"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland and Vicinity, Oregon." Authors: "a
compilation of this work....by a number of writers".  Chapman Publishing Co;
Chicago, 1903. p. 856.
 
THOMAS FRAZAR

     The family represented by this illustrious pioneer of Oregon traces its
lineage to Scotland. Prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary war one of that
name came to America and afterward shared in the trials and sufferings of the
colonial army, taking part in the famous Boston tea party, as well as in
numerous sanguinary struggles. A son of this Revolutionary soldier, Samuel Alden
Frazar, was a shipbuilder and owner in Duxbury. Mass., and was a man of great
integrity, perseverance and kindness of heart. In his family was a son, Thomas,
whose birth occurred at Duxbury, Mass., January 7, 1813, and who as a boy
learned the ship-carpenter's trade in his father's yards. The trade he learned
brought him in contact with captains and crews returning from various ports of
the world, and the tales they told inspired in him a desire to sail
the high seas. As soon as an opportunity presented itself, he went with a
brother on a voyage to the Mediterranean, where he saw much to interest and
instruct. On his return home he was employed in the navy yard at Charlestown,
Mass., and later carried on a planing mill at Dorchester, that state.
     Accepting an opportunity to visit Oregon as agent for his brother, Capt.
Amherst Alden Frazar, of Boston, Thomas Frazar left home in December of 1850 and
arrived in Portland via the Isthmus in February of 1851. In May following, the
barque J. W. Page, of which he was in charge, came into port, and securing some
; lumber from the cargo, he put up a house at the corner of Stark and First
streets. The lower story of this building he utilized for a store, while the
upper part became the home of his wife and children when they arrived. In
1851-52 he went to southern Oregon, returning with some gold dust. For a time he
carried on merchandising in the mines at Jacksonville, but in the spring of 1853
returned east for his family, arriving with them December 13, 1853, in Portland,
after a long journey around the Horn. At that time his family consisted of his
wife and five daughters. The former was in maidenhood Frances Ann Adams Bradford
and was a native of Keene, N. H., her father, Capt. Daniel Bradford, a sea
captain/being a descendant of the first governor of Massachusetts.
     On the arrival of the family in Portland, they at once identified
themselves with the growing spirit of the new town. Like their Pilgrim
ancestors, they possessed sterling traits of character and proved to be
honorable, energetic and progressive citizens. Indeed, scarcely a movement was
presented for the benefit of the community which lacked the enthusiastic support
of Mr. Frazar. Himself a champion of progressive movements, he gave his
influence for their support. He was one of the very first to insist upon the
establishment of a public school in Portland, and after several attempts he
succeeded in calling together Josiah Failing and other public-spirited citizens.
A school board  was organized and Sylvester Pennoyer, who later was governor of
Oregon, was chosen the first teacher. Often he was wont to say, " Were I worth a
million dollars my children should go to the public schools. They are the strong
foundations upon which our Republican government is built."
     Frequently the fellow-townsmen of Mr. Frazar called upon him to officiate
in important and responsible positions, and in each of these he proved himself
to be worthy of the trust reposed in him. For two years he was county assessor
of Multnomah county, and for ten years served as United States assessor for the
state of Oregon, which responsible positions he filled with such a high sense of
honor and integrity that, though he retired no richer than when he accepted
them, he had won that which is far above riches, the respect and confidence of
others.  The office of United States assessor and collector were finally united
under one head, that of collector of internal revenue, and he then retired from
the office. In politics he was a Whig during the existence of that party
afterward becoming a Republican. For four years he was deputy collector of
internal revenue, for a similar period was mail route agent between Tacoma and
Portland, and for eighteen months served as postmaster at Forest Grove, this
state.
     Prior to his service as United States assessor, Mr. Frazar closed out his
store in Portland. In the spring of 1857 he took his family to a farm of three
hundred and twenty acres, two and one-half miles from the river on the east
side. Little of this tract had been cleared, but he at once set about the task
with energy and determination, and succeeded in clearing about fifteen
acres, which he planted in an apple orchard. Unfortunately, during the first
years of its bearing, frost destroyed the crops, so that his expectations of a
large income from it were not realized. The place was named Hazelwood farm by
his children and is now the property of W. S. Ladd. While living on this estate
the family were called upon to bear heavy bereavement. A daughter of seventeen
years died suddenly in Portland while attending school there. Two years later
three children died of diphtheria within three weeks, one of these being the
only son, a lad of nine years. Soon after the death of the three children, in
the spring of 1862 Mr. Frazar returned to Portland, where he accepted the
office of United States assessor, being the first to hold that position in
Oregon. On the expiration of his term of ten years he returned to civic pursuits
and later removed to the Palouse country, where he turned his attention to sheep
raising. Two severe winters in succession, however, killed off the sheep, and he
returned to Portland, disillusionized as to the profits from that occupation.
     Having given up active employment, in the spring of 1884 Mr. Frazar moved
to Forest Grove, where he purchased a pleasant homestead covering an acre of
ground, and supplied with fruit trees and vines. A year was happily spent in
this comfortable home, when he was bereaved by the death of his wife, who had
been the companion of his labors, by her sympathy lessening his sorrows, and by
her co-operation increasing his successes. After that his interest in life
seemed to lessen. The ties that bound him to earth began to weaken. More and
more he turned his thoughts onward to the life beyond the grave, in which he was
a firm believer. In Portland, during June of 1890, he enjoyed a reunion with his
comrades of the Pioneer Association and greatly appreciated their kindly
interest in his welfare. However, the heavy rains at the time were the cause of
a severe cold which hastened his last illness, for in less than a week after
meeting with his old friends in Portland he had passed from earth, his death
occurring at Forest Grove June 23, 1890.  Vigorous and sturdy in life, even in
death he showed no signs of illness, but seemed as one who had passed into a
happy, quiet slumber. One daughter survives him, Mrs. J. F. Griswold.
Fraternally he was a member of the Masonic order, in religious belife was a
Unitarian and in politics adhered, as previously intimated, to the Republican
party, after its organization.
     Among the colonial families of Massachusetts none was more conspicuous than
that which Mr. Frazar represented. His father was a man of such thorough
temperance convictions that he abolished the use of beer in his shipyards,
a procedure which at the time was singular and caused much notice. The first of
the name to settle in America was Thomas Frazar, a native of Aberdeenshire, and
a pioneer of Massachusetts, where in 1760 he married Rebecca Alden, a lineal
descendant of John Alden. The only surviving daughter of Mr. Frazar is Jerusha,
the wife of J. F. Griswold, of Forest Grove. Another daughter, Mrs. Rosetta
Burrell, who was born in Duxbury, Mass., and who formerly resided in Portland,
is now deceased.
     Few of those now prominent in Oregon's affairs can realize the hardships
which the pioneers of the '5os encountered and were obliged to surmount. It is
difficult for those of the present generation to enter fully into the trials of
those early settlers, yet all who have a love for their city and state cannot
fail to feel a thrill of gratitude toward and veneration for those men, who,
like Mr. Frazar, stood in the vanguard of progress and rendered possible the
enlightenment and progress of the present day.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2009 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.