Fraser (Family)
The first person with this surname to settle in Liberty County was Simon Fraser, who emigrated from Scotland just after the Revolutionary War. It is most likely that he was related to Simon Fraser (1729-1777) who commanded the British 71st Scottish Regiment (called “Fraser’s Highlanders”) during the early years of the Revolutionary War. Simon Fraser married Sarah Sullivan of Liberty County on August 16, 1785. Their sons were John Edward Fraser, Simon Fraser Jr., and Andrew Fraser. Simon Fraser Sr. was captain of a horse troop of the Liberty County Battalion beginning in 1788. He died on October 27, 1812.
John Edward Fraser married Mary Sullivan in 1812. Andrew Fraser married Eliza Sullivan in 1813. Simon Fraser Jr. never married, and was a major in the Georgia Militia during the War of 1812.
Simon Fraser Sr. had five sisters and one brother, Andrew William Fraser, who never left Scotland. He had another brother, Alexander Fraser, who emigrated from Scotland to Nova Scotia in 1807, and then relocated in the State of New York. He had three sons, John, William, and Simon Alexander Fraser. Two of the sons, William and Simon Alexander Fraser, migrated to Liberty County. William Fraser married Mary Ann Osgood of Liberty County on February 3, 1814. He died in 1820 and she died in 1822. Simon Alexander Fraser (1782-1856) married Sarah Martin (see Martin Families in this appendix) in 1821.
The son of Simon Alexander Fraser and Sarah Martin, Donald Fraser (1826-1887) became a member of Midway Church in 1844, graduated from Oglethorpe College in 1848, was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1852, was pastor of churches in Florida, and was a chaplain in the Second Florida Regiment, Confederate Army, during the Civil War. He was elected a professor of Oglethorpe College in 1870, and was pastor of North Georgia churches when he died. He married Lucretia Kinneborough of Ireland, and at least two of their children were Marian C. Fraser and Donald Fraser.
Marian C. Fraser was the second wife of David B.M. Sheppard (1812-1892) who was not related to other Sheppard families in Liberty County. His first wife was Mary Jane Martin, daughter of Alexander and Laurette Baker Martin, and their children were William Alexander, Rosa E., John H., and David Whitfield Sheppard. The children of David B.M. and Marian C. Fraser Sheppard were John E., Sarah M., Donald, Margaret Valeria, and Walter Wade Sheppard, Donald Fraser (1870-1910) married Beulah Lee Hines, daughter of Robert Charlton and Rebecca Butler Hines of Liberty County. Their children were Donald Hines, Lennox, Marian, and Virginia Lee Fraser.
There was a Donald Fraser, undoubtedly related to these families, who married Margaret Rebecca Norman, had no children, and died about five years after the marriage. Donald Fraser, son of Andrew William and Isabella Fraser, who had never left Scotland, emigrated to Liberty County and married Floranna Martin (see Martin Families in this appendix). They both died when their children, William and Simon Alexander Fraser, were still young. Simon Fraser, their uncle, became their guardian. Simon Alexander Fraser married Mary William Bacon, daughter of John and Mary Jane Hazzard Bacon, in 1842. Their children were Flora Ellen, James Bacon, William Alfred, Donald Alexander, Wallace Winn, Mary Jane, and Joseph Bacon Fraser. The latter child married Clara Maria Boulineau of Richmond County, Georgia, and their children were Charles West, Mary Bacon, Donald Alexander, Adelaide West, Harry Boulineau. Thomas Layton, and Joseph Bacon Fraser Jr. The latter child married Pearl Collins, daughter of Elbert and Margaret Elizabeth Davis Collins of Cobbtown, Georgia, in 1923. Their children were Joseph Bacon Fraser III and Charles Elbert Fraser.
Joseph Bacon Fraser Jr. was an officer in the U.S. Army during World War I, and an officer in the Georgia National Guard from 1920 to World War II. He was ordered to federal active duty as a colonel in 1941. He commanded the 101st Coast Artillery Battalion (Anti-Aircraft) in the Pacific Theater of Operations from 1942 to 1943 during World War II. He commanded the 23rd Anti-Aircraft Group in the European Theater of Operations from 1944 to the end of World War II. He returned to duty with the Georgia National Guard, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on February 3, 1947, and placed in command of the 108th Anti-Aircraft Brigade, Georgia National Guard, with headquarters at Savannah, Georgia. He was promoted to the rank of major general in 1950 and commanded the 48th Infantry Division, composed of Georgia and Florida National Guard units. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general when he retired from the Georgia National Guard on August 1, 1956. He was one of the early developers of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and chairman of the board of governors of the Sea Pines Plantation Company.
Donald Hines Fraser was an attorney, a state representative, member of the Hinesville City Council, Judge of the Hinesville Court, Judge of the Darien Court, solicitor general of the Atlantic Judicial Circuit, assistant U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Georgia, U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Georgia, and was a state representative when he retired in 1976 after 40 years of public service. The Liberty County Chamber of Commerce proclaimed June 29, 1976, as “Donald Fraser Appreciation Day.”
His sister, Virginia Fraser Evans, a resident of North Carolina, and other persons she organized into “teams” collected and wrote “A Pictorial History of Liberty County, Georgia,”, which was published by the Liberty County Board of Commissioners in 1979.
