town not only to try to escape the memory of their father’s tragic death but also to escape Mamie. I say this because once they left town, none of them ever reunited with Mamie. They truly moved on. When Mamie passed away, no one claimed her. It was as if they were convinced Mamie was at fault for the fact Irving made the terrible decision to lay down in front of a train.
Was Mamie having an affair before this happened? Of this, we have no evidence and the fact Mamie remarried more than four years after Irving’s death strongly suggests she was not.
In any event, after Manuel and Mamie Andrade tied the knot, it seemed like they had one big party for the next 25 years in their apartment on Center St in Danbury.
Another sad part of the Irving and Mamie saga is the fact the both Mamie and Irving are buried in Wooster Cemetery but Mamie is not listed as the mother of Irving’s children and she is listed as Mary Mamie Wolfe Andrade. The name Fraser is not included even though Irving Fraser died while the two were husband and wife. I counted her grandchildren who were mentioned in her children’s obituaries and came to the conclusion she had at least 14. She may well have 10s of great grandchildren but probably none of them know Mamie was their grandmother or great grandmother whichever the case may be.
Another thing worth taking note of goes beyond coincidental and directly to the very weird! This is the fact that both Mamie and Irving died on April 11th. Truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.
Mamie and Manny (I know his name is Manuel but I think he would prefer us to call him Manny.) were married for about 25 1/2 years. This is just about the same length of time Mamie had been married to James Irving Fraser.
Next to St Peter’s church seems like it was a great place for these two to live. Manny’s obituary proudly states he was a member of St Peter’s Church. He must have spent half or more of his time in the confessional there!
It seems to me like all the trouble Manny got into happened after he had a drink or two. (or four or five or six or seven) Still, if Mamie put up with his drinking all this time, she probably wasn’t the world’s number one standard bearer of sobriety either. In fact, the way I see it, after losing her husband in such a devastating way and then being ostracized by the rest of her family, it would seem she might have hit the bottle rather heavily herself.
I don’t mind though. Because of alcohol, these two really took their lumps. Just the hangovers alone they must have had were a tough price to pay. She really had a lot to forget about though and maybe drinking helped her through the day a lot of times. He was from a foreign country and seemed like he was alone. He seemed to be playing against the odds too. I mean, the guy was a dishwasher and they gave him 30 days for being noisy! Really??? In this sense, these two might just have been perfect for one another because maybe they were the only ones who understood one another.
Certainly, going out for a drink with Mamie and Manny sounds like it would have been fun and having fun sometimes is even prescribed in the Bible. Psalms 118:24 “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Okay, so maybe they over did it every now and then. I’m still glad they found one another! RIP Manny and Mamie! “Jesus loves you more than you will know” Paul Simon 1968. It is unfortunate, however, that history, or at least, genealogy, has forgotten the most important part of Mamie’s life! (End of editorial number 3)
Percy Barrett’s Aunt Maggie Fraser
Maggie and Charles
Percy Barrett’s Aunt Maggie Fraser
Margaret Fraser, (Oct 28, 1854 – Jan 30, 1938) was Percy Barrett’s Aunt on his mother’s side of the family. There really is very little documentation where she is called Margaret. She is just about always called Maggie. Right off the bat I want to say that unlike her nephew’s wife Mamie Wolfe Fraser Andrade, Maggie did not marry a man 20 years younger than she was. Absolutely not!!! She did nothing of the sort. What she did was marry a man who was 16 years younger than she was. Or, maybe I exaggerated a bit. Some documents say she was 16 years and some say she was 15 years older than he was and the 1900 census, where each individual enters his/her birthday, she says she was born in October of 1854. After going through as many records as I could find it does looks like she was born on October 28, 1854 and her husband Charles Thomas Utter says he was born in March of 1869, so, that’s accurate enough for me. Therefore, it looks like Maggie was only 14 years and 5 months older than Charles.
