My great-grandmother on my Mom’s side of the family was Mary
Belle Fryar who was born March 16, 1894 in Blackford, Webster County,
Kentucky. She was the oldest child of
the ten children born to William Lonzo ‘Lonnie’ Fryar and Ida Ann Hart. The following is a picture of her parents, my
2nd great-grandparents that I have always loved. They just look so sweet and I know I was
small when they died, but I can remember going to their home there in
Crittenden County just outside of the town of Marion.
Belle as she was called had the following siblings: Leva
Elmer Fryar born July 31, 1896 married William Franklin Gilland in 1914 and
Otis Blanton in 1946 and died April 25, 1989 in Grand Junction, Colorado. Johnny Virgil Fryar born October 2, 1898
married Levada May Armstrong in 1923 and died December 3, 1927 in Crittenden
County, Kentucky. Opal Vernon Fryar born
May 3, 1902 and died that same year but I don’t know the exact date or if he
died the day he was born. Carrie
Elizabeth Fryar born September 16, 1904 and was married at least four times,
died February 12, 2001 in Winnsboro, Louisiana.
Lettie Washington Fryar born February 22, 1907 married Raymond Thomas
Dickerson in 1924 and died July 2, 1980 in Paducah, Kentucky. Vera Clama Fryar born August 31, 1910 and
died of polio when she was 12 on February 8, 1923 in Livingston County,
Kentucky. Rose Ellen Fryar born December
10, 1913 married Lee Andrew Hunt in 1928 and George C. Kasman in 1960 and died
September 11, 1996 in High Ridge, Missouri.
George Clement Fryar born April 29, 1916 married three times, died
November 4, 1998 in Marion, Kentucky and the youngest, Ivy Larnie Fryar born
November 9, 1920 married twice, died October 13, 1989 in Paducah, Kentucky.
I know I met Aunt Leva and Aunt Lettie when I was just a
little kid, but I remember Aunt Carrie quite a bit as we visited with her a
number of times and were able to get copies of old pictures she had of the
family. I probably met Aunt Rose and
Uncle Larnie too when I was a kid, but I can’t remember for sure. But my
Uncle George, I remember really well and was in his home many times. Me and my Papaw, Ermon Fraley, who was the
son of Belle and therefore the nephew to George Fryar use to meet Uncle George
at the Marion Café there in Marion, Kentucky and have lunch with him many times
when I would go back home for a visit. I
remember when my Papaw died, Uncle George came up from Marion to Hebbardsville
to see my Papaw and how he cried to seeing him lying there in bed, they were not
only family, but best friends, being only 2 years difference in age. Uncle George told us later that he had never
thought Papaw favored the Fryar side of the family, until he saw him lying
there in the bed and he said he looked just like his Daddy, Lonnie.
Belle had a pretty normal childhood, she attended school and
helped with the chores around the house and with the younger children. Pretty soon however, she met a young man who
made her heart do flips and soon they were engaged to be married. Belle was only 17 and Robert Ermon ‘Bob’ Fraley
was almost 20 years old when they got married and so they needed their parents’
permission to marry, since they were both under the age of 21. Lonnie gave permission for Belle to marry
and Robert’s mother Levy Fraley gave permission for her boy to marry since his
father had passed away when he was just 14 years old. Belle and Bob were married at her parents’
home just outside of the town of Salem in Livingston County, Kentucky on June
18, 1911. The witnesses to their
marriage were David C. Loveless and Lewis J. Ross and they were married by C.
R. Stevens a Justice of the Peace. The
following picture was taken on the day they were married.
Shortly after their marriage Belle and Bob loaded up their
belongings and moved to New Madrid County, Missouri. Bob’s brother, John and his family as well as
some of the McDaniel family, his mother’s people, were living there too. Bob knew there was work to be had and so they
left Belle’s family in Kentucky and started their new life in Missouri. Pretty soon Bob was cutting timber in the
swamps and Belle took care of their little cabin and soon found she was
pregnant with their first child, a little girl who was born on March 11, 1913
in Kewanee in New Madrid County and was named Corene. A little over 18 months later a little boy
joined their family who they named Ermon Edward Fraley, he was born October 19,
1914 also in Kewanee. This little boy
became my grandfather, my Momma’s daddy.
Life was moving right along for this little family, they now
had two children, work was good and things were looking up. This next picture was taken of Corene and
Ermon probably late 1915, since my Papaw looks like he could be around a year
or so old.
