|
| |
Scots around the
world
Samuel V. Fraser |
One of the younger members of the Roman Catholic clergy in
Kansas is Rev. Samuel V. Fraser, pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception at
Minneapolis, who in this, his first charge, has shown that he possesses with the dignity
of his high calling Christian zeal, tempered with the knowledge of and sympathy for human
frailty, that has endeared him to his parishioners, has won him the respect of his fellow
citizens in general and promises to so increase his influence that it is certain that a
rich field of usefulness awaits his future.
Father Fraser belongs to Kansas. He was born at Concordia, this state, May 31, 1890, and
is in the fourth generation descending from the founders of the family in Canada. His
ancestors came from Corkell, Invernesshire, Scotland, with the Scotch Regiment of
Highlanders, commanded by Simon Fraser, as a unit of the British army, in 1759, and
remained permanent settlers of the Dominion of Canada.
Francis Xavier Fraser, father of Rev. Samuel V. Fraser, was born near Three Rivers,
Canada, in 1843. In 1849 he was taken by his parents to the United States and they settled
in the French Village of Bourbonnais, near Kankakee, Illinois. In 1886 he removed to Cloud
County, Kansas, in 1908 retiring to Concordia, and there his death occurred in the
following year. All his active life was devoted to agricultural pursuits. He was married
in Illinois to Flora Berard, who was born near Three Rivers, Canada, in 1849 and was taken
to Illinois by her parents in 1853. She resides at Concordia, Kansas. Of the family of
fourteen children born to this marriage, Father Fraser was the thirteenth child in order
of birth, the others being: Daniel, who is a farmer residing near Aurora, Kansas; Clara,
who is the wife of John Perrier, a farmer near Olpe, Kansas; Edmond, who is a farmer near
El Roe, Minnesota; Cecelia, who is the wife of John B. Gaudreau, who conducts a restaurant
business at Concordia; Fred, who is a Christian Brother in Saint Joseph's College at
Glenco, Missouri; Lucy, who is the wife of John Herbert, a farmer near Aurora, Kansas,
Hattie, who is a nun, Sister Eveline, at Saint George's Station, Illinois; Aldia, who is
Sister Chlotilda, in a convent in Chicago, Illinois; a daughter who died at the age of ten
months; Jesse, who resides on the old homestead at Concordia; Gasper, who is a farmer near
Concordia; Louis, who died at the age of sixteen years, at Concordia; and Josephine, who
resides at Concordia with her mother and sister.
Samuel V. Fraser in boyhood attended the public schools in Cloud County and then entered
Saint Benedict's College at Atchison, Kansas, and there received his preliminary training
for the priesthood, remaining five years and being graduated in 1909. His proficiency in
his studies led him then to the path that gave him the opportunity to complete the same in
the American Catholic Seminary that was affiliated with the great University of Louvain,
Belgium, where he finished his philosophical and theological course and was graduated in
1914, and he reached his home in Kansas about the time of the outbreak of the great
European war.
Father Fraser was ordained in the same year, in Louvain, and his first mass was said in
the Cathedral of Concordia. He was appointed in the same year pastor of the Church of the
Immaculate Conception at Minneapolis, and has continued in charge ever since. This parish
is thirty-two years old, the first priest to begin organizing being Father O'Leary, and in
1885 the erection of the church was commenced, its location being on Rock Street, as is
also the parish house. Father Fraser has been able to affect the parish with some of his
own enthusiasm and now has about 100 members, while many church organizations and helpful
agencies have been started and are flourishing. Father Fraser has two missions also under
his pastorate, Saint Patrick's on Vine Creek and Saint Francis Borgia at Ada, Kansas. The
Knights of Columbus as a Catholic organization meets with his approval as to its aims and
he is a member of Abilene Council.
It was a world calamity when the great University of Louvain was wantonly destroyed in
1915, and Father Fraser finds in his grief over the loss of that wonderful and priceless
library, in which he had spent so many studious hours, a subject for lifelong regret. In
this he has the sympathy of thousands with memories of their own who mourn artistic losses
that seemingly no future civilization can ever replace. |
|