Maggie and Charles were married on or about February, 10, 1892, This is when the Danbury News Times published their marriage notice. This document below, tells us the date the New Times received the request to publish the article. (Feb 4) It also tells us the date of the issue the notice would be published in. This would be the Feb 10 issue. In 1892, The Danbury News Times published a paper every day except Sundays. In 1892, February 10 was a Wednesday. This document is not a recognized genealogical document, such as a marriage certificate, but obviously, the date of the issue of the newspaper the marriage notice is published in will always be close to the wedding date.
Maggie and Charles were married for 46 seemingly happy years until Maggie passed away on January 20, 1938. They never had any children. They didn’t get divorced. (She was 36 years old when they got married.)
It doesn’t seem like they had ever separated. He was a painter and paperhanger and seemed to always be busy. Her mother lived with them for many years and was well cared for. This is true though her mother, Olive, also lived with her son Joseph S many years as well. So, other than the fact she was 14 years and 5 months Charles’ senior, it appears there wasn’t anything unusual about Maggie and Charles? It looks like the two just lived a nice, bland, uneventful life.
BUT…
Looks can be deceiving!
Charles’ Daughter Ida
Six years before Maggie and Charles were married, on April 7, 1886 to be exact, Charles T married Eliza P Gould in Brewster, New York. In October 1887, Eliza gave birth to Ida Belle Utter.
City of Danbury Birth Records 1887
Most unfortunately, on November 21, 1890, Eliza Gould Utter died. She was 24.
On December 29, 1890, Charles Utter and the late Eliza Gould Utter’s sister Irene entered into a legal agreement that let Irene adopt Ida with Charles getting full visitation rights. This was convenient because Charles and Irene both lived in Danbury.
On February 10, 1892, Maggie and Charles were married.
On November 10, 1899, Irene died. She was 36. Ida was 12.
I was not able to find any adoption papers that would pertain to this matter, but, in the city directories and the 1900 census, I was able to find Ida living with one of Irene’s older sisters, Frances Gould. She also lived in Danbury. Hopefully Frances and Charles got along as well as Irene and Charles did so he could continue to have full visitation rights.
In 1904, Frances Gould died. She was 45. Ida Utter was 16.
At the time of Frances’s death, another one of her nieces, Clara Blisard was a part of her household. Clara was the daughter of another one of the Gould sisters, Sarah Gould Blisard, who died in 1894 at the age of 43. Like Ida, Clara was 16.
At this point, there was no place left for Clara and Ida to go. All of Eliza Gould’s sisters had by this time passed away. This included Sarah Gould Blisard, who was Clara’s mother. The Gould sisters had a brother James, but he died in 1870 at the age of 24. Their parents had also passed by then. Their mother Susan died in 1889 and their father Alanson died 1890.
There are no adoption papers for either of the 16-year-old girls and there is no record of them ever being in an orphanage. So, where did they go???
Coincidentally, there are no records of whatever Maggie and Charles were doing during this time period either. Their 1910 census either never got filled out or just didn’t get handed in. Remember, that one of the clauses in Charles’ adoption agreement with Irene Gould was that he could not assume the responsibilities of being a parent to Ida Utter. However, the simple fact that Clara and Ida were nowhere to be found at this time and the fact Maggie and Charles were hiding all their records, makes it seem the girls were living with them. After all, one of them was actually his biological daughter. So, until the girls were ready to go out on their own, it looks like Maggie and Charles provided them a home, and acted as guardians, if not parents. Two 16-year-old girls!!! This was some bland life!!!
In order to do this though, Maggie and Charles had to lay low and lay low they truly did. Still, the circumstances that led to two 16-year-old girls becoming homeless if somebody didn’t give them a place to live, were so unusual, I don’t think anyone could blame Charles for bending a rule ever so slightly, to make sure his daughter and niece had a place to stay. In fact, what Charles and Maggie were doing, particularly Maggie, was very, very nice!
So, what happened to Ida Utter and Clara Blisard?
