2. Eva Grace (Fraser) Briggs, born August 23, 1850 at Hartford, Wisconsin.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

I was six weeks old when taken to the home of my mother’s parents, and five years old when I returned. My education began at the age of three years at the Cole School a mile away. It was so named after the donor of the site and his descendants in the Cole settlement. The majority of the scholars were Coles. I am the oldest of the pupils that attended from 1853 to 1855, and one of five now living.

Late in October I joined my parents at what is now Woodland Village, in Hubbard Township, Wisconsin. It was cradled between heavily timbered hills. Seventy-two years have elapsed since the first whistle of a locomotive reverberated through the hills surrounding the town that gave promise of becoming a city, but lapsed into the placid existence of a country village.

I attended the Woodland, Vedder and Horizon High School. Owing to the death of my mother in 1866, I was unable to enter college as had been planned.

I have resided in many towns in Wisconsin since 1867: New Lisbon, Mauston, Oxford, Briggsville, Wisconsin Rapids, Wauwatosa, and Milwaukee.

I married, at Oxford, January 10, 1869, Carlton W. Briggs, born at Rutland, Vermont, son of Judge Harvey and Francis L. (Peck) Briggs. Mrs. Briggs was a lineal descendant of Sir Walter Raleigh. Mr. Briggs was a lawyer, with an office at Oxford; he was also connected with a mercantile company.

We moved to Briggsville in May and returned late in December. In 1877 we located in Wisconsin Rapids and lived there until 1892. After that I made my home with my daughters at Pittsville and West Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota. I sold my property at Wisconsin Rapids and traveled for a time, visiting the World Fair at Chicago in 1894, the Texas State Fair at San Antonio, the Alamo and other notable historical missions in Texas and Mexico. I also attended the Confederate Reunion at Dallas, Texas, in 1901.

On February 6, 1901, I came to the home of my daughter, Mrs. Boynton, at Washburn, Wisconsin. Six weeks later she was called, after an illness of only two days. I remained with the family thirteen years, having charge of the home and children.

On May 1, 1904, we joined Mr. Boynton at Fernie, British Columbia, Canada, where he was in the lumber business. In September, 1904, we visited Portland, Oregon Exhibition.

In 1905 I placed my grandchildren in school in Portland. We lived in a furnished apartment on Portland Heights, and spent our vacations at Fernie. On August 1, 1908, a brush fire, fanned by a terrific gale, struck the City of Fernie. Although superhuman efforts were made to check the flames, they were beyond the power of man. The people were crazed with fright; it was only a question of saving their lives, so rapid was the progress of the fire. Mile after mile of flaming valley and mountain side presented as stupendous a sight as ever seen by man. The whole country lighted with flashes of fire resembled an immense electrically lighted city. In two short hours, Fernie became a matter of history.

We were three of the two thousand refugees that were taken to Cranbrook, a ride of seven hours. No word can express the full measure of generous hospitality extended to the refugees by the citizens of Cranbrook. They opened their doors to receive us at a moment’s notice and took us into their homes. The remembrance of their timely aid will ever remain in the memory of the homeless thousands. The Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes were folded together with but one thought–to get food and clothes to the stricken. It is said to have been the grandest outpouring of human sympathy ever witnessed in that part of Canada.

We left Cranbrook August 8 for Winnipeg, arrived the 12th, and were settled in the Boynton home at 334 Wellington Crescent, on August 26.

I spent the spring and part of the summer of 1912 visiting Los Angeles, St. Monica, San Francisco, and other nearby towns of note in California. I was living at Galveston, Texas, when the 1915 flood devastated that section, and was among the last to cross the causeway to the mainland before the approach at both ends had been washed away. I motored with relatives to Dallas and lived there six months. In November, 1916, I returned to Winnipeg.

In January 1917, I moved to New York City to be with my grandson. I served as a volunteer nurse at the Bellevue General Hospital during the Spanish Influenza epidemic. I also worked with the Yale Red Cross Auxiliary, of which I was a member.

In September, 1919, I sailed from New York for Galveston, Texas, via the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, and Galveston Bay. We reached Key West, Florida, a few hours after it had been struck by a typhoon which inundated the city and surrounding country. We met the aftermath of the storm, but missed by less than an hour being in the teeth of it. We found on our arrival at Key West that storm signals gave warning of an approaching cyclone, and all boats were held there three days.

Galveston suffered very little. The people had been warned of the approaching storm and my friends had left the city. A colored servant met me and sent me to Houston, Texas. In late October I returned to New York City, via Winnipeg, Toronto, and Niagara Falls. In 1921 I left for Canada, visiting Chicago and Duluth en route. Six weeks later I went to Sioux City, Iowa, and resided with a brother four years. After his death, I came to Wauwatosa, later went to Winnipeg, and returned to Wisconsin in 1926. I have been a resident of Milwaukee since March, 1927, and will leave here in July for Dallas, Texas, my future home.

