WI BIO - Dane Co - FRARY, John S.
Biographical Review of Dane County, WI. Chicago: Biographical Review Pub. Co. 
1893, Vol I, pp 281-283

Hon. John S. FRARY, a prominent resident of Oregon, Dane County, Wisconsin, 
was born in Haverhill, Grafton County, New Hampshire, 26 October 1821, his 
father, Elisha FRARY, having been born in Connecticut, and his grandfather, 
also [p 282] Elisha, was also of Connecticut. [The grandfather was "of 
Connecticut," thus not necessarily born there.] The grandfather was a miller 
by trade and followed this occupation in New Hampshire and Vermont. He 
resided in Haverhill, New Hampshire, for some years, but spent his last years 
with a daughter in Norwich, Windsor County, Vermont.

The father of our subject went to New Hampshire when a young man; he and John 
PAGE, who later became Governor of New Hampshire, went into the woods 
together, and went into the manufacture of shingles, which they rived by 
hand and carried them on their backs from their camp to the nearest road. 
Later our subject engaged in milling, and operated mills in New Hampshire and 
Vermont, spending his last years in that State. The maiden name of the wife 
of Elisha FRARY, the father of our subject, was Mary STEARNS; she was born in 
Vermont, and died in Orange County, Vermont. Elisha and Mary (STEARNS) FRARY 
reared eleven children: Nathaniel E., Mary A., Lucy, Harriet, Susan, John S. 
[the subject of this sketch], Jedidiah, Sarah, Elisha S., Eliza, and Albert. 
Albert FRARY went South before the war, and was at Charleston, South 
Carolina, when the first gun was fired at Fort Sumter, was forced into the 
rebel army, and was killed. Elisha FRARY served in the Union army.

John S. FRARY commenced when young to earn his own living, and at ten years 
of age began work in a woolen mill, where at first he earned $1 a week, 
working himself up rapidly until he was, at the age of sixteen, foreman of 
the mill in Waterville, Lamoille County, Vermont, where thirty men were 
employed. When he was seventeen he went to Boston, Suffolk County, 
Massachusetts, and was employed clerking until 1843, when he came to the 
Territory of Wisconsin. [What became the State of Wisconsin on 28 May 1848 
had been part of the Territory of Wisconsin, which was created 20 April 
1836.] He first made a visit to his Vermont home, and then removed by stage 
to Whitehall, Washington County, New York, then went on by way of Champlain 
and Erie Canals to Buffalo, New York, by lake to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 
thence to Oregon [Dane County], Wisconsin, which he reached after a journey 
of eighteen days in a lumber wagon.

At that time Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, was a hamlet, and the 
surrounding country was but sparsely settled, and most of the land was owned 
by the Government. There was but one building in the place where the 
flourishing town of Oregon, now stands. John S. FRARY made claim on a tract 
of land on Sections 24 and 25, in what is now the town of Oregon, Dane 
County, Wisconsin, and cut down four trees to make a good foundation for the 
log house he proceeded to erect. This he did to secure the claim, and that 
winter employed himself in cutting down trees and in splitting rails with 
which to fence his land, and in the spring of 1844 he returned for his wife, 
and they went together to the little western home and began housekeeping. He 
cleared about twenty acres and lived there two years, when he sold and bought 
160 acres on Section 24, of the same town, erected another log cabin, and 
began the improvement of the second farm, going through with all the same 
experiences as at first. He had to haul his grain to market at Milwaukee. 
At this place he lived eight years, and then had a good opportunity to sell 
and bought another 160 acres on Section 3 of the same township, and resided 
there until 1885, when he sold that and came to Oregon, Dane County, 
Wisconsin, where he has since lived a retired life.

In 1843 John S. FRARY married Miss Rhoda B. MARTIN, a daughter of S. MARTIN. 
They have four [three] living children: (1) Alice, who died at the age of 
twenty years; (2) Luella C., who married W. H. BRUCE, and has three 
children, named Alice, Nellie and John, and this Alice married Charles 
HERSEY, and they have a child, Bruce, the only great grandchild in the 
family; (3) Orelia B., who married DeWitt C. SAULSBURY, and has [p 283] 
three children, named Grace, Winnie and Philip S.; and (4) Louis A., who 
graduated from the Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois, and now practices 
medicine in Oregon, Dane County, Wisconsin, who married Dora KINGSLEY.

John S. FRARY has been a Republican since the formation of the party, and has 
filled many of the positions of trust. In the fall of 1864 he was elected to 
the State Legislature, and served his constituents faithfully. He was a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a member of Oregon Lodge, 
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly