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A fun date a long time ago. ZL and Marguerite Fraser from Searcy AR.

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage

These pictures seem to be a sequence of fun photos showing a boy and girl "horsing around" on a possible date long ago.  They are dressed up so they must have been trying to impress each other.  They have been identified by our Super Sleuth Mary Fraser Dunn as relatives of hers.  ZL Fraser was her uncle and Marguerite Hughes became his wife.  Here's what she says about the pictures.

"These pictures without a doubt are of Aunt Marguerite and Uncle ZL.  I suspect they were taken before Uncle ZL went into service because he had a mustache when he returned from the Philippines.  They were not married until he was home after WWII so they could have been just out of high school in these pictures.  Both graduated from Searcy High School.

A possibility for the location is Bradford on the Pollard property (Grandmother Fraser's family home) which was directly behind the original Bradford school buildings.  However, Marguerite's mother, Iller Hughes, didn't let Marguerite get very far away from her so they are probably closer to where the Hughes lived on South Spring St.  But it could have been where my grandparents were living at that time on Mud Street (now East Woodruff).  Remember at that time lots of Searcy was very rural.....farm animals in town, unpaved streets, outhouses, wells for water.  In the last picture Aunt Marguerite is holding the pipe used to draw water out of a well.

Uncle ZL and Marguerite built Fraser Nursing Home around 1960, I think, and then sold it to Ralph Byrd and it became Byrd Haven.  Prior to the nursing home Marguerite had worked for years and years at Sterlings.  For most of his adult life Uncle ZL was a construction manager for the Jimmy Cone Construction Co.  He spent weekdays away from home in whatever part of the state Cone had a commercial building under construction.

I don't know who the other young lady was."

Let's enjoy the pictures now and wonder if all the digital ones being made now will last as long as these have.  If you know who the other lady is, tell us.

Fraser fun date

Fraser and friend

fraser fun date 1

 

fraser mule

fraser in old shed

fraser with water bucket

Anonymous
Mary Dunn

Thanks for these Barbara. It's been a nice journey with you while getting them ready for posting. Can't get over how much "in love" Uncle ZL looks in the first one. I am anxiously awaiting comments from other folks who may recognize them.

BTW, you graduated me from Junior Sleuth to Super Sleuth. Not sure I feel comfortable being elevated yet.

Aug 29, 2014 09:56 PM
#1
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Wow oh wow!  What a wonderful sequence. Nothing like horsin' around pics from the past. Thank you for the interesting commentary, Mary.

I especially liked the plowing pic. The drinking from the trough pic with well pipe is excellent also. The well hole probably had a cistern top that was slightly larger than the draw pipe. One would draw water by letting the pipe slide down the pipe to water , letting it sink to fill, then pull up to deposit water in a bucket or the trough.

Later on after more comments I'll post a horsin' around pic of my father.

Aug 30, 2014 12:19 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mary, you have always been one of the Super Sleuths.  This name ZL is interesting.  I assume it was his only name?  Folks must have had so many children back then that they ran out of names and used initials.  I had an uncle named OB and one named JB and I always thought that was strange. But also back then lots of people could not read or write so it may have been easier to handle.

Aug 30, 2014 12:49 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Don, I'm glad you explained how those pipes worked for drawing water.  I do not remember seeing these in my young years in Georgia.  Buckets were used in those old dug wells that we were always afraid we'd fall into.  I liked the one where he was made to be a plow-puller.  Bet he was not that easy to manipulate once they tied the knot.  LOL

Aug 30, 2014 12:52 AM
Anonymous
Mary Dunn

ZL was his birth name. The story goes that when he entered the service, the army wouldn't accept just the initials and they renamed him Zee L.

As I remember the two of them were equals in the marriage sharing all duties and responsibilities. At the same time they were distinct personalities and interests. For instance Aunt Marguerite was Methodist and didn't miss a service. Uncle ZL was an ordained Baptist minister. Unusual.

Aug 30, 2014 01:03 AM
#5
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

My father with squirrel rifle demonstrating Army shooting position cut up pic. On second thought, maybe he was serious.

Aug 30, 2014 05:07 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mary, another interesting tidbit about the Frasers who started Byrd Haven.  Did they have children?

Don, he looks serious to me.  Is he aiming at the propped up stick in front of him.  That was quite a climb to get on top of that wood pile. 