I am a member of the Martha Washington Chapter of the D.A.R. Sioux City. My claim for membership is based on my descent from Jeremiah Fraser, who served at the age of twelve years.

Life has not brought me all that I hoped for, and much that I desire has passed me by. I have endeavored to faithfully and conscientiously perform the duties which have fallen upon me.

“Whatsoever ye ought to desire others to do unto you, do ye so to them” has been one of the rules of my life for fifty years.
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War Record of Carlton Wilberton Briggs, of Briggsville, Wisconsin

He enlisted for service in the Civil War, March 2, 1862, in Company K, 18th Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry, with the rank of Corporal. This regiment did post and guard duty at A. A. I. Post, Paducah, Kentucky. He was attending school in Baraboo, Wisconsin, when war was declared, and was seventeen at the time of his enlistment.

He became quite ill at Paducah and was discharged for disability on July 25, 1862. He returned to his home at Briggsville the month following his discharge, and recruited a company for the 44th Wisconsin Infantry. He was commissioned Captain in Company I of the 44th. He served in the battles at Pittsburg Landing, Shilo, and the Wilderness, and was also in several important skirmishes. Captain Briggs received honorable discharge at the close of the war. He died in 1880 of tuberculosis.


Children:

2a.. Nina Inez Briggs B 23 NOV 1869 D 21 APR 1903
2b.. Amasa Arnold Briggs B 15 JAN 1871 D 18 APR 1871
2c. Grace Eva Briggs B 18 MAR 1872 D 10 JUN 1907
2d. Eliada Fraser Briggs B 10 NOV 1875; died & buried at Oxford, Wis.
2e. Carlton Wilberton Briggs B 22 JUL 1877 D 20 DEC 1878

From: Sandy Wunder
P. O. Box 2807
Cheyenne, Wyoming 82003-2807

December 2001


This has been taken from A Genealogy of the COLES and Allied Families by Mrs. Eva Grace Fraser Briggs, which was compiled in 1928 when she was 78 and shared with me in February 2001 by Bert Budd of Cheyenne, Wyoming, a direct descendant of Eliada Parish Fraser. Finding Bert and his connection to my husband Dick Wunder’s Parish family was one of those “Twilight Zone” moments in genealogy from which I am still not totally recovered!

The spelling of “Parrish” was left the way it was written. The family knew nothing of the Parish side of their heritage at the time the book was written. This transcription is to honor our ancestors who took the time to document and share their family stories. I present it to my husband’s cousins and others in the Parish family descendancy. As has been the case in my many years of researching this family’s history, it has been a labor of love and respect for the heritage and Dick’s and my desire to preserve as much as possible for the future generations.

For those who don’t do genealogy and to save confusion, I have taken the liberty to bring the detailed information down only one generation from Eliada Parish Fraser. I did not simply copy the pages from the book because the manuscript has been copied many times over the years and the copy I have is difficult to read. More details can be provided for those interested.

A clarification of Eliada Parish Fraser’s birthplace is that he was born in Bastard Township, not at Brockville, which is in the Township of Elizabethtown. I’d surmise that he told his family the name Brockville because it was the nearest town of any size. My research has them, as well as Susanna’s parents, Eliada & Catherine Parish, in Bastard Township after her marriage to William Day Fraser. Susanna was referred to as Susan Fraser in her father’s will, written in early 1832. Her siblings were Catherine, Hannah, Polly, Eber, Hiram, Ira, Sarah, Edith, Charlotte and Laura.

More work needs to be done on Susan’s family as we only know of one other child, Edith (Fraser) Wood, at this time. Edith was 8 years younger than her brother Eliada Parish Fraser, so there probably are other children between them in this family to find. The difficulty of the time period of the early 1800's has been compounded by the family’s mobility and move to Wells Island (now Wellesley Island) which is in Jefferson County, New York. The first U. S. census to list all family members was 1850 & in Canada, 1851. By that time, I suspect their mother Susan was dead, we know Eliada P. Fraser was married and gone to Wisconsin, and Edith was also married, to Amos Wood. The Wood family ended up in Michigan.

But, if the families of Eliada P. Fraser and Edith (Fraser) Wood had not preserved their stories, I’d never have found them both the same week! Each had a family story about their ancestor, Jeremiah Fraser, and his service in the Revolutionary War. Both stories mentioned a place in Canada called “Quibbins”, which turned out to be Quabbin in Yonge Twp., Leeds Co., Ontario. But since the stories had the same place name, I discovered Edith’s family story (and more cousins) while doing a search for the name “Quibbins”on the Internet. Another “Twilight Zone” experience!

“Handing down ancestral tales and lore, like the finest family silver, leaves clear footprints for others to follow on the pathway toward tomorrow.”