DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Frazarville, out in Wharton County. Now, some towns get built once and stay put. The Frazars built theirs twice — and the story of how they got to that second spot is worth every mile of this road.
It starts in 1857, with Dr. Isaac James Frazar and his father, Colonel James Watson Frazar. They founded the community of Frazarville — but not here, not yet.
They were over in Bexar County, on Cibolo Creek, trying to make a go of it. And they might have, too, if the land had cooperated. But locusts came first.
Then came Comanche raids. Two kinds of trouble that don't leave a man much choice. So the Frazars picked up and moved, crossed just over the Wharton County line, and planted Frazarville right here.
Now, Colonel James Watson Frazar brought more than one son into this story. Dr. Isaac James Frazar, once they were settled, practiced medicine over in Eagle Lake.
His son — that's the third generation now — James Azariah Frazar took the community of Frazarville and built it into something. A general store. A cotton gin.
A blacksmith shop. The kind of enterprises that tell you a place has real ambitions. Meanwhile, Colonel James Watson Frazar's other son, George Watson Frazar, stayed back in Bexar County.
And he didn't exactly idle away his time — George became Sheriff and a Texas Ranger. Two Frazar boys, two very different callings, and one family stretching itself across the map of Texas. But here's where the story takes another turn.
James Azariah Frazar had his eye on more than Frazarville. He owned bank stock over in Henrietta, up in Clay County. And in 1889, that bank began to fail.
So James moved his family north to Henrietta to become president of the bank — and he pulled it back from the edge. Served successfully for five years, they say, all while keeping his interests in Frazarville alive until 1892. Frazarville didn't disappear, though.
James Azariah's sister, Annie Gertrude Frazar, and her descendants continued to own portions of that property. The land stayed in the family. And beneath it — nearby, in the Frazar Family Cemetery — several family members are buried, including Isaac James Frazar himself, his wife Almira Kimbro Frazar, and Annie Gertrude Frazar.
The Colonel's family wasn't done movin', either. The James Watson Frazar family was followed by brother Micajah Frazar and his family to Matthews and Eagle Lake. And in Eagle Lake, something went up that tells you this family had culture on their minds as much as commerce — the Frazar Opera House.
Now pull back the lens for a moment, because the Frazars didn't just wander in from the next county over. Their ancestors arrived from Inverness, Scotland, to North Carolina all the way back in 1678. From there, they owned plantations in North Carolina, Alabama — later Mississippi — Tennessee, and eventually Texas.
That is a long migration through the South, generation by generation, each move deliberate, each new place an attempt to put down roots. The marker says their journey across the South exemplified many other Scottish journeys to Texas made in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Whole waves of families tracing similar paths, chasing similar dreams, through similar hardships.
Locusts. Raids. Failing banks.
Opera houses. A Ranger in Bexar County and a doctor in Eagle Lake. The Frazars didn't just pass through Texas — they shaped a piece of it, named a piece of it, and left some of themselves in the ground right here near this site.
That's not a footnote. That's a family.
What the marker says
Near this site once stood the community of Frazarville, founded in 1857 by Dr. Isaac James Frazar and his father, Col. James Watson Frazar. A locust infestation and Comanche raids force them to move from Cibolo Creek in Bexar County to this site, just over the Wharton County line. Dr. Isaac James Frazar practiced medicine in Eagle Lake. His son, James Azariah Frazar, developed the community of Frazarville into several businesses that included a general store, cotton gin, and a blacksmith shop. James Watson Frazar’s other son, George Watson Frazar, remained in Bexar County as Sheriff and Texas Ranger. James Azariah Frazar also owned bank stock in Henrietta, Clay County. When the bank began to fail, in 1889, James moved his family to Henrietta to become president of the bank. He served successfully for five years, continuing his interests in Frazarville until 1892. His sister, Annie Gertrude Frazar, and her descendents continued to own portions of the Frazarville property. Several Family members are buried in the Frazar Family Cemetery near this site, including Isaac James Frazar, His wife, Almira Kimbro Frazar, and Annie Gertrude Frazar. The James Watson Frazar family was followed by brother Micajah Frazar and family to Matthews and Eagle Lake, where the Frazar Opera House was built. The Frazar ancestors originally arrived from Inverness, Scotland, to North Carolina in 1678. They owned plantations in North Carolina, Alabama (later Mississippi), Tennessee and Texas. Their migration across the South exemplified many other Scottish journeys to Texas made in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (2015)