Thomas Frazer (August 8, 1821 in Lortny,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

– March 16, 1904 in

Beaver, Utah Beaver is a city in, and county seat of, Beaver County in southwestern Utah, United States. The population was 3,112 at the 2010 census. History Indigenous peoples lived in this area for thousands of years, as shown by archeological evidence ...

) was an American mason known for his work in

. Born in Lortny, Scotland, he created many works that are listed on the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Early history

Thomas Frazer was born in 1821, 25 miles northwest of

Dundee, Scotland Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

in the small mill town of Lortny. After a stint as a worker in a weaving factory, Frazer became a stonemason, working with a gang of masons on a number of construction projects. He married in 1861 at the age of 40, and moved in that year with his new bride to the

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state. ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to join the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...

. He worked on the new temple in Salt Lake City, and was then sent to help settle the town of

Lehi, Utah Lehi ( ) is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is named after Lehi, a prophet in the Book of Mormon. The population was 75,907 at the 2020 census, up from 47,407 in 2010. The rapid growth in Lehi is due, in part, to the rapid develo ...

. This was a town that primarily used adobe as its main building material, and was unlikely to have appealed to the stonemason. After seven years there, he was given the opportunity to direct a building project in Beaver, Utah, 150 miles southwest of Lehi.

Beaver

Frazer arrived in 1868 and started work on industrial structures, none of which remain. He built almost exclusively with

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

at that time, a black or grey rock available in the local hills. Basalt is a hard volcanic rock, it weathers very well, but is somewhat difficult to cut. Frazer and his masons split and chiseled the stone, making a roughly squared face. These blocks were set in courses on the building facades that faced the streets. The blocks were then finished around the edges with black-dyed mortar and joined by a white mortar joint, giving a squared look to the slightly irregular edges. The dressed stone, known as

Ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

masonry, was used only for the outer shell of the stone walls, the rest of the wall was made of infilled rubble stone, forming a wall with a total thickness of about 18 inches. After a quarry for volcanic

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

, also known as pink rock, opened in 1881, Frazer switched to that softer, easier to work material. Thomas Frazer became the most prolific stonemason in Beaver, and was the only builder in town to make a full-time living from construction. Though most of his non-residential buildings have been removed or replaced in the 20th century, many houses remain. He died March 16, 1904.

Works

Works (credits) include: * Joseph Bohn House, 355 S. 200 West, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * Julia P. M. Farnsworth Barn, 180 W. Center St. (rear), Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * Julia Farnsworth House, 180 W. Center St., Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * David L. Frazer House, 817 E. 200 North, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas & David Ingles) NRHP-listed * Thomas Frazer House, 590 N. 300 West, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * Duckworth Grimshaw House, 95 N. 400 West, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * Thomas Jones House, 635 N. 400 West, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * Mathew McEvan House, 205 N. 100 West, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed *

David Powell House David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, 115 N. 400 West, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * School House, 325 N. 200 West, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * Robert Stoney House, 295 N. 400 West, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * Joseph Tattersall House, 195 N. 400 West, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * William Thompson, Jr., House, 10 W. 400 North, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * Edward Tolton House, 210 W. 400 North, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * Charles Dennis White House, 115 E. 400 North St., Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed * Charles Willden House, 180 E. 300 South, Beaver, UT (Frazer,Thomas) NRHP-listed

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frazer, Thomas 1821 births 1904 deaths Scottish Latter Day Saints Scottish emigrants to the United States 19th-century American architects 19th-century Scottish architects People from Blairgowrie and Rattray People from Beaver, Utah