Jas. A. B. Frazer ¹

  General Notes:

James A. B. Frazer was born in 1791 and learned the trade of a miller, probably from his father, who, it seems, operated a mill near Baltimore, Md. He came to western Ohio about 1820, where he engaged in milling at Lucas's mill on Brown's run in the northern part of Butler county. He also taught school in the Heck neighborhood near this place, where in September, 1823, he married Catharine Heck, whose parents also came from Maryland. While living at Brown's Run, a daughter, Elizabeth D. (mother of Mrs. A. N. Wilson), was born August 14, 1824. The family soon moved to the neighborhood of Georgetown, Preble County, where Mr. Frazer taught school for a while. In 1827, he leased a mill of John Lock on Twin Creek, just above Euphemia and in 1828, he bought the property, which then consisted of an old mill and saw mill. This mill had been built by Jesse Swisher in 1817, and had three run of burrs--one French, one Raccoon and a corn burr made from a gray-head stone, with a capacity of about twenty-seven barrels of flour in twenty-four hours. A distillery was added to this with a capacity of about twenty bushels per day with mashing done by hand. Later horse power was installed to do the mashing and pumping, thus increasing the capacity to thirty bushels per day. In 1838, Mr. Frazer built a stone mill just west of the old mill from limestone quarried along the creek nearby. This mill was about one hundred feet long and was considered one of the substantial buildings of the State at that early date. It cost some S12,000 to $14,000 in addition to $3,000 which Mr. Frazer had paid for the old mill with one hundred and forty acres of land and the water right extending from west of his dam to the national road east of Euphemia. When the new mill was completed, he was offered $28,000 for the entire property and water right, with the provision that he would not build another mill within the bounds of the customs of said mill. He refused this offer, but a few years proved his mistak e as he went into bankruptcy in 1844 and died August 20, 1849, grieving his loss and failure. His estimable wife, who was known for her benevolent disposition, lost the sight of both eyes about the time of her husband's failure, probably from paralysis of the optic nerve, and died at the home of her daughter in Richmond, Ind., from apoplexy, March 27, 1854. Their children were Elizabeth D., Henry, John, Nelson and Daniel, all of whom are now dead, except Henry, who is eighty-nine years of age.

Jas. married Catherine Heck.