William
Fraser
- "The Reverend William Fraser, Pastor of the Presbyterian
churches
of Champlain and Rouses Point, New York, departed this life at ten
o'clock on Saturday morning, February 17, 1912. The condition of his
health had been for some months a cause of anxiety to himself and
his friends, as it was feared that the nature of his trouble might be
malignant. Upon the advice of an expert diagnostician he was
preparing to undergo a surgical operation, when he contracted La
Grippe which
developed into pneumonia. As his system was by this time greatly
depleted
and only slight power of resistance was left, he speedily succumbed
to the complication of ailments, and passed away after being confined
to bed but ten days.
Two
Sundays before his death he was present at service in both of his
churches. At Champlain the service was in the morning and in charge
of
the young people, who were observing Christian Endeavor Day; and he
spoke to them of the benefit the society had been to him, and
especially of the help it had been to him in his work as pastor. In
the afternoon he was assisted in the communion service in Rouses
Point by the pastor of the Methodist church, and though apparently
very weak in body, and so talked to them impressively for twenty or
twenty-five minutes upon the words, "All things are ready,
come."
The
principal service in connection with the burial was in the church at
Champlain on Monday afternoon, preceded by a brief service at the
parsonage
consisting of scripture quotations and prayer by the Reverend John A.
Macintosh of Malone, New York. The hymns used during the service
were from the revised edition of "the Hymnal", recently
introduced into the church by a committee of which Mr. Fraser was
chairman. As he had been deeply interested in the book and was
anxious that it should be used in the church as soon as possible, it
was a pathetic feature of the service that the book was then used for
the first time. The congregation
was so large that the church was filled to overflowing. Many came
and went away, since they were not able to find room to stand, even
in the vestibule. This was but an indication of the general interest
in the man, and the widespread sorrow at his departure.
The
body was allowed to remain in the church over night with loyal young
men in attendance as guardians. On the following morning, with
friends
accompanying, it was taken by train via Norwood and Massena to Fort
Covington for interment. In the afternoon a service was held at the
home of the departed brother's mother and sisters. The burial was at
five o'clock in Elmwood Cemetery.
A
memorial service was held in the church at Rouses Point on Thursday
evening, March the seventh. There was a large congregation present,
the
pulpit and the pastor's chair were suitably draped, and the Reverends
John H. Gardner and John A. Macintosh conducted the exercises.
Reverend
William Fraser, was born at Dundee, P.Q., November 25, 1859. He
received his early education in the common school, and attended the
academies
at Williamstown, Ont., and Huntingdon, P.Q. At the age of nineteen,
he entered McGill University and pursuing the classical course,
graduated
with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1883. He began his
theological
studies at the Presbyterian College in Montreal, there he spent
one year, and concluded in the two succeeding years at Princeton
Seminary.
While he was a student he spent a summer vacation in missionary work
in Manitoba, during another summer he supplied the pulpit of the
Presbyterian at Fort Covington; and two summers he had charge of
the churches at Constable and Westville. The experience thus gained
in
pulpit and pastoral work prepared him to enter upon his regular
ministry
with efficiency from the beginning.
After
his graduation from Princeton Seminary in 1886, he was ordained to
the Christian ministry by the Presbytery of Troy, and immediately
became pastor of the churches at Middle and South Granville, New
York. His service in this charge was for two years and a half; and
it was while here that he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth
McKenzie of Constable, New York, July 28, 1887. In October 1888 he
was called to the church of Salem, New York, where he remained for
four years and a half. A conspicuous feature of his ministry in this
place was that in one year sixty were added to the membership of the
church. On the fifth day of 1893 he began his work in Champlain, and
in
November of the same year took up the related charge at Rouses Point.
It
is rather a striking fact that in only one of the charges which he
served throughout his ministry was he installed as pastor, which was
at Salem. In the others he stood in the relation of stated supply,
and he sustained this relation for almost nineteen years to the
churches of Champlain and Rouses Point until that relation was
dissolved by
death.
The
lessons of reverence and authority which he learned in the home of
his childhood he taught to his own children, and in his turn
established for himself a true household of faith. He was the head
of the house
whose authority was never questioned, and yet his rule was so wise
and
kind that loyalty and affection never ceased to abound towards him.
His five daughters and two sons, together with two nieces and a
nephew to whom he was foster father from their childhood, made a
family of ten children, who were so governed and nurtured by him and
his true help meet
that as they grew in years and usefulness they dwelt together in a
unity
which is rare to see."
-
Taken from "A Memorial Record of the Reverend
William Fraser 1859—1912",
C.R. Frair & Son, Printers, Rouses Point,
New York.
