Samuel Frazier
[son of George Thomas Frazier and Mary Pugh]
born: 10 April 1749 - Edgecombe county, North Carolina
died: 10 April 1839 - Bearden, Knox county, Tennessee
buried: Berry Highland Memorial Cemetery
married: 17 March 1771 - Guilford county, North Carolina
wife: Rebecca Julian
[daughter of Isaac Julian and Barbara White]
born: 17 March 1747/48 - Winchester, Frederick county, Virginia
died: 23 August 1838 - Knoxville, Knox county, Tennessee
buried: Berry Highland Memorial Cemetery

Children of Samuel Frazier and Rebecca Julian Frazier:

1. Abner Frazier
born: 18 April 1772 - Guilford county, North Carolina
died: 17 May 1843 - Greene County, Tennessee
married: 29 April 1801 - Greene County, Tennessee
wife: Mary Edmonson
born: 17 September 1768
died: 14 May 1847 - Greene County, Tennessee

Children of Abner Frazier and Mary Edmonson Frazier:

1.1. Samuel Abner Frazier
born: 2 March 1802 - Greene County, Tennessee
died: 13 May 1845 - Old Washington, Rhea County, Tennessee

1.2. Rebecca Ann Frazier
born: 17 June 1804 - Greene County, Tennessee
died: 1884 - Lompoc, Santa Barbara County, California
married: 1830
husband: John Harvey Olinger
born: 18 December 1801 - New Market, Shenandoah County, Virginia
died: 26 February 1887 - DeFuniak Springs, Walton County, Florida

1.3. Abner Frazier
born: 2 December 1806 - Greene County, Tennessee
died: 3 December 1853

1.4. Thomas Neal Frazier
born: 24 May 1810 - Greene County, Tennessee
died: 25 October 1887 - Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee

1.5. Beriah Frazier
born: 22 September 1812 - Greene County, Tennessee
died: 1 October 1886 - Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee
buried: Old Gray Cemetery - Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee

 

2. Samuel Frazier, Jr.
born: c1774
died: c1826
married:
wife: Mary "Polly" Parks
[daughter of Joseph Parks and ? ?]
born: 1779
died: 1848

Children of Samuel Frazier, Jr. and Mary "Polly" Parks Frazier:

2.1. Rebecca Frazier
born: 1800
died: 17 November 1822

2.2. Joseph Parks Frazier
born: 4 February 1801 - Greene county, Tennessee
died: 12 November 1857

2.3. Abner Frazier
born: 1803 - Greene county, Tennessee

2.4. Julien Frazier
born: 1804 - Greene county, Tennessee

2.5. Ruth Frazier

2.6. Samuel Wiley Frazier
Cumberland Presbyterian Minister
born: 1808 - Greene county, Tennessee
died: 9 December 1837 - Houston, Texas

2.7. Robert Frazier
Cumberland Presbyterian Minister
born: 18 November 1809 - Bount county, Tennessee
died: 26 February 1872 - Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee
buried:
married: 19 October 1837 - McMinn county, Tennessee
wife: Isabella Cooper McKamy
[daughter of James McKamy and Mary Houston]
born: 30 March 1817 - Roane county, Tennessee
died: 21 February 1862 - Bellefonte, Jackson county, Alabama
buried:

Children of Robert Frazier and Isabella Cooper McKamy Frazier:

2.7.1. Julien Frazier
born: 21 March 1842 - Athens, Tennessee
died: 4 November 1871 - Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee

2.7.2. Mary Kate Frazier
born: 2 May 1844 - Athens, Tennessee
died: 8 July 1867 - Jackson county, Alabama

2.7.3. Ann Frazier
born: 14 May 1847 - Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee
died: 20 June 1847 - Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee

2.7.4. Fannie Pugh Frazier
born: 11 July 1848 - Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee
died: 1883
buried:
married: 27 March 1873 - Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee
husband: Samuel Logan
born: 28 January 1838 - Limestone county, Alabama
died: 1901

Children of Fannie Pugh Frazier Logan and Samuel Logan:

2.7.4.1. Robert Frazier Bill Logan
born: 1 April 1874 - DeSoto county, Mississippi

2.7.4.2. Mary Kate Logan
born: 14 January 1876 - DeSoto county, Mississippi

 