Clara Blisard (March 1888 – February 1947) married Arthur Ellsworth Nichols on February 10, 1912. (At least, that’s the date I have). How many coincidences can our story about the colorful Frasers have!? Charles and Maggie may well have been married on February 10th as well.
Keeping within a familiar theme of the greater Fraser family, in January 1922, Clara and Arthur were divorced.
Though we don’t have a date of marriage for her second marriage, Clara next married John Gabriele Dominowski. He was from Lithuania. He died in 1949. Clara had one son with Arthur Nichols and two daughters with John Dominowski.
Ida Belle Utter and Her Family
Ida Belle Utter (October 1887 – Jan 1969) – Because her first daughter, Veronica M Moffett was born on August 18, 1914, probably Ida started to strongly feel she was expecting a child in about February of 1914. The only reason I have any inkling this is true is because AI tells me back in the 1910s, it took two to three months for a woman to become strongly suspicious, she was pregnant. In this case, it would likely be the middle of February that she became “strongly suspicious.” Fortunately, Ida was able to round up the most likely culprit, or perhaps the only possible culprit and using the assumed name of Ida Smith, she dragged him to a Justice of the Peace in Norwalk, Connecticut and thus became Mrs. William Moffett on March 19, 1914.
Ida and William Moffett had four children together the last one born in 1920. She remarried in 1943, Jay Feary Jr. Jay’s full name was Jabez McCloud Feary Jr. When did William and Ida Divorce? We don’t know the exact date but on August 1, 1937, William and Ida’s Daughter, Doris was married and her parents’ names on this marriage document at that time were William Moffett and Ida Utter Moffett. William Moffett didn’t die until July of 1984. So, for Ida to have married Jabez, William and Ida had to have gotten a divorce between August 1, 1937 and sometime in 1943. This is true because Ida and William were still married on August 1, 1937 and because Ida didn’t remarry until 1943. Jabez and Ida had no children together. She was 55 at the time of their marriage.
The story of Ida Utter Moffett Feary wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t note that her first husband, William, who was born in 1895 was 8 years younger than Ida, and Jabez, who was born in 1901, was 14 years her junior.
The final years of Maggie and Charles
Maggie Fraser Utter died on January 20, 1938. She had no obituary and there were no hospital records. Overall, this is typical of women in this time period. We know she was born in Patterson, New York in 1854 and moved to Danbury in probably about 1873 or 1874 with her family. She lived the rest of her life in Danbury, always in the area of West St and Montgomery St. We also know she was married for about 46 years to the same person. We know she shared her home with her mother for several years and in the late 20s and early 30s her nephew Maltby was living with her and Charles. Maltby was never known as a man of wealth and therefore, it is probable he was living with his aunt and uncle as a member of the family. However, we know little more about Maggie but, then again, sometimes it’s the best of people who go quietly and make no news when they are here.
Charles Thomas Utter died on December 12, 1949. His place of death was Newtown, Connecticut. Actually, it was Fairfield Hills in Newtown, Connecticut. I guess it’s a matter of lead paint getting to another painter! Of course we know lead paint could have driven him to Fairfield Hill because we know it it did cause mental illness. However, it might be Charles didn’t have a psychotic bone in his body because for many years, Fairfield Hills was the Hospice of the day. They had facilities for taking care of people in their final days. So, we don’t really know if lead paint caused Charles to become psychotic or not.
Charles was sick for two years before he passed on. This was after Maggie had already died. So, for much of his final two years he was living with his niece, Percy’s sister, Lottie Van Wert. She lived on West St at this time. When she could just not do anything for him anymore, she sent him to Fairfield Hills. He didn’t last there very long.
It does seem like Charles must have been, at least, a pretty nice guy. After all, it doesn’t seem like my mother’s Aunt Lottie would have taken care of Attila the Hun in his final days.
