My Genealogy Hound

HIRAM F. FRARY is one of the extensive land-owners of Johnson County, and is engaged in the management of his desirable homestead on section 18, township 45, range 28. He may well be proud of the success which he has achieved, for he began life empty handed, and through his industrious and persevering qualities has risen to a place of prominence, and gained a competence. Just and fair in his dealings with all, he takes pleasure in the fact that he has never had to mortgage a piece of property, has never had a lawsuit of any kind, and has promptly met all payments.

For many generations the Frary family were natives of the Green Mountain State. Our subject’s grandfather, David Frary, died about 1859, at the home of his son Harry. The latter, the father of Hiram F., was born in Pawlet, Vt., in 1808, and was called to the home beyond in March, 1885. He married Priscilla Ransom, likewise a native of Vermont, who moved to Oswego County, N. Y., in childhood. Harry Frary also went with his parents to Oswego County and there grew to maturity and was married. He was the father of six children, of whom our subject is the third.

Born in Oswego County, N. Y., December 19, 1835, H. F. Frary early learned the duties pertaining to farm life, and attended the common schools of the district, which were much better than those in many sections of this country at that time. In 1856 he went to Lake County, Ill., where he worked for nearly a year at $20 a month, driving a team in a brick-yard. He also spent a few months in Wisconsin, and made a trip to Iowa, helping to drive livestock there. Within a year he returned to his old home and for a few years assumed the management of his father’s farm. In 1864 he went to northern Indiana, and there and in southern Michigan rented land for the next eighteen years. Coming to Johnson County in 1882, he bought two hundred acres of land, having by years of economy saved enough money to pay for the place and yet have a good sum left. He has made additions to the house, built a good barn and has bought more land. A few years after locating here he invested in forty acres, subsequently purchased sixty acres more, and in 1891 became the owner of a tract of eighty acres, his possessions now reaching nearly four hundred acres. While renting land he was esteemed to be a first-class tenant, and never left a place except on account of its being sold.

October 5, 1863, Mr. Frary married Emma Sanborn, of St. Lawrence County, N. Y., and three children were born of their union, namely: George S., Harry B. and Emma. While they were residents of Michigan the wife and mother was called to the silent land. March 28, 1876, Mr. Frary married Mrs. Matilda Warner, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Breeden) Cooper. They moved to Van Buren County, Mich., in 1836 and were among the pioneers of that locality. Mrs. Frary was born in Perry County, Ohio, April 23, 1836, and when she was twelve years of age removed with her parents to Lasalle County, Ill. She was first married, January 18, 1855, to Orson S. Warner, and moved to Three Oaks, Mich., a year later. She was still a resident of that place when she became the wife of our subject. Brought up in the Methodist Episcopal Church, she is yet a believer in the tenets of that church, though for some years she was a member of the Congregational Church in Michigan.

The father of Hiram F. Frary was a Republican and served as County Commissioner for a number of years. Religiously he was connected with the Baptist denomination. Our subject first voted for John C. Fremont, in 1856, and has always been a loyal Republican, though not a politician. He became a member of the Masonic order in his early manhood, in Oswego County, N. Y., later belonged to the lodge at Three Oaks, Mich., but when he moved West took a demit and has never since been affiliated with the society.