Dr. Edward Bates Frayser

Historical and Biographical Record of the Cattle Industry and the Cattlemen Edward Bates Frayser was born in St. Charles County, Missouri, March 5, 1849. He is of Scottish ancestry, his grandfather having emigrated from Scotland to the United States at an early date in its history as a nation. Robert Frayser, the father of our subject was born in Powhatan County, Virginia, in 1805, and was one of a family of six children. He married Miss Maria V. Spears, of Cumberland county, Virginia, and in 1837 moved to St. Charles, Missouri, where he followed farming for a good many years. He was very popular among his fellowmen, and was successful in political life, being sent two consecutive terms, 1861-65, to the State Senate. He was too old for service in the war but took an active interest in the political questions concerned. He died in 1876, his wife having died during the cholera epidemic in 1854. There were seven children, of whom the following are living; Mrs. Eliza Miller, St. Charles, Missouri; Mrs. Julia B. Wilson, St. Charles, Missouri. Mrs. Margaret G Wilson, Granville, North Carolina, and our subject, E. B. Frayser. The cities and towns of Northern Missouri are well supplied with educational institutions of a high grade, and Mr. Frayser was given every opportunity in the way of schooling. Beginning with the common schools he was afterward sent to the St. Charles College, in 1865, and during the three succeeding years attended the Westminster College at Fulton, Missouri. Given the choice of a profession, he elected to become a physician, and was accordingly sent to the Missouri Medical College in St. Louis to complete his education, and graduated with honors from this institution in 1872. The world was now before him; bur, before selecting a point at which to begin the practice of his profession, he decided that it would be better to gain a little practical experience in caring for the sick and relieving their sufferings. He was in the United States Marine Hospital at St. Louis for a year, then moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and displayed his "shingle" as a practicing physician. In the two years of his residence at this town he thoroughly proved his ability in the profession he had selected and built up a very profitable practice. He was married in Fort Smith, March 3, 1875, choosing for his wife Miss Mary Elizabeth Vann, a young lady of remarkable beauty and noted for her many excellent traits of heart and mind. She was the daughter of William L. Vann, a Cherokee, and Assistant Treasurer and interpreter for the Nation. Mr. Vann was accidentally killed in fort Smith, in 1852, while endeavoring to separate two friends who were fighting. Mrs. Frayser was born in Sequoyah District, Cherokee Nation, February 24, 1851 her mother being of English birth. There is one sister Mrs. Alta V. Theurer, of Fort Smith. From fort Smith, Mr. Frayser moved to Fort Scott, Kansas, where he established himself in the drug business, but remained there only one year. Then going to Vinita, in the Cherokee Nation, he made preparations for engaging permanently in the cattle business, locating on a ranch six miles southeast from Vinita where he has since resided. As his capital was limited, he necessarily commenced operations on a small scale. Being by marriage a citizen of the Nation, he had an abundance of lands for pasturage purposes, and he added to his cattle as rapidly as he might, doing a good deal of arming as a side issue. As his time was not fully occupied in the care of his cattle, he secured a position with the Collins Drug Company, of St. Louis, and traveled for that house during 1877, 1878 and 1879, in Southwestern Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian Territory. As his cattle interests grew and the business became more profitable as he made outside investments in the way of real estate, and all of them were well selected and promise to turn out profitably. With the particulars of his various ventures and transactions it is unnecessary to deal, but the results achieve are well worth of enumeration. Mr. Frayser is now holding about 4,000 head of cattle on his ranches near Vinita, also in the Chickasaw and Creek Nations, his method being to buy young steers and hold and fatten them for the market. His cattle are on the open range but are carefully watched after by a good force of cowboys. He has 700 acres in cultivation in the territory and is the owner of four houses and ten town lots in Vinita, where he resides. He is also the owner of valuable property in Fort Smith, and has an interest in an estate of several thousand acres in Arkansas. He is a stockholder and director in the first Nation Banks of St. Charles, Missouri, and is Vice President of the Afton Roller Mill Company, of Afton, Indian Territory. With all his varied interests, however, Mr. Frayer prefers to be known as a cattleman, and, incidentally, as a Democrat, but not of the Cleveland school. He has never had anything to do with politics, for his time has been too thoroughly engaged in his personal affairs to admit of entering public life. He is thoroughgoing businessman and brings sound principles and practical sense to bear upon ever transaction. His success heretofore has been uniform and of the most flattering description.