As I look further back into the Utter family tree, I find they originally spelled their name Ueter. Just about all surnames evolve but there are relatives of his who still spell their name Ueter. This is an interesting tidbit, but, an absolutely bizarre fact about names in this family is the fact that Charles’s father’s first name was Gould!
Charles T Utter was the son of Gould Evers and Sarah Utter. What makes this bizarre of course, is the fact Charles’s first wife’s name was Eliza Gould. Like so much in the story of The Colorful Fraser Family, this comes under the category, “you can’t make this stuff up!”
We will end this part of our story by staying with Gould Evers Utter so we can talk about another 19th century divorce. In 1874, Gould Evers Utter married Sarah Jane Mills. The two lived in Brooklyn and would soon become Charles T Utter’s parents. In 1899, Gould divorced Sarah, moved to Indiana and married Margaret M Davis Rodgers. She was Davis because she was born Davis. She was Rodgers because she was married to a guy named George Rodgers. There was no divorce here though. George died in 1899. Still, it seems that even though not everyone in our story about the Colorful Fraser Family got divorced, there sure were a lot of them!
The thing that pops out at me the most about this part of the story is how young so many people were when they died. The entire Gould family, for instance died long before their time. Diphtheria and Scarlet Fever spread their terror around the United States and beyond throughout the 1890s and early 1900s. We have to hail modern medicine for putting an end to these things. Unfortunately, we also have to cower in fear realizing the same medical industrial complex that cured the world of Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever and even Polio, is powerful enough to create its own terrible epidemic and they’re also ungodly enough to release it and then blame all of its horrors on their political enemy. (End of Editorial number 4)
Percy’s Uncle Joseph S Fraser
Josephine
Joseph S Fraser (July 1858 – Jun 11, 1922) was the Youngest of Percy Barrett’s uncles on his mother’s side of his family. Joseph S married first, in about 1878, Josephine. She was born in 1856 and may have died sometime between 1880 to February 28, 1898. We can say this may have happened because Josephine is listed as the wife of Joseph S in the 1880 Danbury Census and because Joseph S and his second wife, Anna May Burns, were married on February 28, 1898. So, we would have to think either a divorce or the death of Josephine occurred within this 18-year period. However, there are no records, at least that I have been able to find, of either event.
The vital records in Danbury City Hall for the events between 1880 and 1900 are very good. Still, it is possible the records of Josephine Fraser are just lost. However, it is also possible Joseph and Josephine just went their separate ways. There is no record of any children ever produced by the Josephine and Joseph S Fraser marriage, either. So, all we know is what we see in the 1880 census. Unfortunately, the information we glean from this single source is sparse. All it tells us is Joseph S Fraser had a wife named Josephine in 1880 and she said she was 24 and she said her job was “keeping house” and she was born in New York, her father was born in New York and her mother was born in New York. That’s not a lot to go on.
Her maiden name is not known, either. Some genealogists say her last name was Musgrove. I completely disagree. There was a Josephine Musgrove who married a man named Joseph Frazer in New York city. Both Josephine Musgrove and her husband Joseph Frazer were Kings County (Brooklyn) natives. They had a large wedding in 1873. At the time of this wedding Joseph S Fraser of Danbury and his wife, or wife to be Josephine had not yet turned 17. We know from the 1880 census that Percy’s uncle Joseph S Fraser was a hatter at that time who lived in Danbury and that throughout the 1880s and 1890s, the city directories tell us he lived in a few different Danbury, Ct addresses. On the other hand, Joseph and Josephine Musgrove Frazer lived in Brooklyn, New York most of these same years. In short, Josephine Musgrove is not part of our Barrett family tree.
Sometimes it’s tough to admit that you haven’t been able to find out anything about someone of genealogical interest but it’s much better to realize there is no information on this person than to accept the popular incorrect genealogical guess which, in this case, is that the maiden name of Josephine who was married to Joseph S Fraser of Danbury was Musgrove. It very definitely was not. It is much better to not know a lot about a person than it is to give him or her a false I.D. (End of Editorial Number 5)
After Josephine Fraser disappeared, Joseph S remarried. This marriage to Anna May Burns took place on February 17, 1898. Anna May Burns was divorced from Archibald Lake on February 28, 1896. “Burns” was Anna May’s maiden name. Of course, during her first marriage, she was Anne May Lake. This is the same name as the only child the marriage of Anna May Burns and Archibald Lake produced. Both Anna May Burns Lake Fraser and her daughter Anna May Lake are often were referred to as “Annie” or “Annie May.” So, in order to attempt to make this true but complicated story a little easier to understand, we will refer to Anna May Burns Lake Fraser as “Anna May,” and her daughter Anna May Lake as “Annie.”
Archie Lake
Before we move on to the Anna May Burns part of the Joseph S Fraser story, let us wrap up the very sad story of Archibald Lake. Archie, as he was known, was married to Anna May Burns on February 18, 1891. He came from what seemed like a solid family. His father, George Lake was an engineer on a train. On February 28, 1896 his wife Anna May sued Archie for divorce on the grounds of intolerable cruelty. She won.
December 20, 1907, Archie went into a bar for a drink. Unfortunately, the bar was legally forced to be closed because it was a Sunday. The bar got busted for its illegal activity this day. So, the bar owner was summoned to appear in court as well as the two patrons who were in the bar at the time. The two patrons, one of whom was Archie Lake were bribed by the bar owner to testify that the drinks they had in the bar were drinks they brought in from somewhere else. The result of this was that Archie was sentenced to six months in jail for perjury. He was unable to serve out his term as he died four months into it. He was 37 years old. Though it is difficult to feel sorry for anyone who was found guilty of intolerable cruelty, it does seem like everyone who has committed perjury should be treated the same. (End of Editorial number 6)
Annie Lake
When Anna May Burns married Joseph S Fraser, she brought along with her the eight-year-old Annie Lake into his household, she also brought Sarah J Burns, Anna May’s mother into the household. Then, on June 1, 1899 James Donald Fraser was welcomed into the world as Anna May and Joseph S’s son and the as newest member of the Fraser household.
Joseph S Fraser’s father JD Fraser’s name was actually, James D Fraser. He preferred to be called JD. However, though it is not okay to assume anything in genealogy, it seems logical that Joseph S Fraser’s father’s name was also James Donald Fraser, but we don’t know this for certain.
Annie Lake was born in Danbury on February 9, 1892 to Anna May Burns and Archie Lake. Therefore, she is not a blood relative of mine but she was a very interesting part of the Joseph S Fraser family. The first thing that comes to mind about her happened on May 23, 1912 when she got kicked out of her church. She was 20 years old at that time. Even though I am not an expert on how churches are run, it doesn’t seem logical 20 years of age is old enough for your church to throw you out on your ear. I can’t imagine what she did to earn such a distinction though!
The church was the Congregational Church on the corner of West St and Deer Hill Ave in Danbury. “dism” above means dismembered. This doesn’t mean they tore off an arm or anything like that. It simply means you were a member of their church and one day, they informed you that you no longer are. You were a member, now you are not a member! That’s it! You have no say in the matter. For me, once again, it is very difficult not to try to imagine what she did.
9 Beaver St
In the years following the birth of his son, James Donald, Joseph S settled down into a steady job and lived in the same place, 9 Beaver St, for many years. 9 Beaver St was a 2-tenement house. Joseph’s mother, Olive Eastwood Fraser, lived in one apartment and Joseph’s family in the other for several years. Of course, since Olive was very much a part of the family, they probably shared a lot their space with one another. Olive passed away on October 22, 1904 but Joseph and his family continued to live at 9 Beaver St for many more years.
The chart below shows where Joseph S lived and worked most of his life. All are Danbury, CT addresses. He died in 1922.