2.7.5. Flora Turley Frazier
born: 5 July 1851 - Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee
died: 25 November 1868 - Jackson county, Alabama

2.7.6. Ann Minerva Frazier
born: before 1855 - Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee
died: lived 3 weeks

2.7.7. Abner Frazier
born: 31 May 1856
died: 30 June 1856 - Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee

2.7.8. Ruth Frazier
born: 17 May 1858
died: 18 May 1858

2.7.9. Isabella "Belle" McKamy Frazier
born: 4 September 1859 - Bellefonte, Jackson county, Alabama
died: 13 September 1939 - Hernando, Mississippi
buried:
married: 16 January 1879
husband: John Wesley Gabbert Barbee
born: 14 August 1850 - DeSoto county, Mississippi
died: 14 March 1933 - Hernando, Mississippi

Children of Isabella McKamy Frazier Barbee and John Wesley Gabbert Barbee:

2.7.9.1. James Frazier Barbee
born: 3 November 1880 - DeSoto county, Mississippi
died: 1957

2.7.9.2. Anna Belle Barbee
born: 8 January 1883 - DeSoto county, Mississippi
died: 1944

2.7.9.3. John Wesley Barbee
born: 12 February 1885 - DeSoto county, Mississippi
died: 1956
wife: Cora Edna Seitz
died: 1965

2.7.9.4. Katherine Pearle Barbee
born: 19 July 1887 - DeSoto county, Mississippi
died: 1963
married: 1915
husband: George Frank Burns
born: 1883
died: 1928
buried:

Children of Katherine Pearle Barbee Burns and George Frank Burns:

2.7.9.4.1. George Frank Burns
University Archivist - Cumberland University - Lebanon, Wilson county, Tennessee

 

2.7.9.5. Mills Eugene Barbee
born: 11 February 1891 - DeSoto county, Mississippi
died: 1965
married: 1942
wife: Willie Belle Smith
died: 1964

2.7.9.6. Elizabeth Rhea Barbee
born: 1 November 1893 - DeSoto county, Mississippi
died: 1965

2.7.9.7. Infant Daughter Barbee
born: 18 December 1879 - DeSoto county, Mississippi
died: 2 January 1880 - DeSoto county, Mississippi

2.7.9.8. Alice Irene Barbee
born: 20 October 1898 - DeSoto county, Mississippi
died:

2.7.9.9. Infant Son Barbee
born: 1889 - DeSoto county, Mississippi
died: 1889 - DeSoto county, Mississippi

 

2.8. Albert Gallatin Frazier
Cumberland Presbyterian Minister
born: 1811 - Tennessee
died: 1862 - Tippah county, Mississippi

buried:
married:
wife: Clarissa K. ?
[daughter of ? ? and ? ?]
born: 1816 - South Carolina
died:
buried:

Children of Albert Gallatin Frazier and Clarissa K. ? Frazier:

2.8.1. Mary E. Frazier
born: 1841 - Mississippi
died:

2.8.2. Ann I. Frazier
born: 1844 - Mississippi
died:

2.8.3. Wiley P. Frazier
born: 1847 - Mississippi
died:

2.8.4. Amy C. Frazier
born: 1849 - Mississippi
died:

2.8.5. John E. Frazier
born: 1851
died:

 

2.9. Barbara Frazier

2.10. Mary Frazier

2.11. Ann G. Frazier
born: 3 June 1816 - Tennessee
died: 19 September 1881 - Jackson county, Alabama
obituary
buried: Frazier Cemetery - Jackson county, Alabama
married: 5 January 1871 - Jackson county, Alabama
husband: Erasmus Jasper Stockton
Cumberland Presbyterian Minister
born: 4 March 1818 - Blount county, Tennessee
died: 23 May 1902 -Marlow, Stephens county, Oklahoma
obituary
buried: Marlow Cemetery - Marlow, Stephens county, Oklahoma

2.12. Naomi Frazier

 

3. Beriah Frazier
born: 4 May 1776
died: 1858 - Tennessee
buried: Beriah Frazier Family Cemetery - Dayton, Tennessee
married:
wife: Barbara Gibbs
born: 18 April 1789
died: July 1866
buried: Beriah Frazier Family Cemetery - Dayton, Tennessee

Children of Beriah Frazier and Barbara Gibbs Frazier:

