Biographie Fraser William-Archibald

WILLIAM ARCHIBALD FRASER

1840-1921

At the age of seven years, William Archibald Fraser left Inverness, Scotland with his parents and a number of Highland immigrants settled at Lost River Quebec, to make his home in Canada.

William attended school there and learned to speak English, a change from the Highland Gaelic which was spoken exclusively by his parents and their Highland settler friends.

At an early age he left school and as a young man worked in lumber camps and on the log booms on the Gatineau River. He married and a few weeks after the third child was born his wife died of typhoid fever. This tragedy forced him to move and live with his mother who had recently been widowed. At the age of seventy-eight years she took on the responsibility of rearing the three children, a job she did very well. William continued his lumber camp work, often walking, after a heavy weeks labour, twenty miles return to spend the weekend with his family.

Years passed and the children grew up and luckily grandma lived on well, able-bodied and hearty to the ripe old age of ninety six years.

In 1887 William decided to leave the East and come West because the Canadian Pacific Railway had made its first trans.-Canada crossing in 1885 so there was much interest among the Easterners about Western settlements beyond the Rockies. With William came his son John, and his nephews William J. Fraser, Dan/Donald Fraser and Alexander Fraser all young men eager to view the West.

Upon arrival William took up a homestead of 160 acres at Abbotsford B.C.- now bounded on the north by the Annex site of McMillan school, on the west by Beck Road (most of the right-of-way of this Road was donated from the Fraser homestead property). On the east by McMillan and Marshall Roads, and the extending to the southern boundary of the Vedder transport property.

After a considerable area of forest was cleared away and a small comfortable log cabin was built, William sent East for his eighteen-years-old daughter, Anora, known as "Anna". She arrived via the C.P.R. with a number of young, single, white women, some of the first in number to cross the Rockies. Donald and Sarah McMillan, neighbours in the East, were with her on this train and became neighbours here in the West (McMillan Road and School were named after them.) William hewed timbers with the broad-axe for barns and house construction and supplied the valley from Langley to Abbotsford with sought after hewn timbers. He was known near and far for his skill with the broad-axe, thanks to the early training which he received in the Quebec lumber camps. His retirement years were spent with his niece by marriage, Mrs. Hannah (Kelly) Fraser wife of his nephew Dan Fraser In 1921 he passed peacefully away, found leaning on the garden gate about 5:00 p.m. on his way to the house for supper. Like his nine-six-year-old mother, he was never known to have spent a day in bed due to illness. His remains rest in Musselwhite Cemetery along with many pioneers friends. A beautiful stained glass window, "The Good Shepherd" adorns the south wall of the church he attended regularly- Trinity United Church in Abbotsford. In 1952 this was placed there in his memory by his daughter, Mrs Anora Christina (Fraser)Blatchford.

The William A. Fraser elementary school on McMillan Road is named in honour of this pioneer settler.

Children of William A. Fraser
John, the son married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Ann McGregor and had a son William and a daughter Chrissie.
Jane (Jennie) married (Mr. Malone) and moved to U.S.A.
Anora (Anna) Christina married William Blatchford and had daughter Anora Eleanor and son Colin
Mary was single.

The above information is courtesy of Miss Eleanor Blatchford granddaughter of William Fraser sent in by great great grandniece W.Klapwijk