99 White St is now the building that used to be the Dunkin Donuts on White St for many years. In 1922, it was probably a house.
We can be pretty sure, Joseph S Fraser never drove a car or a truck even once in his life. A trucker, truckman and driver were all essentially the same thing. They were all the delivery men of the day.
Joseph S never said where he worked, He said he was a teamster and a truckman. Interestingly, his brother-in-law and my great grandfather, Robert Barrett, also said he was a teamster and a truckman. Robert was actually an ice delivery man. He delivered ice from house to house in a house drawn buggy. Maybe his brother-in-law Joseph did the same thing. Surely though, he delivered something in a horse drawn carriage of some sort. Trucks did not become the delivery vehicle of choice until the 1930s. Up until this time, horses ruled the day in the delivery genre.
Beaver St was in the outskirts of town back when Joseph and his family lived there. Anything further west than this area was farm land. Beaver St, Elm St and Spring St were all preferred areas because they were close to stores and hat factories and the people living there could walk to work if they worked in one of these places. Many people did. Some houses from the late 1800s remain on Spring St and the surrounding area and they are still very nice houses. It does seem that 9 Beaver St was a nice place to live in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
After the flood of 1955, the landscape of parts of Danbury changed. One of the parts of town effected was the area from Beaver St to Rose St to New St. Still, where the Joseph S Fraser family lived is probably not radically different from what it was in the year 1900.
This is 9 Beaver St now. The shell of the house in the middle is probably exactly what the Joseph S Fraser lived in if you can imagine the house in the middle with nothing else around it. It is located on the West St side of Beaver St.
The Sad Ending Of Joseph S Fraser
In 1917, Joseph S moved to 7 Park Ave. This was where his sister Flora and brother-in-law Robert lived. It was a single-family home. So, Joseph moved in with them. Probably he did so because around 1916, there was a huge turning point in Joseph’s life for certain! His wife Anna May, son James Donald and step daughter Annie all moved to Woodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey. It is impossible to say if Joseph kicked them all out or if they just decided to leave him. Maybe they wanted him to go too and invited him to join them. Again, it is impossible to say. However, once his family moved out, there was probably no more communication between his family and him ever again!
My best guess is Joseph sent them away with his best wishes in mind. Annie was a seamstress by trade and seemed to be doing alright. There is no doubt this move worked out well for her. She soon got married in Woodbridge to a man named Wallace Drews and the wedding took place in “her house!” This has the sound of opulence. She named her son after her step brother James and even though the newspaper article about the wedding referred to him as Donald, this has the sound of love. Also, even after she was married, James Donald and Anna May still lived in Annie’s house. This has the sound of one big, a happy family! Annie Lake Drews was married on June 6, 1919. She died May 8, 1978.
It is not beyond a reasonable doubt that Joseph was difficult to live with. He did have one wife, Josephine, take off on him and never be heard from again. Maybe this mass exodus of his family was just Josephine part 2. Still, he gave a lot of people a place to live. The 1880 census shows his wife Josephine, his mother Olive, his father JD, his brother Andrew J and his sister Maggie all living with him in his dwelling. In 1898, he took in a step daughter and a mother-in-law and his mother lived in his home until her death. He might not have been all bad. At the very least, he seemed to work every day and pay the rent. This is illustrated by his living in the same home for over 13 years. In the end, he was the one who bought the grave for his mom’s resting place at Wooster cemetery. This is true, even though the grave has no head stone and is in the poor section. Still, he took care of the matter with decorum.
As we close the book on Joseph S Fraser, I should disclose that the S in Joseph S stands for Simon. Joseph died on June 11, 1922. Finally, as sad as it is, clearly, Joseph Simon Fraser died without a family of his own anywhere near him. His dead body was delivered to “friends.” There is no way something like this should ever happen to a guy who worked every day of his life to provide for his family! Still, we don’t know the whole story of why it happened this way. Traditionally, genealogy is based on vital records. If we had diaries of our ancestors, their stories would be told for us. However, we don’t. So, it’s important I don’t incriminate anyone unfairly when I do write about their lives. It is most important I stick to the credo insisted upon by Sgt. Joe Friday; “Just the facts, ma’am!” (End of Editorial Number 7)
The following is what the coroner said about Joseph S Fraser’s death. It looks like he wasn’t found until two days after his death.
