Wade Hampton Frazier  

Post-Herald, Beckley WV; 5/30/1962

Frazier was born in Abbs Valley, Va., on August 5, 1877.  Abbs Valley derived its name from the given name of the original pioneer owner, Absalom Looney.  In Tazewell County, Va;, they called Absalom Looney "Abb"  for short.  Since Abb owned the valley where he lived they called that fertile place "Abb's Valley"

Marion Looney of Sweet Springs, long a deputy sheriff of Monroe County, is a living descendant of Absalom Looney.

In July, 1786, the Indians made a raid and carried away captives from Abbs Valley.  In my library is a small volume called "Captives of Abbs Valley," a story that gives in detail the horrors of the raid by the redskins.  With this story Wade Hampton Frazier was familiar and often talked about it.  He was born there where the frontier episode occurred and memories of it made Frazier history conscious.  

Frazier lived a lot and a long time.  His age was just right for military service when the Spanish-American War broke out.  He enlisted and served from June 6, 1893 to June 8, 1900.  He was a sergeant and always proud of the rating he earned in the field on active duty.

The old sergeant would have been 85 had he lived until next August 5.  He was one of the fast dwindling veterans of our 100 days war with Spain back in the days when a war could be won.  Now they say it can't be done!  Those who deal with such matters say that the last Spanish American War veteran will die in 1978.

As for Frazier's given names, Wade Hampton, that, too, starts another story.   Wade Hampton (1818-1902) was one of Lee's ablest lieutenants in the Confederate Army.  A South Carolina planter of vast means, Hampton equipped a private command known as Hampton's Legion.  This command rendered great service at the first Battle of Bull Run and in the Peninsula campaign.  Hampton was wounded at Gettysburg and became a major general a month later.  

He opposed Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 and was promoted to rank of lieutenant general and given command of all Confederate cavalry. Later he was with Johnson in opposing Sherman's march northward from Savannah.  After Appomattox he did all he could to re-unite the nation.  He was elected governor of South Carolina in 1876 and two years later was made U.S. senator in which office he served until 1891.

America has produced few finer men then Wade Hampton.  The parents of Wade Hampton Frazier gave the name of the famous South Carolinian to their son in 1877.

At the first Bull Run battle, 121 of the 600 in Hampton's Legion fell; 20 percent of them!

Hampton's being a planter brings the subject of plantations in the old south.  The pre-Civil War South was not entirely a land of great plantations.  Fully 90 percent of the land owners before 1860 were small proprietors.  Most of the big plantations were located in the areas along Chesapeake Bay where tobacco was grown on a big scale.  There were similar plantations in central Kentucky.  In the cotton and rice regions of South Carolina and states along the Gulf of Mexico there were others of great size. Those plantations ranged from a few hundred acres to 5,000 or more acres.  The average was about 1,000.

Hampton was one of the planters whose acreage was vast indeed.  His holdings, though wide were scattered all over South Carolina.  Nathaniel Heywood had 14 rice plantations, a cotton plantation, and a lot of woodland.  As big planters bought up tracts around their original holdings, many who sold moved west.

Jefferson Davis and his brother Joseph added purchase to purchase until they had a great plantation in Mississippi.  Dozens of smaller tracts were consolidated into one huge holding.  It was that plantation system which required slave labor.  From their experiences on the spirituals of the slaves - their sorrows set to music.

Wade Hampton Frazier will not get to read this column which his passing prompted because he has witnessed the dawn of the eternal morning, there to rest from the labors of a long and honorable life.

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