HISTORY BY HAND

original historic handwritten manuscripts, documents and letters

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Item Number: DM4098

The Letter: Addressed to: Jefferson Fraser, Esq, Mecklenberg, Tomkins Co, NY

Inside forwarding to: PM, Knoxville, PA from “J. Fraser, Elmira NY”

Letter from: Allen Fraser from “Western” “Seventh month, 16 1851, Addressed to Postmaster, Knoxville, Tioga County, PA

Reference: His son Dr. Allen Fraser. Has not heard from him in 2 years. Heard he might have been in “Balston Springs, Buffalo and Wisconsin”

Postmark: Westernville, NY (Town of Western, Oneida Co, NY)

Size: 7 7/8" wide x 12 1/2" high. Excellent condition.

Background Information: The principal writer, Allen Fraser, can be found in the 1850 census with his wife Elizabeth, living in Westernville in the town of Western, Oneida County. According to the census information, Fraser was born in New York State around 1776 and his wife was born in New Jersey around 1778. Only two houses away, there are listings for Milton Fraser, aged 31 and his wife and three children and also for Westel Fraser, 27, and his wife. Although living in the same house, each is a separate household. According to the 1870 census 20 years later, Allan Fraser’s widow Elizabeth is still living in Western, this time in the household of her son Westel, his wife and 4 children. It is likely that the “Milton Fraser” referenced above is Westel’s brother, and also the brother of the missing “Dr. Allen Fraser”, the errant son who was the subject of the letter.

Jefferson Fraser, the Elmira postmaster who penned the inside forwarding note to his Pennsylvania associate is likely the same individual who is mentioned in “History of Yates County” as having married successively two daughters of James and Ruby (Benton) Harrington in the mid 1850s. This Jefferson Fraser from Elmira was the father of four children and after moving to Brooklyn, was described as “a noted and successful patent solicitor, and a man of cultivated artistic tastes.” It is curious to note that Milton Fraser, mentioned above, also moved to Brooklyn and became a patent ???

Whatever became of the son “Dr. Allan Fraser”? Jefferson Fraser of Elmira was probably on the right track when he forwarded the letter to his counterpart in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. In the 1860 census of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, living in Wellsboro, in the town of Westfield, we find “Allen Frazier”, a 61 year old single physician, born in New York State. He appears as “Allen Frasier”, physician, aged 72, in the 1870 census in the same state, county and township, this time in Elkland. Also in the household is a 68 year old female named Anne, born in Connecticut, listed as “house keeper”. The Allen Frasier of Tioga County, Pennsylvania is the right age, nativity and occupation to be the son of Allen and Elizabeth Fraser of Oneida County, New York. We do not know, however, if the letter ever reached him and if he ever wrote home.

A most unusual letter presenting an interesting family mystery.
 

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