Joseph Donald, Better known as Donald Fraser
Joseph Donald Fraser was the only son of Joseph S. Fraser. Because Joseph’s brother Andrew J. Fraser named one of his son’s James Irving Fraser, James Donald was better known as Donald in the same way that James Irving was better known as Irving.
I think the following few paragraphs provide a pretty good overview of James Donald Fraser. Take a deep breath before reading it though! It will not be very detailed, but it should be enough information about Percy’s 1st cousin, “Donald.”
James Donald Fraser was born on June 6, 1899 in Danbury hospital. His parents were Joseph S and Anna May Burns Lake Fraser. We have the birth record showing all his birth information. However, when he filled out his draft card, he stated he was born on June 6, 1900. He moved, with his mother and step sister, Annie Lake when he was 18 to Woodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey. It looks like he never saw his father again after that. At least, the two never lived in the same town again and after he died, Joseph S.’s dead body was sent to “friends” to be laid to rest. He was married on June 23, 1920 in Woodbridge, NJ to Emma Eisenhauer. Emma was born in Germany in 1898. The two had two children together, Howard J and Helen M Fraser. Emma passed away in, we believe 1933. She was 35. Though we don’t have a death date of Emma’s passing, we do have a record of her being alive in some part of 1933. Before the end of 1933, James Donald was married to Grace Elizabeth Scofield Bennett. Grace was divorced on June 3, 1933 from William Frederick Bennett and it was Mr. Bennett who sued for the divorce.
Then, she married James Donald Fraser on October 25th of the same year. The two children of the James Donald and Emma Eisenhauer Fraser marriage, Howard and Helen, lived in their new household after the James Donald Fraser and Grace Elizabeth Scofield Bennett wedding took place but they didn’t stay for long. Howard turned 17 in 1940 and joined the Navy. On his draft card, he entered as next of kin, Kathleen Ryan, who was his girlfriend. He was already honorably discharged from the Navy and was 23 years old by the time he filled out his draft card. Still, it was obvious he wanted nothing to do with his father James Donald Fraser. His sister Helen left home early too, actually living with her brother Howard before moving out on her own. The two seemed to do well in life.
Helen married a man named Stephen Hnath. She was born in 1925 and didn’t die until 2016. By all accounts she was a wonderful person, had a wonderful marriage and a wonderful life. She left behind many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her obituary is below. It is copied from the Findagrave.com website. Helen was my mother’s second cousin. Howard J Fraser who, of course, was also my mother’s 2nd cousin, was a World War II Veteran and an auto mechanic.
Also included in the Donald Fraser/Grace Elizabeth Scofield Bennett Fraser household were Frederick, who was a son of the Grace Scofield/ William Bennett marriage and Joan Delores Fraser, who was the daughter Grace and Donald. Joan would marry Edward Czajka of Danbury. The two lived for many years on State St in Danbury.
Though I have seen Grace’s son from her previous marriage listed as Frederick Fraser in the 1940 census, he was, in reality, Frederick Bennett. He married Francis Smith, daughter of Harold and Mabel Smith and the two had a family in Nantucket, CT. By all accounts, he was a respectable man. He passed away in 2009.
In Grace Elizabeth Scofield Bennett Fraser’s obituary, only her brother and sister and the son from her first marriage, Frederick, and her daughter, Joan Delores Fraser Czajka were mentioned. Her step children, Howard and Helen were not mentioned. I guess that is fair enough because Howard and Helen were not her children. However, this obit said she was the widow of James Donald Fraser even though the two were divorced in 1953. 