3.1. Sarah Jane Frazier

3.2. Julia Emily Frazier

3.3. Abner White Frazier

3.4. Mariah Louisa Frazier

3.5. Barbara Sophia Frazier

3.6. Thomas Julian Frazier

3.7. Beriah Frazier
Cumberland Presbyterian Minister
born: 18 October 1832
died: 6 January 1872 - Gainesville, Texas
buried:
married: 1 September 1858 - Meigs county, Tennessee
wife: Louisa Ella Lillard
[daughter of James Lillard and ? ?]
born: 15 January 1837
died:
buried:

Child of Beriah Frazier and Louisa Ella Lillard Frazier:

3.7.1. Mary Lou Frazier
born: 11 December 1870 - Texas
died: 26 June 1911 - Rhea county, Tennessee
buried: Buttram Cemetery - Rhea county, Tennessee
married: 27 June 1894 - Meigs county, Tennessee
husband: Jacob Newton Ewing
[son of Arthur C. Ewing and ? ?]
born: 1862

Children of Mary Lou Frazier Ewing and Jacob Newton Ewing:

3.7.1.1. Evalena Ewing
born: 7 April 1899
died:

3.7.1.2. Arthur Ewing

3.7.1.3. John B. Ewing

3.7.1.4. Anna Mary Ewing

3.8. Nicholas Gibbs Frazier
wife: Hannah M. McKamy
[She later marries Rev. Early]

 

4. Rebecca Frazier
born: 3 June 1779
died young

5. Julian Frazier
born: 7 November 1781
died: 1846
wife: Miss McBee

6. Thomas Frazier
born: 25 December 1783 - North Carolina
died:

7. Barbara Frazier
husband: Maj. Reynolds

Child of Barbara Frazier Reynolds and Maj. Reynolds:

7.1. Robert Reynolds

---

The written records of this family extend back to the early settlement of the Carolinas--a century and a half ago; but its traditions ascend to a remote period, and are finally lost in the dim and obscure legends of the Caledonian bards. But up to the period of the reformation, our traditions hold their tenuity, and furnish us the outlines of events and scenes with some distinctness of features and details. They tell us of the chivalry and prowess of the clansmen; how the watchfires, the dead of night, gleamed down from the Grampian peaks, and the shrill blasts of the war bugles echoed across the dells, and the burnished shields and glittering claymores flashed along the margin of the moor in the early light of the morn. But the panorama moves onward, and most wondrous and pleasing are the changes on the illuminated canvass. Softer lights than the signal fire's red glare dawn of Scotia's bleak crags, and gentler scenes than clansmen's tournaments enliven regenerated Scotland's green fields. The Feudal orders have yielded to better government, and the vengeful feuds of the clansmen have ceased. Armed raids and dashing conflicts no longer despoil the fertile valleys of their grazing herds and garnered harvests, nor strew the lanes and block the passes with prostrate steeds and hapless riders. The sentinel's watchfires are rekindled no more on the hilltops. The fierce war-notes of the bugle have ceased to startle the sleepers of the dells. The massive shields, to ploughshares moulded, now cleave the glebe; and the long claymore, beaten into pruning hooks, reap the ripe harvests in peace and gladness.

Foremost of the nations to embrace in its entirely the "regenerated system" of modern Europe, Scotland's people have stood the firmest in the maintenance of that system, and are to this day the truest exponents of the just principles of the great Reformation. Always intelligent and earnest in their religious convictions, and ever strong and steadfast in their lofty faith, they have developed and sustained all that is most wise and pure and good among men in the evangelism of the everlasting Gospel, and all that is most just and simple and useful in the church of Jesus Christ on earth. They first founded great universities for the business of laborious and useful studies in them; and they builded churches in the interests of simple, grave and fervent devotions to God alone, through Christ Jesus, the only head of the Church in Heaven and on earth. They have contributed vast stores of solid and imperishable wealth to the treasured acquisitions of the human mind, and greatly improved the modes and stimulated the culture of its faculties, and they have diffused the elements of a purer enlightenment into the civilization of the age. Their great example is a standing rebuke and check to the pompous and gilded, but arbitrary, hollow and sterile ritualistic displays of the neighboring nations.

