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_ Cof'/ {ootJ?otes - COfY C)/;Jjf I THOMAS FRAZER: VERNACULAR ARCHITECT IN PIONEER BEAVER, UTAH by Linda L. Bonar A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Art The University of Utah June 1980 CHAPTER II THOMAS FRAZER: A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Thomas Frazer, born August 12, 1821 in Scotland, was a pioneer stonemason in southern Utah (see Illustration No. 1). Though Frazer also acted as a quarryman and to a limited extent, a stonecarver, for simplicity, he will be called a "stonemason" throughout this thesis. After immigrating to the Mormon "Zion" in 1861, Frazer and his family 1i ved in Lehi and in 1868, moved to Beaver City where Frazer practiced his skills as a stonemason. 1 When the Frazer family arrived in Beaver, the town was twelve years old having been settled in 1856. The community had achieved the first intimations of prosperity and the Stake President of the L.D.S. Church, John Riggs Murdock, realized that industrial and commercial buildings, as well as permanent residences to replace the log cabins and dugouts, would soon be required. Murdock, a former resident of Lehi, 2 requested Frazer's presence in Beaver to initiate and direct the coming building boom in the fledgling pioneer town. Thomas Frazer thus found himself in a unique position to help determine the architectural character of the town of Beaver. As a stonemason, he was so prolific that, despite the unfortunate demolition of most of his commercial, industrial, and institutional structures, the several extant houses still allow us to examine Frazer's building style. 30 As a man of about thirty, Frazer began keeping a journal, a habit he retained most of his life. Some of his early recollected history is contained in these journals, most of it being recorded in verse. After Frazer moved to Beaver, he found it necessary to keep account books detailing his building ;reject and his finances. His journals and account beaks, while not being as helpful as an architectural historian might wish, combine, nonetheless, to paint an interesting portrait of Thomas, the man and the builder. Frazer's Years in Scotland Thomas Frazer, the youngest of ten surviving children, was born in Bankhead, Perthshire, Scotland. He recalled a pleasant child- hood with delightful playmates and idyllic, childish occupations. 3 Though the Frazer family was poor, only once was the specter of starvation actually a threat to the family. As a boy, he received a rudimentary education at the local parish school but left at a young age. Frazer later confessed that: At learning I never genius was My progress seldom met applause But what I once got in my brain I aften-1ards did it retain. 4 This was to be the extent of his fonnal education, but it was a fairly common amount of schooling and Frazer managed quite nicely with it. Because he grew tired of school, the former student was sent to his aunt's to be employed as a herd boy and later, to the sweat shops. day. In the 11 mill 11 he worked sixteen exhausting hours a 31 Ere five at morn we were astir And nine at night ere we got clear Day after day the same twas found Long hours, thick dust and deafening sound. 5 In addition to the long hours, dust and noise, the boy had to bear brutal rope beatings from an ill-tempered foreman. Frazer grap~i- cally depicted the welts and blotches he received at the hands of such a man. 6 His older brother, Alex, was a weaver by trade and the youth was apprenticed as a weaver at age sixteen in yet another factory. 7 These years were difficult ones for Thomas, especially because Alex turned out to be a rather bad influence. It seems Alex was quite a sportsman and much preferred to be out in Blairgowrie Muir hunting rabbits with his dogs than to be sitting at his loom. The young man followed his older brother's example: For at the loom we would not stay But trifled our time away And after anything would run By which we could the labor shun To make the thing still more provoking We had begun tobacco smoking.8 Things went from bad to worse. Thomas and a friend, being very short of cash, decided to break into the weaving shop and steal the material on which they had been working. While trying to sell it later, they were caught and nearly sent to prison. This incident, however, must have been enough to terrify Thomas into good behavior forever for he never recorded another account of wrong doing in his journals again. 9 In fact, later in life Frazer became an intensely religious man, one who devoted approximately two-thirds of his journals to religious musings. It would appear from his poems that he became obsessed 32 with morality for his main theme deals with the triumph of good over evil. For thts reason, Frazer's account of wrongdoing is particularly refreshing to read for it proves that he was only human. Through his journals Thomas Frazer could easily be construed as a rock-ribbed, stern, pillar of integrity. Certainly his moralizing, religious poetry could leave one with that impression. But occasionally, through his relatives• recollections and his journals and account books, another side of his personality shines. He was a loving and kind father to his eight children and his wife, Annie, used to boast that never once did she have to get up in the night to comfort a crying child because Thomas always did it. Family tradition related that when Frazer was encouraged to take a second wife by L.D.S. Church authorities (according to the Mormon prinicple of polygamy), he refused to do so because of Annie's strong objections.10 Also telling is Frazer's portrait, drawn by an unknown artist c. 1881, when he was about 60 years old (see Illustration No. 1 ). It reveals a patient man with kindly, compassionate eyes. He was always a spunky individualist and throughout his long life, he managed to retain a few of his personal beliefs upon which some people may have frowned. He once reacted to criticism of one of his Sunday strolls by penning the poem "Sabbath Recreations:" I wonder very much that men Should be so narrow minded And through old prejudice allow Their minds to be so blinded As really for to think it sin 33 To walk upon a Sunday A recreation which perhaps They cannot get on Monday. 