The article below, from 1951 shows that James Donald Fraser kept busy before his divorce. The article below this one talks about that divorce.
Danbury News Times 5-25-1951
Danbury News Times 12-6-1953
James Donald lived the first 18 years on his life in Danbury, then moved to Woodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey until in 1933 when he remarried and moved back to Danbury. Then, he moved himself and his family to New York City in 1940 and they stayed there about a year, then moved back to Danbury until sometime before his divorce in 1953. We know this because the article notifying us of the divorce mentions him as a resident of Woodbridge, NJ in 1953. After the divorce, James Donald moved back to Manhattan.
There is no doubt that whether he ended up in skid row or set out for it, that is where he would live out the rest of his life. Skid row in Manhattan was “The Bowery.” Percy Barrett’s first cousin Donald Fraser, truly ended up a Bowery Bum!
Bowery Bums lived in dilapidated flophouses when they weren’t homeless and when they died, they were buried in the mass graves of Potter’s field. James Donald Fraser is one of more than 1,000,000 unclaimed people buried in Potter’s Field. If you wanted to go visit him in his grave, you would never find him. That, in short, was the problem; once he left for skid row, nobody thought it was worth the effort of tracking him down. So, for better or worse, this mass grave is where he is laid to rest.
He does have some sort of a death record showing the year he died, which was 1960. This small clip below is it. It is from Manhattan in 1960, showing him to have died that year in the 5th month and 10th day. He was 61. This is true as we know from his birth record, he was born in 1899.
His 2nd wife, Grace, lived the rest of her life, in Danbury, which was where she was born. She is buried in Wooster cemetery.
It is amazing that James Donald left his father to die with no family around him and then he choose to do the same. Though it is impossible to make this conclusion for certain, it would seem that he was an alcoholic his entire adult life.
Final Thoughts
This sad story pretty much puts a wrap on the Fraser family history from the time JD Fraser and Olive Eastwood Fraser moved from Patterson, NY to Danbury, CT, it includes their grandchildren one of which was Percy Barrett and it covers some of Percy Barrett’s first cousins and even covers some of JD and Olive’s great grandchildren who are my mother’s 2nd cousins.
In summary, This Fraser family might have been a lot of things but they certainly weren’t boring! In fact, I couldn’t believe some of the things I was writing! I will be careful of my criticisms though. After all, I am a part of this family.
To make a more ubiquitous and philosophical hypothesis; of the people whose family histories I have studied, I must conclude the happiest I’ve ever researched were those who believed there is more to the world than that they can observe with their mortal senses. Believers in God, even though the ways they view God may be varied, tend to be much happier.
When we realize we reap what we sow we always act kindlier. When we realize the end of our body’s life is not the end of our life, we gain a sense of hope and a feeling there is a much brighter future for us even though we may see no immediate evidence of it. When we realize there is a plan for us to be in a better place someday, somewhere, somehow, we always become more accepting of our current life’s situation. True acceptance tends to lead to calmness because it brings to us the realization there is a higher power shaping our world and when we strive to please this higher power instead of ourselves, we will, by nature, be doing good works. When we stand behind the principles of good, good will follow us. Psychologist William James prescription for a happier life is to, “resign the care of your destiny to higher powers.” He wrote this in 1902.
I don’t speak in favor of any particular religion. Simply because I am a genealogist, not a theologist. In the movie, “Oh God,” the John Denver character asks God, “Why have you chosen me, I don’t even practice any particular religion.” To which God replied, “Neither do I.” I thought that line was profound!
In short, those who turn their attention away from themselves and toward a much larger realm are invariably the happiest people. Conversely, those who turn their attention toward themselves will always be left unfulfilled. This is the conclusion studying genealogy has led me to. I will never change my mind about it! I’ve seen this play out 100s of times. (End of Editorial number 8)
Lathrop Genealogy
Copyright 2025 Ed “Skip” Lathrop – Lathrop Genealogy