Soon after the suppression of the clans, and cessation of the Feudal orders, a colony of Scot people came over the ocean and founded new settlements in the then wilderness of North Carolina, that they, and their children after them, might here keep their covenants and enjoy without molestation their religious and civil rights and privileges, which they always coveted and were ever ready lawfully to assert and boldly to defend.

But our sires came not with this colony, nor did they ever belong to that respectable class of people known as "Scot-Irish Presbyterians." They descended directly from the Caledonian, or, at least, from the Highland Scot. Some of the family embraced the tenets of Fox and Penn, and were called "Quakers," or "Friends;" but most of them have ever entertained the Presbyterian doctrines as expounded by John Knox (not Calvin), and which are summarily expressed in the Scottish Confession of Faith as severally interpreted. They landed at Philadelphia, and then made their way into the interior; and Samuel Frazier, Sr., our grand sire, settled in Guilford county, North Carolina, where he lived in the time of the American Revolution. About the same time that those Scots came over the sea, the Huguenots of France, alarmed on account of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by Louis XIV, and apprehending another St. Bartholomew massacre by the then bigoted and bloody-handed Romanists, fled from their homes into South Carolina, where they founded settlements. Professing the same religion, and cherishing the same ardent love of liberty, these emigrants and their descendants, though of different races and languages, mingled together, and have spread over the Southern States, and constitute to this day the flower of their population. With these French people there came a branch of the Julien, Julan, or Jules family. Their descendants, widely dispersed through the South and West, remain to this day. They are a red-blooded, active race. Several of the name of ministers of the Gospel in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at this time, and another is now a Member of Congress.

Samuel Frazier, Sr., was in person rather slender, bony and muscular, but compact and rounded in form; in height, slightly above average; straight, erect and easy in his carriage and movements; black hair; hazle [sic], greyish, piercing eyes, arched with heavy brows; his face a little long, but full; features regular; countenance open--its darkish color relieved by a redish tinge of the cheeks; upper thinner than the under lip; having somewhat the appearance of voluntary compression, which, with the rather grave mien of the whole man, gave an aspect of sternness, and even anger when none was felt. He was strong, active and industrious. His temper was not quick, nor his words or his conduct precipitate, but when aroused, his anger was strong and fierce; his courage, both physical and moral, was equal to the emergency.

These traits, variously modified, attach to the Highland Scot and his descendants, and especially to the Frazier family.

But whatever may be his outer aspect, the Scotman has music in his soul and tenderness in his heart. The minstrelsy of the Scottish people, from time immemorial, prove the depth and the delicacy of their sensibilities. Albeit, the old Scot Covenanter, imbued with the doctrines of his "high mystery," keeping the vows of his holy league and covenant, complaisant in his estate, satisfied with his God and with himself, didactical in his sentiments, dramatic in his courage and endurance, and even heroic in his vices, has left to posterity a character which, if too bold in its outlines and too sombrous in its details to harmonize with the taste of this age, nevertheless reposes in its own massive grandeur, like the fossilized mastodon of a past age, a spectacle of wonder if not of admiration.

Rebecca Julien was tall and slender, round, well formed and symmetrical in figure; elastic and graceful in her movements, a profusion of long, glossy, brownish hair, light-blueish eyes, round, full face, fair and ruddy complexion--a beautiful woman. She was well educated and accomplished for the times, and was admired for her superior intelligence and affability, and loved for her amiable and benevolent spirit. She died near Knoxville, at a good old age, respected and lamented by all who knew her.

Samuel Frazier and Rebecca Julien were married at Guilford, North Carolina, about the year 1770.

By this union of Scot Highlander and the French Huguenotess (the Grampian lion and the Valdense lamb), the Nevian and the Pyrenian fountains blend their living streams into one in its downward flow. And this is the first influx of a lateral branch on the direct line of the Scot; but as it comes pure and limpid from its crystal found, dancing and sparkling along in its pearly bed, it frets not a foam nor raises a ripple on the placidity of the purple stream with which it mingles as it sweeps on in the roll of the ages to the portals of its destiny.

The Fraziers and the Juliens were Whigs, and went into the war on the side of the Colonists. They suffered greatly while Lord Cornwallis and his army of loyalists and tories occupied Guilford. Rena Julien, a young man and favorite of the family, one day met a band of armed tories in a lane; knowing that they gave no quarters, and being alone, he attempted to escape by flight. He scaled the first fence and crossed the field unhurt by their fire, but was killed as he mounted the next fence. He was lamented by the family and friends to the next generation.

