Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/199

 FRAZER

FRAZER

ble-cutting and from 1819 to 1823 engaged in monumeuts and mantel work. After that he took up sculpture and in 1824 finished a mural tablet and bust of Jolm Wells, for the New York bar, which was placed in Gi-ace church. New York city, until the removal of tliat church, when it was placed in St. Paul's chapel. In 1834 he was commissioned bj the Boston, Mass., Athenaeum to model a number of busts for the library, including Nathaniel Bowditch, James Russell Lowell, Thomas H. Perkins, William H. Prescott, WUliam W. Storj- and Daniel AVebster. He afterward executed busts of DeWitt Clinton, Bisliop Hobart, General Jackson, John Jay, Gen- eral Lafayette and the Rev. Dr. James Milnor. He designed the custom-house at New York citj-. He died iu Comptou JIUls, R.I., Feb. 24, 1852.

FRAZER, James Somerville, jurist, was born in HolUdaysburg, Pa., July IT, 1824. In 1837 he removed to Wayne county, Ind., where he was admitted to the bar in 1845, and whence he re- moved to Warsaw, Ind., to practise his profes- sion. He was a member of the state legislature in 1847. 1848 and 1854 ; was elected prosecuting attorney for Kosciusko coimty in 1851 ; assessor of internal revenue in 1863, and was a judge of the supreme court of Indiana, 1865-71. He was appointed by President Grant one of the U.S. commissioners to adjust the clauns for and against the British government for damages dur- ing the civil war, and was employed by the treas- ury department, 1873-75, in the adjustment of claims for cotton captured by the U.S. troops during the war. He was one of three commis- sioners appointed by the supreme court of Indiana in revising and codifying the laws of the state, 1879-81. He died in Warsaw, Ind., Feb. 20, 1893,

FRAZER, John Fries, educator, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., July 8, 1813; son of Robert and Elizabeth (Fries) Frazer; grandson of Lieutenant- Colonel Persifor and Slary Worral (Taylor) Fi'azer, and great-grandson of John and Marj' (Smith) Frazer. His father (born in 1771, died in 1821) was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1789, and became a lawyer, a member of the Pennsylvania assembly and dis- trict attorney of Delaware county. His grand- father, Persifor (born in 1780, died in 1792), was a merchant and iron-master till the outbreak of the Revolution ; was commissioned captain of Company A, 4th battalion, Pennsylvania volun- teei's, commanded liy Anthony Wayne : was sub- sequently major and lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Pennsjdvania line, and at the close of the war was brigadier-general of militia. His great- grandfather. John (horn in Ireland in 1709, died in 1765), removed to Philadelphia, and became a merchant trading with the West Indies. Jolm Fries Frazer was graduated from the University

of Pennsylvania in 1830 with valedictorian honors, having assisted Prof. Alexander Dallas Bache in laboratory work while an imdergrad- uate. He studied medicine, but did not ajjply for a degree, and was subsequently admitted to the bar, but decided to devote his time to science. In 1836 he was appointed first assistant geologist in the geological survey of Pennsylvania, and in 1837 became i^rofessor of chemistry and natural philosophy in the Philadelphia high school. In 1844 he succeeded Professor Bache as professor of natural jjliilosophy and chemistrj- in the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and held the chair until his death. He was a life member of, and pro- fessor at the Franklin institute, Philadelphia, and vice-provost of the University of Pennsyl- vania, 1855-08. He was elected a member of the American philosophical society in 1842, its secre- tary in 1845 and was its vice-president, 1855-58. In 1803 he was one of the incorporators of the Na- tional academy of sciences. Tlie University of Lewisburg (afterward Bucknell university) con- ferred upon him the degree of Ph.D. in 1854, and Harvard that of LL.D. in 1857. He is the author of treatises on light, heat, the steam engine, and mechanics, printed privately for the use of his classes, and he edited the Franklin Institute Jour- nal, 1850-66. He was married to Charlotte Jeffers, daughter of Thomas Cave of Philadel- phia, apothecary-general of the U.S. army, 1812- 15. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 12, 1872.

FRAZER, Persifor, geologist, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., July 24, 1844; son of Jolm Fries and Charlotte Jeifers (Cave) Frazer. He was graduated from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1802 and became an aide on the U.S. coast and geodetic survey in the corps assigned to the South Atlantic squadron, under Ad- miral S. F. Dupont. Upon the invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863, he served as a private in the first troop of Philadelphia city cav- alry. Subsequently he was appointed acting ensign of the U.S. navy, serving in the Mississijipi squad- ron until the end of

the civil war in,1865,

when he was honora- ^-Ctdc/ArK- ^^

bly discharged. He studied at the

Saxon mining academy, Freiberg, 1866-69, pass- ing with distinction the e.xamination in nnneral- ogy. He was instructor in chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, 1870-71; assistant