11 In Scotland, Frazer was not adverse to an occasional glass of ale and in January of 1875, he chronicled a trip to the town of Washington, Utah, where he met with old friends who" had some very good wine which they treated us to and we had a merry time of it. 1112 In short, Frazer often used his journals to record the serious, weighty matters and thoughts of his life. Understandably, they tend to paint a lopsided picture when, in fact, Frazer was a well-rounded, normal individual. In Scotland, Thomas always hated the grueling work in filthy factories and decided at some unspecified time the outdoor life of a stonemason was much more suitable for him. No mention is made in the journals of how Frazer became a stonemason, but he spent at least ten of his forty years in Scotland as a mason, working in and around Blairgowrie, a town just north of Dundee. The journals say little about this work because they were reserved for the more lofty sentiments and affairs of his life. In fact, he made only a few references to his work as a storiemason, three of which are recorded here. For less than a year, during parts of 1854 and 1855, Frazer made an attempt to keep a daily diary. 13 His entries, written during the winter and spring in Scotland, often describe how the weather was too cold to work very much: On December month the seventeen The air was chill the frost was keen Our lime and walls were frozen over All things looked cold, grim and hoar We had wrought an hour or very nigh 34 When the architect he came in by And to a pause he did us bring He declared it was not like the thing We are stopped(?) till fresh weather appear Oh I in my heart wish it were here. 14 On another occasion, Frazer described a disastrous accident that occurred while he and several other stonemasons were working on the South Free Church at Blairgowrie: . . • Six men to the sea ffo l d by hand barrow brought A stone which as key for a window was wrought They had got on the scaffold yet onward they made To the spot where intended the stone should be laid As on they were passing oh dreadful the shock Their footing them failed, the mid needle it broke The scaffold it stood sixteen feet from the ground I gazed horror stricken and stood terror bound While stones and lime boxes and batons and men 15 In a mass of confusion ,,,ere mangled then . . . . During another period in Scotland, Frazer spent at least a year working as a stonemason for "the railway." It was a job he very much enjoyed, as much for the camaraderie as the work. 16 While he does not go into detail about what they built, their work must have consisted of constructing roadbeds and bridges. These three entries, rather obliquely discussing his work as a stonemason, are nearly the only insights Frazer allows us about his work while he lived in Scotland. But he did write extensively on religion, natural science, outdoor excursions and he was especia ll.y fond of anecdotes. As a young man in Scotland, his verses prove he was continually searching for a religious dogma that embodied his own personal convictions. He visited many different churches and attended their services, sometimes even becoming active in a 35 congregation for a short while. But his religious attention was not held by any one particular denomination until he was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1849 Frazer joined the Mormon Church, apparently much to the dismay of his friends. His journals contain stories of the hostilities he met, for many of his contemporaries saw Mormonism as a bizarre religion . accor d.1ng l y. 17 an d th ey trea t ed h,m Frazer's concern for religion cannot be overemphasized. The majority of his writings are devoted to religious themes which often take the form of rambling musings. For example, he sometimes derived inspiration from a thought in the Bible and then proceeded to pen a very lengthy poem. 8 Chapter" A typical example, entitled "Romans, begins: There is no condemnation sure To them who dwell in Christ secure Who walks not after fleshly pride But rather by the spirits guide For the life of Christ in me From the law of death sets free For what the law it could not do With all its fleshly wisdom too. 18 Most of Frazer's religious poems deal with the themes of good and evil and their just rewards on the Day of Reckoning. His journals make it very obvious that throughout his adult life, Frazer always tried to practice what was right and he held the same exacting standards for others. During Frazer's early career as a stonemason in Scotland, he was often called away to neighboring towns to work. On these trips he usually lodged in boarding houses, but he maintained his 36 permanent residence with his widowed mother in Larenty, a village one mile from Blairgowrie. As the youngest child, he had promised her that he would take care of her until she died. He fulfilled this promise so thoroughly that he refused to marry, thinking that a wife and family would interfere with his responsibilities for his mother. But upon her death in 1860, his whole life changed. 