Samuel Frazier was an officer attached to General Greene's army in the campaigns of 1781. After the war he crossed the mountains, and settled on the head waters of the Holstein (now East Tennessee); and finally on a farm on Beaver creek, near Knoxville, where he spent the remainder of his life.

He took a public and active part in the affairs of the new colony, and when the troubles with the State of "Frankland," and the Seveir faction subsided, and a convention was called, Samuel Frazier was elected a member of it from Greene county, and aided in framing the first constitution and organizing the government of the State of Tennessee, at Knoxville, in 1796. In these labors he was the compeer and personal and political friend of Andrew Jackson, and had for his competitor and rival Gen. White, the great Indian fighter, and father of Hugh Lawson White. The name of Samuel Frazier is found upon the records in its place in the first volume of the "Annals of Tennessee." He lived to the great age of ninety-one, and died at the Reynolds' place, four miles below Knoxville in 1840.

The following letter is copied here has a relict of the past age. It is written on one page of common sized, rather coarse, foolscap paper. The handwriting is plain, legible, we might say elegant, with some peculiarities in the make of some of the letters, and using a capital at the beginning every noun.

"KNOX COUNTY,
EAST TENNESSEE.                               Much Respected Daughter Polly:

I have sat down to write a few Lines to let you know that I have not forgot you, nor your Children. You feel near to me. I believe more so since you lost your Husband and my Grand Children their Father (he died in 1826) than before: Also I let you know how we are. Your Mother still keeps much in the same Way that she was when Ruth was here as to her Mind. But her Health I think is declining, and she has sick Spells, more so of late than she usually had, but she generally keeps about. And as for myself I have my Health as well as I could expect, but am mighty stiff, and when I do any Work I can hardly get up when I am down. I cant ride out of a walk without tiring me as bad as to work. I have planted ten Acres of Corn for my share of the Crop for myself to work, and my Croppers 25 each. But how we will come out it is for Time to make manifest.

My Brother George's Son Thomas was here about two Weeks past. He came from his Father's and he tells me that they were all well when he left them. But Isaac's Wife is dead. He called at Abner's and they were all well. Thomy is well and family, & Reynold's as well as usual the last account we had from them. I understand by Constant that Abner and one other of your boys were Sick. I should be Glad you would write how you all are as soon as convenient, so will conclude with my best Wishes for you all both here and hereafter and now will bid Farewell. This from your

                                                           Affectionate Father, &c.,
May the 23d, 1828.                                                         Samuel Frazier.
   I have wrote this note with out Spects."

He was seventy-nine years old when he wrote this letter, but there is no sign of tremulousness on the letters or lines.

The Children of Samuel and Rebecca Frazier were: 1. Abner, born April 18th, 1772. His only daughter, Rebecca married Mr. Olinger, and went to the West about the year 1830. Two of the sons, Samuel (long since dead), and Thomas N. (now Judge Frazier, of Nashville,) were lawyers; and another, Beriah, a physician, now lives on the Beaver creek farm, in Knox county, and represented the Knox district in the Senate of the State Legislature. They were all well educated. Dr. Frazier is an elder in the Presbyterian Church. 2. Samuel, Jr., of whom we will hereafter speak. 3. Beriah, born May 4th, 1776. He was twice married, and raised a large family, mostly daughters. One of his sons, Nicholas Gibbs, who has been dead many years, was a successful physician, and acquired a large landed estate on the Tennessee river, in Rhea county, on which his widow (now the wife of Rev. Mr. Early, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister,) now resides. She was Hannah M. McKamy, the sister of the late wife of Rev. Robert Frazier. Beriah, Jr., another son, is a Professor and Cumberland Presbyterian minister, now living in Texas. This whole family became Cumberland Presbyterians. 4. Rebecca, born June 3d, 1779, died young. 5. Julian, born November 7th, 1781. He was a finely formed, portly person; polished in his manners, enterprising and ambitious. He often represented Knox in the State Legislature. He married a Miss McBee, of a wealthy Scottish family. They raised a numerous family, whose history we do not know. They moved to Henry county, West Tennessee, where he was again often elected to the Legislature. Some of his sons were in the Confederate army, and two of them wounded in the battle of Belmont. 6. Thomas, born December 25, 1783; emigrated West. 7. Barbara------. Married Maj. Reynolds, the brother and uncle of those Reynoldses who have distinguished themselves in the West. They owned the beautiful Four Mile (from Knoxville) Branch estate on the Loudon road, and near Wright's ferry on the Holstein. Their youngest son, Robert Reynolds, was a lawyer; was appointed by President Polk a paymaster in the United States army; was with the army in California when the late war broke out. He, with several other officers, resigned and joined the Confederate army. He had built and furnished a palatial residence on, and otherwise adorned, the "Four Mile Branch" grounds. Gen. Longstreet had his headquarters in this house when he invested Knoxville in the winter of 1864. The writer of these notes saw from a window of this house the fiery trains and explosion of the shells and the blaze of the guns the night that Longstreet charged the Federal works on White's and College hill. This property was confiscated under Brownlow's administration, and sold to another man, who took forcible possession of it.

