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Bio of William Reuben Fry


William Reuben Fry was born on the 18th of September 1870, son of Charles William Fry and Frances Walker Davies. Home for the Fry family was probably Lake Village, in Chicot county Arkansas, but there is some evidence that they were visiting in Orange Court House Virginia when William Reuben Fry was born. Orange county Virginia was the childhood home of Charles William Fry. The birth must have set in motion the condition that claimed the life of Frances Davies Walker, for she died on 5 October 1870. If the Fry family was in Orange Court House Virginia in September and October 1870, it must have been a long and sad journey back to Arkansas, where Frances Davies Fry was buried in the Davies Family Cemetery in Chicot county.

It appears likely that the primary care of William Reuben Fry and his older sister Fannie fell into the hands of their maternal grandmother, Mildred Pollard Gaines Davies. Mildred Davies was widowed in 1862, and lived with her son Walter Davies on the Davies family plantation, Lake Hall, in Lake Village, Chicot county Arkansas. Charles William Fry likely lived on or near the Davies plantation, being near his children while they were young.

In 1878, when William Reuben Fry was eight years old, her father moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas and probably left him in the care of his deceased mother's family. Charles William Fry never remarried. The Davies family likely took care of William's upbringing and education.

In 1902, at the age of thirty-two, William Reuben Fry married Grace Greenwood Rector, daughter of Dr Henry Massey Rector and Hebe Frances Gower. They were the parents of one daughter, Hebe Gower Fry, who was born in 1903 in Texarkana, Miller county Arkansas.

I have not been able to determine the nature of the work that William Reuben Fry practiced. In 1910 he appeared with his family in Ventura California. But, 1930 found him returned with his wife to Lake Village, Chicot county Arkansas.

1910 Census of Ventura county California; Ventura
William R Fry; 39 (1871) Virginia
Grace G Fry; 37 (1873) Iowa
Hebe G Fry; 6 (1904) Arkansas

1930 Census of Chicot county Arkansas; Lake Village
William R Fry; 60, Virginia
Grace R Fry; 57, Arkansas

William Reuben Fry died in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1940, and Grace Rector Fry in 1948 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The couple is buried together in Hollywood Cemetery in Hot Springs, Garland county Arkansas.



Notes for William Reuben Fry; compiled by Pamela Hutchison Garrett, 2013; for Family Stories at pamgarrett.com.