Frederick Fraley (May 28, 1804September 23, 1901) was an American businessman, politician, and civic leader from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He was involved in several successful businesses and served on the Philadelphia City Council and as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate. He was one of the founders of the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

and one of the first directors of

Girard College Girard College is an independent college preparatory five-day boarding school located on a 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The school was founded and permanently endowed from the shipping and banking fortune of Stephen Girard upon ...

in Philadelphia.

Early life

Fraley was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

to John Urban and Ann Elizabeth Laskey Fraley. He was educated at St. John's College, a school at Fourth and Race Street in Philadelphia. He studied law but never applied for the bar. He entered the wholesale hardware business at the age of 16.

Business career

He worked for seven years as secretary of the American Fire Insurance Company and for twenty-three years as president of the Schuylkill Navigation Company. He also worked for the Western Savings Fund Society and as president of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. He was associated with the Philadelphia Board of Trade and served as president of the National Board of Trade. In 1824 he was one of the founders of the

and served as treasurer for many years. In 1847, he became one of the first directors of

. In 1853 Fraley became a trustee of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He also worked as president of the Western Saving Fund Society. In 1880, he received an honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He was one of the founders of the

Union League of Philadelphia The Union League of Philadelphia is a private club founded in 1862 by the Old Philadelphians as a patriotic society to support the policies of Abraham Lincoln. As of 2022, the club has over 4,000 members. Its main building was built in 1865 and ...

. For the last twenty-one years of his life Fraley was the president of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

Political career

He served on Philadelphia City Council from 1834 to 1837 and as a Whig member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 1st district from 1837 to 1839. While in the State Senate, he served as chairman of the committee of investigation of the

Buckshot War The Buckshot War was the outbreak of unrest in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that transpired after the Pennsylvania Governor, gubernatorial and legislative elections in 1838 when both the Whig and Democratic parties claimed control over the Pennsylvania ...

. In December 1839 went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as a delegate to the Whig Party's

national convention The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year Nationa ...

, which chose

William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...

to be its candidate in the 1840 presidential election. He died in his home in Philadelphia on September 23, 1901, and is interred at the

Woodlands Cemetery The Woodlands is a National Historic Landmark District on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. It includes a Federal-style mansion, a matching carriage house and stable, and a garden landscape that in 1840 was transformed into a ...

in Philadelphia.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fraley, Frederick 1804 births 1901 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American politicians Burials at The Woodlands Cemetery Members of the American Philosophical Society Pennsylvania state senators Pennsylvania Whigs Philadelphia City Council members Politicians from Philadelphia

Early life

Business career

Political career

References

Further reading

External links