Frazee House Historic Designation

Frazee also built a house frame with James S. Coberly in 1758 for Cabinetmaker Samuel Prince on William Street in NY near where the Scotch Plains Baptist Society was then founding the NY Baptist Church.  At one point, Frazee bought wood from Douw of Albany.  He was influenced by the earlier Dutch homes of the region with their low profile and cantilevered pent roof that extends in front of the kitchen. The heavy, widely-spaced beaded joists with plank floors are also characteristic of Dutch versus English "summer beam" and light joist construction techniques.

A Dutch-influenced Kas cupboard probably made by him and an eighteenth-century joiner's bench, also probably Frazee's, were found in an early lumber shed, next to the corn crib of his brother Moses Frazee's home, later Thomas Lee's, now the site of the Union County Technical Institute. This shed and the corn crib were subsequently moved to Black Birch Road by Architect Charles H. Detwiller for Marge and Bill Elliott.

"Aunt Betty" Frazee and her husband Gershom, carpenter and joiner, raised their nephew Gershom Lee, son of her brother Thomas Lee. The tradition that she was baking bread during the Battle of Short Hills is supported by the fact that they fed American militia in 1777. Gershom's 1791 inventory lists 3 dough troughs, 3 flour casks, and a chest for bread strongly suggesting that Betty may well have been a bread baker.

Based on the research conducted as part of this project and prior research, it appears that the kitchen wing of the existing Frazee House was possibly constructed for Gershom Frazee, Sr. (170?-1754) after his arrival with his wife from Rahway in 1727. In his will, Gershom Frazee, Sr. left property to his sons and upon turning 21 years of age in 1756, Gershom Frazee, Jr. would have received the ten acres bequeathed to him. It is unknown when he married his wife Elizabeth Lee (circa 1738-1815). This early kitchen wing has probably rebuilt and expanded circa 1758 by Gershom Frazee, Jr. Frazee was ordering materials similar to those used in the construction of the main portion of the house in the late 1760s, and probably built the larger western portion of the house at that time.

Gershom and Elizabeth Frazee lived in the house and raised their nephew Gershom Lee, son of Elizabeth's brother Thomas and his first wife, who died at a young age. One source states that Gershom and Elizabeth had two children of their own, Moses (1764-1850) and Jemima, however only Elizabeth Frazee and Gershom Lee were named in Frazee's will of 1791. If they had other children that were still living in 1791, it is curious that they were not also named. It is more likely that this was their niece Jemima, daughter of brother Abraham and that Moses Frazee (1764-1850) was the son of Gershom's older brother Moses. Moses Sr. was made guardian of Abraham's 7 year-old son, also named Gershom, and 5 year-old daughter Jermima at the death of Abraham in 1762. This younger nephew Gershom (b.1755) is sometimes confused with Aunt Betty's husband Gershom Frazee, carpenter and joiner (1735-1791)

During the Revolution, it appears clear that the Frazees were feeding the militia troops under Captain Littell in February of 1777, according to original documents cited by F.C. Detwiller in War in the Countryside, Battle and Plunder of the Short Hills, June 26, 1777, Apprendix F, p. 38. It is equally certain that troops entered the Frazee house during the Battle of Short Hills on June 26, 1777, based on the damage claims filed by Gershom Frazee and neighbors as further cited by Detwiller. While Cornwallis may not have taken any bread, it seems the British troops certainly availed themselves of nearly everything else on the property.

Claims filed by Gershom Frazee, Jr. for plundered items include "Tools Lost by the regular Forces, June 26th, 1777." The inventory lists 64 woodworking tools, three cows, 23 sheep, a hive of bees, household goods, "Garden Fence and other fence burnt." In the course of this research, we examined other Frazee-Lee family papers and found a citation for the bread-baking story. Detwiller cites the source as The History of Union County by F.W. Ricord, 1892 as the earliest known account of the Aunt Betty-Cornwallis encounter. A second inventory of Elizabeth Frazee was filed at Westfield, and whether this is our Elizabeth Frazee or another known to have lived in town at the time, her inventory of items dated June 27, 1777. This inventory is a very good account of nearly the entire wardrobe of an eighteenth-century woman including several aprons, "one good check and one good white apron...one gauze apron...4 lawn aprons" among other household and farm items including a pewter tankard, a small brass kettle and two sheep.

The Frazee Family weathered the war and continued their residence on the property after Gershom Frazee's death in October 1791. He was buried in the Westfield Presbyterian Cemetery graveyard. Gershom Frazee left a will, but died in debt. His brother-in-law, Thomas Lee, handled the sale of property on the east side of Raritan Road to help pay off the debts. An extensive inventory was made in 1791 detailing the contents of the house and outbuildings. As part of the estate settlement, the Wagon Shed was on Cooper Road, where they probably moved the shed. Widow Elizabeth Frazee continued to live on the property with her nephew until her death in December 1815. She was buried beside her husband.

Sarah Hetfield Lee lived with her bachelor sons on the farm until the 1870s. Lee brothers were farmers; however, they amassed a considerable estate through numerous real estate transactions and through the loan of money. The brothers died within five weeks of one another in 1888, leaving modest bequests to close family and friends. Surviving brother Frazee Lee left his residual estate to the Scotch Plains Baptist Church in order to help it pay off the debt incurred through the recent completion of a new church, which is still standing on Park Avenue in Scotch Plains and to help in "spreading the Gospel."

Twenty-seven would-be heirs, including some people who owed the Lee brothers substantial sums of money, contested the will, and eventually won in Prerogative Court. Depositions were gathered from those who knew Frazee Lee, some of whom stated that he was a drunkard and others who stated that he was an upstanding citizen and shrewd businessman. Some of the contestants were members of the Scotch Plains Baptist Church themselves, and the resulting in-fighting damaged the congregation.

A quit-claim from the church was filed in 1890 and the church was given a sum of money sufficient to only pay off its debt. Portions of the estate property were sold off at public auction, including the Frazee house property, and what property remained in 1893 was divided equally among the 27 remaining "heirs" in Chancery Court and deeded to them.

The 1862 Map of Union County shows a barn adjacent to the Frazee House with its fenced farmyard. An early photo confirms its existence just to the west of the house. There is no barn shown in 1862 at the location opposite the "Thirteen-Star" House, just up Raritan Road, where an eighteenth-century barn was found, dismantled, and moved to the Stage House in the 1960s. This suggests that the barn may have been the old Frazee barn relocated a short distance up the road in the late nineteenth century by the Frazee Lee family who owned both properties, as indicated on the 1862 mp.

The Terrys made extensive changes to the property including the addition of barns, a silo, and large animal pens to house "New Jersey's largest privately-owned zoo." The locations of the Terry-Lou Zoo buildings are recorded on a site plan made by EKA Associates P.A. in 1995, as well as in numerous photos of the period, some taken by Dick Koles, who was Terry-Lou Zoo's "official" photographer.

The zoo buildings were demolished and animal enclosures removed. Plans for the property were not yet decided and the study of the property continued.  In 2005, the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Rotary club selected the Frazee House as its Rotary International Centennial Project.