[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian Messenger, Devoted to the Theology, History and General Work of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and Christianity in General. Vol. 1, No. 2 (February 1872, pages 36-42]

Rev. Robert Frazier was born in Blount county, East Tennessee, Nov. the 18th, 1809. In 1819 he removed with his father to Jackson county, North Alabama, and settled on the Tennessee river, just above Larkin's Landing, where he was raised. His father, Samuel Frazier, died in 1827, leaving a widow and ten children, five sons and five daughters. Rev. A. J. Steel, then of Franklin county, Tenn., and who still lingers on this side the river, though in the ministry full fifty years, preached his funeral the following year at Blue Spring campmeeting, where the town of Larkinsville now stands, at which Robert Frazier and two of his brothers professed religion and joined the church. In 1829, at a session of the Tennessee Presbytery in Huntsville, Ala., he placed himself under its care as a candidate for the holy ministry. Dr. Dennis, lately deceased, also became a candidate at the same time. Twelve months afterward both were licensed and placed on circuits, as was the custom then. These circuits embraced a portion of Tennessee and North Alabama. Finally he went to Greenville College, East Tennessee, where he remained a close student for three years. Having left College, he gave himself wholly to the work of the ministry. I have no information in reference to his ordination. While devoting himself to his calling he became acquainted with and married Miss Isabella McCarny [sic. McCamy], and settled in Athens, McMinn county, and soon commenced editing the publishing The Religious Ark, which was an ably conducted paper of the Church. Subsequently he removed to Memphis, where he again began publishing the Ark. He was editor also of other papers at different times. In his introduction to the Church Militant, an able monthly periodical of the Church, he says: "I come once more, and the fifth time as editor," &c. So he was an editor seven different times in his long and eventful life. As an editor his last labor was devoted to the Cumberland Presbyterian Messenger, which he commenced, in connection with Rev. E. B. Crisman, in Memphis, in January, 1872, and lived to publish two numbers. In these two numbers, however, he evinces the great strength and originality of his powerful mind.

But alas! how soon he is stricken down in death! On the 20th of February, 1872, he was attacked with a slight chill, but was soon up again. Another chill, however, followed, and the disease now assumed the form of Meningitis. Soon he lost all consciousness, and on Monday morning, the 26th, at 6 o'clock, all that was mortal of Frazier was no more.-- "How are the mighty fallen!" "He was not; for God took him." For more than forty years he had been a preacher of the gospel. His life had been a success, because he had given it from his youth to Jesus in the work of the ministry. His work, though long and laborious, was now done. The pen, to the use of which he had been inured so long, had suddenly dropped from his hand, and his tongue was forever silenced in death. "The silver cord was loosed, the pitcher broken at the fountain, the wheel at the cistern"; and the dust was ready to return to the earth as it was: and the spirit to God who gave it.