19 He married Annie Ironside who was also a Mormon convert, in 1861 at the age of forty (see Illustration No. 2). They immediately set sail for America from Dundee, making the arduous crossing via the North Atlantic. Frazer had no regrets about leaving Scotland behind. On the great Atlantic wide Riding through its foaming tide Fram thy land that gave me birth Over the waters fleeing forth Every favored breeze of wind Leaves my fatherland behind Gladly do I leave thy shores; To a land with prospects brighter Plough the waves then underwater. 20 While he loved the Scottish countryside, his family and friends, he had long been aware that he lived during troubled times for the British Isles. Frazer often lamented that it was a severe struggle to make ends meet. He was an honest workingman and he thought it quite unjust to be slaving for the wealthy 11 drones. 1121 He must have realized that his life in Scotland would not change much, despite long working hours and thrift. To a man like Frazer, who was a hard worker and anxious to improve his lot, the economic gratifications the Mormons offered proved irresistible. He also had two brothers who had, on earler occasions, left Scotland for America, 37 and perhaps Frazer had received favorable correspondences from them. 22 Promises of fannland, a better material life and the promptings of Mormon religious doctrines to 11 gather in Zion," were enough to persuade Thomas and Annie that the difficulties encountered in immigrating would be worthwhile. On the Frazers' voyage, the tempermental North Atlantic was true to fornrand because Frazer was one of the few who was not constantly seasick, the responsibilities of cooking and cleaning fell on him. On Tuesday, April 30, Frazer noted: The sea still running high and wind blowing strong. Vessel heaving greatly. Everyone mostly seasick with moaning and groaning, and vomiting in all directions . . Everything shaking to and fro and crying children following up the chorus. Little cooking today. All food seemed nauseating. My wife very bad. Could not get out of berth. Had all the cooking and eating to do myself. Wife seemed half disposed to a~ostatize by expressing a wish she had stayed at home. 3 Such was the Frazers' honeymoon! The Frazers in Utah After crossing the plains to Utah with a yoke of oxen and a wagon, the new husband and wife lived briefly in Salt Lake City. Frazer was immediately employed in building the Salt Lake Morman Temple, one of scores of stonemasons thus engaged. It may well have been his first opportunity to exchange ideas on architecture with others in the construction industry since arriving in America. Frazer worked at this job for about three months before being sent by L.D.S. Church officials to live in Lehi, Utah. Thomas and Annie initially resided in a dugout where their first child, David Ingles, 38 was born. During their six years in Lehi, they had three more children, one of which died in infancy. While Frazer lived in Lehi, his primary occupation may have been that of a farmer. There are a few entries in the journals re- cording jobs building foundations but there is only one notation indicating anything more, and this is an extra adobe room added on to a house. 24 However, Elsie Hales, one of Frazer's granddaughters, believes he worked extensively with adobe bricks, building not only his own home, but those of several other Lehi residents. 25 Unfortunately, there is no obvious evidence of this today in Lehi. In Lehi, the family lived snuggly in a new adobe house, but perhaps it was because Frazer was a stonemason that he always had a real dislike of that favorite Mormon building material. While living in Lehi, he wrote the following poem describing a violent storm's effect on adobe buildings: The Spirit of the Storm The light the horizon had fled And gloomy night had overspread While thickening darkness hung overhead And blackness drear No stars with luster bright or red That night did cheer Now blustering March had just begun It only could have seen one sun Its first bleak dreary day was done The clouds did breed And rain did down in torrents pour And no mistake The roosters ominously showed Calamities they did forbade Twas not for nothing that they crowed With clamrous note They faithfully their trumpets blowed By many a coat 40 I felt that something with the ground Was leveled there His pick and maddock in he thrust Then floundered many a well soaked crust Then clay to clay and dust to dust The wide command Now tottering tenement they most No longer stand He left some traces of his trail Where he did ruthlessly assail But these small monuments are frail And far between He hopes that mud shall ne'er prevail Where he has been Or if it does, he'll call again With pick and maddock, snow and rain Until he makes our town a plain As twas before For the plow share and growing grain Forever more.26 This poem is one of Frazer's best within the entire collection of journals, and it reflects some of his frustration at residing in a town where the primary building material was adobe. The poem also provides clues as to why Frazer would soon take advantage of a job opportunity to build with stone, even though it entailed uprooting his family and moving some 150 miles further south. Frazer and his family moved to Beaver in 1868 and there he embarked upon his career as a vernacular architect. He built dozens of buildings in the corrmercial, industrial, institutional and residential sectors though today less than half of his structures are still extant. Frazer continued to build until he was almost 80, be- ing retired only three years before his death in 1904. During his forty-three years in Utah, Thomas Frazer played vital roles in both his community and his church. Once converted to the L.D.S. Church, he became a very active member. While living 41 in Lehi, he" . . . was ordained to be a Seventy under the hands of Brother John Brown, in the 68 Quorum of Seventies. 