22nd, helped Pa & Mr. Freason take off some cattle. Helped ditch. Gathered some corn. Picked up apples. Us boys went to an apple peeling tonight at Fraziers.
There is no Freason (in any spelling variation) listed in the 1900 federal census in Livingston County area. Perhaps he meant Frazier?
The Frazier family seems to have moved onto the Bench property sometime in the early summer of 1900. They were counted in the 1900 federal census in June, and Jesse never mentioned them the previous spring. Remember it was late July when Jesse wrote that he met his “future bride — Mary.” Both born in Livingston County, Missouri, Joshua Newton Frazier married Amanda Elizabeth McCormick in 1877. He was 26 and she was 16. In their transience, the couple was counted twice in the 1880 census, once in early June in Sampsel, Livingston County, living with her parents Stephen and Charlotte McCormick, and once in late June with Joshua’s parents in Roscoe, St. Clair, Missouri. Depending on the census taker, Joshua and the older members of both families are listed as unable to read or write. In 1900, Joshua and Amanda had all of their children living with them: Mary Frances, 21, Leona May, 17, Della Charlottie, 13, Henry Jefferson, 11, Ora Ethel, 8, Walter Frank, 5, and little Ruthie Georgia, two years old.