His oldest brother, Gen. Joseph P. Frazier, accumulated quite an amount of property, was a leading politician of North Alabama for many years, was often a member of the State Legislature from Jackson county, and shortly before his death came near being a nominee for Governor of the State, and to be the nominee in his party was virtually to be the Governor. He died in 1857. Samuel W. Frazier was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister of very precious memory to the Church, of sound talents, and was exceedingly popular and efficient in the pulpit. He was sent in 1838, though he was young, by the General Assembly to Texas as a missionary, where, after preaching promiscuously through the country to large congregations with great acceptance, he was chosen Chaplain to Congress of that Republic, and a few weeks afterward died in the Capital, much lamented by the members and people generally. He was a young man of great promise to the Church. To us how strange the providence! No man of his age promised more to the Church. Albert G. Frazier was a useful and devoted minister of the Church for many years in North Mississippi, where he died in 1862.

They were all men of uncommon minds. Their father was an intelligent man, and had a good library of books--a rare thing indeed in this country in that day--which the boys used to read frequently till midnight, after working hard all day on the farm. This accounts in some degree for their superior intelligence and fondness for books. It shows also the lasting force of early habits.

The sterling piety of the family was doubtless traceable to their mother, than whom I never have known a more devoted Christian. Truly she was a mother in Israel.

The subject of this brief sketch, though not the oldest of the three, was the first in the ministry, and survived the others many years. His mind was of a superior order, and he had been a life-long student. Books had been his constant companions from his earliest youth. He was familiar with the best standard works of his day, and could quote from memory freely from them--books written by the very best authors in Europe and America. His memory was excellent and he possessed a clear, sound judgment. Dr. Abercrombie, the great English metaphysician, wisely teaches in his mental philosophy that no man ordinarily possesses an extraordinary memory and judgment. He possessed both in an eminent degree. He was so given to mental pursuits and his calling that he cared little for property.

His criticisms were always rigid, but well founded and profitable. His great mind grasped truth readily, indeed almost intuitively, especially upon theological subjects. His knowledge of the Bible was profound, his research and observation extensive, while his experience was varied and rich, of long standing and full of wisdom. Upon the administration and government of the Divine Being I have heard him do some of the ablest preaching to which I ever listened. When he was properly at himself, and the circumstances were all favorable, his wonderful mind seemed to grasp more of the Almighty--his wonderful works in nature, providence and grace--than that of any other man I ever heard. He used the purest English in the pulpit; his arguments were powerful and conclusive, and his whole manner tended to fasten conviction upon every one who listened to him while preaching. Prominent among the great characteristics of his mind was earnestness. He was one of the most earnest men in the pulpit I ever heard. Says Dr. _______, of Memphis--"At the close of one of his powerful sermons at a campmeeting in Mississippi, about ninety mourners pressed to the altar for prayer."

But how sad the history in the closing scenes of life! How strange the providence toward him and his family! Once he was blessed with a happy family--an affectionate wife and a number of intelligent and promising children. But one after another was stricken down and consigned to the silence of the grave, until but two are left--both daughters. His great heart bore up with Christian fortitude, until his last son was taken. He fell from the third story window of the "Jackson block" upon the pavement in Memphis, in November, 1871, and was instantly killed. He was a young man of fine education and extraordinary business qualifications. His father was at Synod in the city of Corinth at the time. The news reached him by telegraph a few hours after. The tragedy of his death was so terrible that the shock was too great. Sorrow overwhelmed his feelings. He could bear up no longer, and his health commenced declining. His mind, however, was still active and powerful, as was clearly evinced in his editorials in the MESSENGER. At last nature succumbed, and disease fastened upon the vitals of life; there was no recuperative power, and death was the result. But--what a consolation to his relatives and friends--we sorrow not as those who have no hope. More than forty years he had belonged to the family of God, and to him all that while heaven was but a question of time. His foundation was as the solid rock, his strong and buoyant hope was as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, his title in Jesus was intelligent and safe, and his higher and inner life was hid with Christ in God--consequently heaven was sure. Bless God for such a safe and sure religion, which makes us like Jesus, and therefore not only gives title to, but also qualification for heaven.

Of all that large and intelligent family, one after another has fallen and now sleeps in death, except my wife, who is the only surviving member. Peace to their ashes! I write the foregoing sketch not only because of the affinity existing between the family and myself, but because it is due the memory of departed worth, and also because he was founder and editor of the CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN MESSENGER.
   SCATTSBORO, [sic. Scottsboro], ALA., January 3rd, 1873.
[Source: The Christian Messenger: Devoted to the Theology, History and General Work of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and Christianity in General, [Waynesburg, Pennsylvania] March 1873, pages 67-71]