1127 In Beaver, he served as Second Counselor in the Second Ward of the L.D.S. Church from 1877 to 1890. He was also a school trustee for a number of years. Besides his occupation as a builder, Frazer, like almost everyone else in Beaver, was also a farmer. He owned some acreage two miles north of town where he built a small three-room stone house in which to spertd the night if he was caught by darkness (it is no longer standing). On his acre lot in town, Frazer built not only his home, but at least f0ur rock outbuildings and one large barn. One outbuilding is extant today, while only traces of the foundations for the three others are visible. The granary that is still standing has a full cellar with four windows, a ground floor, and was finished not only with quoin stones, but stonework that is squared on its front facade. Frazer built a stone wall along the north side of his property to keep grazing cattle out of his vegetable garden as they were herded to and from their pastures each morning and evening. Like most vernacular architects, Thomas Frazer's extant houses in Beaver have out-lasted their builder, and today few residents have even heard his name. These buildings alone are a wonder- ful collection of artifacts and by examining them closely, it is possible to discern similarities which are characteristic of Frazer's style of building. That Frazer left journals and workbooks--as in- complete as they may be--is an extra bonus that helps to confirm 42 visual observations. Frazer was by no means the on1y builder in Beaver s construction industry, nor was he the only stonemason. 1 But he was one of the earliest and most productive builders of permanent structures and as shall be demonstrated in the following chapters, it is in the black rock buildings that he so proficiently demonstrated his skills as a vernacular architect. Because of these extant buildings, the journals and workbooks and relatives• recollections, it has been possible to research Frazer and his work quite thoroughly in a field that is often punctuated with question marks. For this reason, Frazer can be seen as symbolic of what the all-too-anonymous folk architect was capable of accomplishing. 9 REINHARD MAESER The Maeser family, early converts to the L.D.S. Church from Gennany, were very involved with education in pioneer Utah. Karl G. Maeser was the first president of the Brigham Young Academy, 34 at Provo (now Brigham Young University), and his son, Reinhard, was a prominent educator in Beaver. From Reinhard's diary, he writes: "My father and James E. Talmage were about to make a trip through Southern Utah as far as St. George, in the interest of education, and I was invited to go along. While visiting at Beaver the trustees consulted my father respecting a teacher for their school. The three or four districts having been consolidated, would make this a large and important one. I was asked if I would accept the position, which I did. After returning from St. George in the latter part of July, 1881, I remained in Beaver to arrange for the opening of school in the latter part of August. 1135 In 1886, Reinhard helped establish the Beaver Stake Academy, the first Church school south of Provo. Twelve years later, Murdock Academy was founded in the buildings that had formerly comprised Fort Cameron. E. D. Partridge was sent from Brigham Young Academy to be the principal, and Reinhard Maeser taught primarily English and Literature. Besides his life long interest in education, Reinhard Maeser was also active in the collIDlUility as the county clerk in 1884. In 1882 Maeser purchased lot 1 of block 47, Plat A, and erected a house on the property in 188536 (295 East 200 North). The home has a black rock rubble foundation and is constructed of red fired brick. The west portion was the original part and h,a s a unique two- story tall bay window. The original part had one central chinmey. About 1908, Robert H. Smith moved into the house, and shortly thereafter he added on the southeast addition. This addition had a large bay window on the east elevation which has since been replaced with a flat window. There was also once a jail under this addition. The northeast section . 34 rnterviews with Vie Smith Fotheringham, , August 1976, Beaver, Utah, by Linda Bonar. 35MoNUMENTS TO COURAGE, op, cit., p. 76. 36Abstracts and tax records, Beaver County Courthouse, Beaver, Utah. 10 was added next, sometime before 1917. The old well is still under this part of the house, but has recently been used as some type of drain field. The porch on the south elevation has been extended around to the east elevation, this stnmner, 1976. An interesting note is the different color of the brick 37 . each add.1t1on. . 111 37Vie . Snnt . 11 Fother1ng . h am, op. cit. .