I know I have seen at least one other picture of my
great-grandmother Belle, but I can’t for the life of me find it now. I believe my Mom had it in one of her albums,
so it could be in some of the boxes I have here at my house that I haven’t gone
through yet since my Mom passed away. I
thought I had scanned most of Momma and Daddy’s old pictures but apparently I
haven’t. L
Life was soon to change for this little family. Family stories say that Belle was pregnant
with her third child, when the Influenza Pandemic hit the world in 1918 and
ended up killing 50 to 100 million people worldwide, in one of the deadliest
natural disasters in human history. The
nickname of this pandemic was the Spanish Flu, since it was reported that Spain
was especially hard hit. My family was
soon to join in that sadly unfortunate statistic.
I have the last letter Belle wrote, which was dated December
7, 1918 in Kewanee, Missouri. She tells
how sick everyone has been including her husband, Bob, their two children,
Corene and Ermon, as well as others in the family that lived close by. She never mentions that she had been sick or
that she had a baby, but the family stories say that she had a little boy and
the baby was really small and she was so sick that she couldn't feed him, and
he died. The story also goes that the
ground was so frozen and it was so cold that no one had the strength to dig a
grave so they put the baby and Belle in the front room until someone could bury
them. The letter is 5 ½ pages long
written in pencil. My great-aunt, Lillie
Fraley Barnes, still had these old letters and gave them to my Papaw, her
nephew Ermon, before 1974 and then my Papaw gave them to me in the 1980’s. The following are the six pages of Belle’s
last letter that I now have in my procession.
From the story my great-grandfather, Bob told to my Mom,
after he and the children got better, Belle who wasn't as bad, took a turn for
the worst and she died late one evening.
They laid her body in the front room with the baby and covered them both
up, but sometime later, someone brought out a coffin and placed the mother and
baby in it, so that they were no longer laying on the table. Apparently it was a few days before there
were enough men strong enough to go and dig a grave.
My
great-grandfather, Bob, told my Mom that Belle was buried over in Sikeston in
Scott County, Missouri. Papaw, told me
that he went with his Daddy, after he was grown to see the grave and have a
marker placed on it, but that his Daddy could not remember exactly where it was
so they did not get a marker made for her after all. Papaw, said that his Daddy stood there in the
cemetery and cried because he couldn't remember the location of her grave. I wish I knew the name of the cemetery so I could
do some digging of my own and see if I could find some kind of a record for her
burial. There was never an official death
certificate for Belle either unfortunately.
If I didn't have this old letter I wouldn't even know what month or year
she had passed away. My
great-grandfather could never remember when she had died just that it was
winter time and very cold.
My Papaw never liked funerals and I can only assume it was
because he had to see his mother and baby brother’s bodies lying in that front
room for a few days, before they were buried.
Can you just imagine a little four year old boy, losing his Momma and
then not understanding why she wasn't taking care of him like usual, even
though she was still in the house with them?
I don’t know the exact date of Belle’s death, but I do know
it was in December of 1918, sometime between the 7th and the 17th,
because one of Bob’s cousins found Belle’s letter that she never got the chance
to mail and then wrote her own two page letter to the people Belle was writing
to let them know that Belle was gone.
Belle had been writing to Bob’s sister Lillie Fraley and her husband
Bennett Barnes back in Kentucky. Bob’s cousin was Oma Ready Mays, daughter of
Arthur Robert Ready and Sarah Elizabeth McDaniel and Oma’s husband, William
Claude Mays, had also died of the influenza just the month before in Sikeston. They had only been married for two years and
had a little girl who was just one when he died. The following is the two page letter that Oma
wrote.
My Mom really favored Belle a lot, at least I have always thought so, and the following picture
was taken of my Mom, Erma Jean Fraley, when she was 17 years old, the age Belle
was when she got married. My Mom was
also 17 when she married my Dad, Duell Franklin Beard and this is their wedding
picture in 1957, 46 years after Belle and Bob's marriage.
At least I was able to meet Belle’s parents and some of her
siblings so that I have a little idea of what she may have been like. I remember her Mom as just a tiny little
woman, who was always smiling and seemed really happy and her Dad as always
twirling his mustache and smiling too. Belle’s
son, my Papaw, was my idol and I was his little shadow and followed him
everywhere till the day he died and I still miss him to this day. I know my Papaw never got over losing his
Momma and neither did his sister, Corene, who I also knew really well.
Oh how I wish I could have known her too.
Great pictures. Thanks for sharing all of these great memories.
ReplyDeleteGreat story.
ReplyDeleteGreat story keep it up.
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