Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Seth Frazier Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

SETH FRAZIER

(Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler)

Seth Frazier, lumberman, banker, leader in school affairs, public spirited citizen and one of the most substantial residents of: Butler county for more than two score years, was born November 1, 1851, in Salem, Henry County, Iowa. He came to El Dorado in 1886 and continued to reside in this city to the date of his death, March 6, 1928.

El Dorado has developed few men who were more progressive, or whose influence in the community will endure longer. He was wealthy and contributed generously to church and civic movements and to charitable organizations. He owned the site, using it for his lumber yard, where the present modern El Dorado Hotel now is located, but yielded it for the advancement of the city, which at the time was in serious need of increased hotel facilities. He was active in the organization and the subsequent management, as vice president and director, of the Citizens State Bank. And he also took a laudable interest in lodge and civic and political affairs. But probably his greatest contribution to the welfare of the city was his service on the board of education, of which he was a member for ten years (1913-23), during which period El Dorado passed through the Oil Era, necessitating an unprecedented expansion program for the local school system. It was during his tenure that the splendidly imposing and modernly equipped Junior High School, the Washington and Lincoln grade schools and the huge addition to the High School buildings were erected. Mr. Frazier also served several terms as a member of the old city council and at a time, as that of the school situation, when the community was in a flurry of civic improvement and when, if serious consequences were to be avoided, required leaders of wide experience and sound and successful judgment. Wise management of constructive programs and equally wise investment of public funds were essential, if coming generations were not to suffer.

Chronologically, Mr. Frazier received his early education in the district school, near his father’s farm in Henry County. He remained on the farm for several years after quitting school and then established a lumber yard in Delta, Keokuk County, Iowa. Six years later, he came to El Dorado, where his brother, the late N. F. Frazier, Sr., had preceded him and now has permanently located. He established a coal business and a hack and transfer line, both of which proved profitable. In time, he added a lumber yard to his business activities and by the late 1890’s had become a recognized leader among the business men of this section of the state. When his brother, N. F. Frazier, purchased the old Farmers & Merchants Bank, he took a large block of stock in the institution and became a director. In 1899, when the Frazier interests disposed of their holdings in the Farmers & Merchants and founded the present Citizens State Bank, he became vice president of the new concern and continued an official until his death. When the need for a new hotel in El Dorado became imperatively manifest, he, owning a choice location at Pine Avenue and South Main Street, where he operated his lumber and coal business, having long since disposed of his hack and transfer line, that site was offered and accepted, whereupon he removed to the present location of the Frazier Lumber Company, now conducted by his son, James Seth Frazier. The new yards are located at Ash Avenue and South Gordy Street, cover virtually a half block, are entirely of brick construction and concededly one of the most modern of their kind in the state. His interest in community life continued until his death. He was a substantial support of the Kafir Corn Carnivals, the Chamber of Commerce and prominent in the meetings and movements of the Kiwanis Service club. He was an Odd Fellow and an Elk and his philanthropies, though quiet, were wide and wisely administered. In religion, he was a Quaker. In politics, he was a Republican.

Mrs. Frazier was of early Colonial Pennsylvania descent and his forebears were Quaker pioneers in America, antedating the Revolution. His parents were Francis H. and Lydia (Fisher) Frazier, the former a native of Indiana and his mother of Virginia stock. The Fraziers, upon leaving Pennsylvania, pushed westward and pioneered first into Ohio, later into Indiana and Illinois and thence across the Mississippi River into early Iowa, and, finally into Kansas.

On January 11, 1899, Mr. Frazier was united in marriage to Miss Clara Kilpatrick, a native of St. Louis and a member of one of the most widely known families of that section of Missouri. Mrs. Frazier is the daughter of Alexander and Frances (Brooks) Kilpatrick, the former having been a leading iron and steel merchant of the West for many years. The Kilpatricks are of Scotch descent and the name is familiar in Scotch history; the Brooks family came to America from England and include among its members notable merchants, ministers, and citizens of influence.

Two children were born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Frazier, both of whom now live at home. They are Frances and James Seth. James Seth is a graduate of the Kentucky Military school. In 1925, he assumed the management of his father’s business at the age of only twenty-five years. Like his father, he is progressive and already is recognized as among the most successful of the younger group of local business men. The daughter, Frances, was graduated from University of Kansas, March 6, 1929. Her diploma from the University was dated exactly twelve months after her father’s death,March 6, 1928. She recently returned from a trip around the world and is a teacher in El Dorado High School

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A TRIBUTE

Many pairs of hands, many devoted minds, many hardy spirits go into the up-building of a town like El Dorado. This community, after fifty years, represents the composite efforts of different types of men and women; whatever of strength or weakness is apparent in its character may be traced to the quality of honesty and devotion exercised by those who wrought here. The work done by Seth Frazier was uniformly helpful and of high order. For more than forty years he had been a resident of this town. In all that time, his endeavors had been for progress and stability. Conservative by character and mien, he sought no miraculous changes overnight. He was content to lay each brick carefully and solidly into place and to let the relentless chemistry of the passing years weld it into one homogeneous and enduring whole. Of the old town in its bleak and struggling days, of the new town when it had flowered into fullness and a certain glory of estate, he could say: “All of it I saw, part of it I was.” He constructed his own business—carefully, safely and with due regard for the future. It stands on the solid foundations of honesty and trustworthiness. He helped to organize and conduct a strong and well-managed bank. He serviced as councilman, as member of the board of education—both places of high trust and responsibility. Through it all he was ever the same—a simply, kindly man, with definite, rock-ribbed principles of conduct, animated by rare common sense and integrity.

So El Dorado sorrows today for the loss of a friend who had ever been neighborly and useful and the work of whose hands has contributed abundantly to the comfort and ease and satisfaction of this, and future generations.—R. A. Clymer in The El Dorado Times, March 7, 1929.