Aug 30, 2014 06:49 AM
Anonymous
Susan Bradberry

Mary Dunn is absolutely correct. This is, indeed, our Aunt Em and Uncle Z. I will download copies of the photos online. Happy to have them back in the family.

Aug 31, 2014 01:57 AM
#8
Anonymous
Anita Fuller

My grandmother, Nola Harrison, in Letona had that kind of well: a long pipe thingee. I've pulled up water in it many a time.
I had forgotten Marg. worked at Sterlings, Mary....but now I remember. She worked there a long time. LOVED going in that store. I can almost smell the popcorn and other smells (good smells) to this day.
Remember they had fish and maybe little turtles....at the back? I bought lots of gold fish there, but they never lived long. I didn't care to clean out their bowls.
You are a Super Sleuth....

Aug 31, 2014 02:43 AM
#9
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

We sleuths are famous for getting sidetracked and talking of other things. Going down Sterlings 5&10 memory lane is one of my great pleasures also. Down the aisle straight back from the popcorn and peanut machine and along the candy counter was the toy and model airplane counters. I spent many a time lusting over the model airplane kits. During the war, balsa wood was saved for the war effort and plane pieces were made of cardboard.

On the way to the Plaza Movie Theater, I would stop at Sterlings and get a 10¢ bag of hot Spanish peanuts to munch while watching Charlie Chan foil the bad guys.

Aug 31, 2014 06:12 AM
Anonymous
Mary Dunn

Barbara...M&Z had one son, John. He still lives in Searcy.

Susan...Glad I twisted your arm hard enough to read and comment.

Anita...I felt sure you knew Marguerite from Church

Don...What was the difference in the wells that used the pipe from the wells that you drew water in a bucket?

Aug 31, 2014 06:29 AM
#11
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mary, I hope the son sees the pictures.

Susan, thanks for commenting.

Anita and Don, your experiences in the Sterling Store were so different.  Anita headed for the live things and Don went for the airplanes. (Anita, you should not have admitted that you killed goldfish.)  I did not realize, Don, that balsa was used in the war effort.  I do remember a childhood of looking at things and thinking and thinking of how to spend my dime.  Kids today probably don't ever have so little money that they know what looking and longing and admiring is like.  There has to have been something good about growing up poor.

Aug 31, 2014 06:56 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Help!  We still have not identified the other lady!

 

Aug 31, 2014 06:57 AM
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Mary, I'm going to wing this without doing any research. Early wells were dug as a big hole probably 2 ft. or more across probably because digging was easier. Later wells were dud by digging machinery mainly something like a auger and the well was about 10 inches across and a clay pipe with cover was inserted at the ground or higher level. The drawing pipe had a valve at the bottom to keep the drawn water in. One pulled on a ring at the top to release the water. Less trash fell into the newer wells.

Aug 31, 2014 09:19 AM
Anonymous
Harold Gene Sullivan

Don, your answer is right on. However, 10" would have been a very big well auger. More like 6" would be more typical. With the auger approach, it was easier to dig deep wells and, hence, get more water. If the water was not good, there one could drill a well a little ways away and possibility get good water. I recall an uncle who drilled a well and ran into alum water. One couldn't drink it. In fact, us kids would dare each other to drink a dipper of it. Anyway, he drilled another well less than 50' away and it was great water.

Aug 31, 2014 03:04 PM
#15
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Don and Harold Gene, thanks for the well explanation.  We see very few properties with wells anymore.  I always dread it when one comes along because there are few people who understand them, including this real estate agent, and they will never pass a health department "test" without bleach having been put into the water before the test.  The open well that I grew up around was a big wide hole in the ground with possibly bricksides.  There was a pulley which lowered or raised a bucket for the water.  It took lots of raising buckets to do the wash on wash day.  There were happy people when city water was put in at the street!

This picture shows an old well in the background.Old well with bucket pulley

Aug 31, 2014 10:30 PM
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Harold, I would rather be wrong by thinking big then be right by thinking small.

Aug 31, 2014 11:10 PM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Here's another picture from the day that I just found. Wonder who the other folks are?

Marguerite and ZL Fraser Searcy AR

Sep 10, 2014 04:29 AM
Anonymous
Mary Dunn

As you and I have discussed, I think the young man in the hat is my cousin Haymond Thompson and the man behind him is, I believe, Bowdery Collins who married my Dad's twin sister.

Sep 12, 2014 06:09 AM
#19
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Thanks, Mary.

Sep 12, 2014 09:51 PM