Anderson Branch Rd. (Cedar Hill) Cedar Hill, TN
Circa 1880.
Frazer Hill was a country house built by Mary Washington Frazer (1855-1928) and James Stokes Frazer (1852-1892) as a country mansion about 1880. They wed in 1878. Mary was a sister of G.A. Washington, Jr. of Washington Hall, Jane W. Ewing of Glen Raven, and daughter of Joe Washington of Wessyington. James was a grandson of William Hardy Murfree - a founder of Murfreesboro and of Dr. James Frazer, a doctor in Lebanon and a surgeon-general in Andrew Jackson's army. His parents were Henry Shelby Frazer and Elizabeth Murfree Frazer. The Frazer family had a huge cotton plantation in Mississippi. His sister Sarah Murfree Frazer Hillman married John "Hart" Hartwell Hillman, a Nashville native. He became very involved in the iron industry and became owner/founder of a large coal/iron business (Hillman Coal and Coke Co.) in Pittsburg, PA. about 1911. James and Mary's son George Austine Frazer married Sadie Lindsley Warner, daughter of Percy and Money Warner, in 1905.
Frazer Hill was built on 1,443 acres near Anderson Branch Rd. and was just north of Cedar Hill and the Wessyngton estate. The Frazers had a large 3 story gabled mansion at Belmont Ave. and Division St. in the 1880s (when Belmont Ave. reached much closer to the Nashville core). Frazer was a law partner with Jacob McGavock Dickinson, and an attorney for the L&N Railroad. He stared the first taxi service in Nashville with his brother James W. Frazer and Max Bennie. He also established the first automotive company in Nashville - the Imperial Motor Car Co. - with Hudson and Packer cars.
After Frazer’s death of a hemorrhage, Mary and the family moved to Nashville. She later married D. Shelby Williams and lived at Glencliff. Frazer Hill was sold to Col. John Lawrence "Jack" Haynes who raised walking horses on the property. At some point, unfortunately, parts of the property burned. Haynes later owned Haynes Haven in Maury Co. See Glencliff, Glen Raven, Haynes Haven, Washington Hall, Wessyngton, Renraw, Royal Oaks
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