Maplewood History: Fraser Park from the Air & Misc.

By
Doug Houser
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3
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For those of you who saw my last post on Fraser Park and have been thinking that you have seen just about everything possible about FP except an aerial photo, well, here you go.

In addition to Fraser Park from the Air made possible by the late and fondly remembered Syl Beletz, I will include a couple of other related tidbits most likely of marginal interest to most of you (but what else am I going to do with them)?  Remember you’re not paying for this.  And since you’re not paying for this the very least you can do is support our sponsors.

This Fraser Park from the Air image is part of an aerial photograph taken by Syl Beletz in 1953. If you’d like to see the whole thing, you’ll find it here.  It has been 6 1/2 years since I ran a post about the Immaculate Conception parish, just click on the name if you’d like to see it again.
This, obviously, is the back of Syl’s image.

The following article ran on January the 22nd, 1901 in the STL Post-Dispatch.  John Wilson of Fraser Park had gone missing.  Hmmm.  Foul play?  You be the judge.

Well, I don’t know what to think about that story.  Doesn’t sound good for old John though.  I don’t know if he ever showed up again.  I included the Garrison Cafe ad because I thought that must have been an example of the very cheapest ad you could buy.

By the land transfers we can see that Bill’s wife’s name was Catherine but by this image of his stone, that I found on Find-A-Grave, she apparently wanted to be remembered as Kate. I wonder why no dates were ever added beneath her name?  Remarried, perhaps?

I hope most of you who made it this far think it was worth it.  I look at so much minutiae related to the history of our burg that I can no longer tell just what the average reader finds interesting.  I usually try not to include items that are nothing more than filler (like the land transfers).

So, if now you are thinking that you really have seen just about everything physically possible about the history of Fraser Park, have I got news for you.  A big story is breaking.  I’m not sure just how long it will take to coagulate but I believe you’ll be amazed.  Stay tuned.

As always, I appreciate all of you who are interested in and support this effort.

Thanks.

Doug Houser        January 24, 2021

I just could not leave Mary Piles hanging so I did a little more looking and this turned up. But we still don’t know why was he in New Orleans, why hadn’t he paid his office rent up here and what was he planning to do with his Fraser Park home anyway?

3 COMMENTS

  1. Whew, so glad to find him, and Not in the safe ! LOL, Thanks Doug I will rest easy tonight, knowing John was found alive and probably down at Maude Gras, or the French Quarter enjoying some jazz.

  2. Well Doug, now you have me wanting to know what happened to poor John. Why did his wife go off without him? Was he declared dead, were his remains found….. Doug!!!!!
    Thanks for an unsettling mystery, now I will have to put this on the shelf until I can look into it.
    As always Doug, love the articles

    • Mary, I felt bad to leave you hanging so I looked a bit more for Wilson’s whereabouts. See above. And you are welcome. I’m glad that you like the articles.

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