DEMAS M. FRAZEE, senior member of the firm of Frazee & McClain, dealers in boots and shoes, Washington, is a native of Washington county, Penn., born January 6, 1854. His grandfather, David Frazee, came to the county when a small boy, and in after years became an extensive landowner, having several hundred acres. He was here married to Catherine Sutton, and they both died in this county, the latter in 1850, the former in 1855. Three of their children lived to maturity: David, Andrew S., and a daughter who was married to Peter Miller, but died soon thereafter. Andrew S. Frazee was born in 1816, near the present village of Lone Pine, in Washington county. He received his education at the schools of the place of his nativity, and was reared to farm life. In the summer of 1861 he enlisted in Co. A, Twenty-second Cavalry (Ringgold Battalion), in which he served over one and one-half years, when he was seized with typhoid fever, in consequence of which he was discharged, and on his return home he resumed the peaceful occupations of the farm. In 1836 he was married to Miss Leah Moninger, who bore him fourteen children, ten of whom grew to maturity, viz.: Catherine A., who married Richard McMillan, and died in Missouri; Martin V., now in the commission business in Chicago; Mary J., widow of Robert C. Vandegrift, of Washington; Sarah E., wife of H. H. Riggle, of Amwell township; David L., also in Amwell township; Demas M.; Permelia S., wife of James E. Reynolds, in Washington; Priscilla W., married to T. J. Harshman, of Washington; Clarinda C., wife of William Moore, in Chicago; and Maggie L., in Amwell township. One of the family, Barbara A., died at the age of fifteen years. The father died in November, 1889, his death being caused by the bursting of a blood vessel while coughing; one year previously he was stricken with paralysis, from which he had partly recovered. The mother is still living, at the age of seventy-two years.
Demas M. Frazee remained on the old home farm until he attained manhood, and while his father and eldest brother, Martin V., were gone to the war, all the general care of the farm devolved on David L. and himself, then mere lads. Many a day before he was nine years of age did he have to follow the plow and attend to the general work of the farm; but he yet found time to improve his mind, for he attended both the common schools of his township and the Lone Pine Academy. In course of time he taught school two winters in Amwell township, but during the greater part of the following winter he was laid up with typhoid fever. In the following summer (1881) he opened out a general store at the locality where is now Topsail postoffice, whence after a time he moved to the village of California, on the Monongahela river, where he remained about five and one-half years, engaged in general merchandise business. Selling this establishment out, he came to the borough of Washington, and in February, 1885, formed a partnership with R. C. Vandegrift in the boot and shoe business, the firm later becoming Frazee & Montgomery, by the retirement of Mr. Vandegrift in favor of B. F. Montgomery, which continued until February, 1891, when the present firm of Frazee & McClain was formed by the retirement of Mr. Montgomery in favor of Hiram McClain. In 1883 Mr. Frazee was married to Miss Joanna L., daughter of Isaac Powell, of California, this county. Her father died in 1879; her mother, Caroline Shutterly, is still living in Washington. Mr. Frazee is a member of the Christian Church, of which he is treasurer and a deacon, and of its Sunday-school he was superintendent one year. Socially he is a member of the Equitable Aid Union, and is a popular, progressive, wide-awake citizen.
Text taken from page 992 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).Transcribed March 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project.
Published March 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.[ [Back to Beers Table of Contents] [Back to Beers Project Page]