Alice Curtis Fuller Wright Frazer LeRoy

My great-grandfather, Frederick Harriman Wright, is a difficult subject to nail down. An artist & sculptor who lived from 1863 through 1933, I have not been able to locate one photograph of him. The only image we have in the family archives is this very intense self-portrait.

F. Harriman Wright

Before marrying my great-grandmother, Marie Antoinette Finck, he was married to Alice Curtis Fuller (1865-1947). They were married on October 9, 1886 in Manhattan. It was a short marriage and they were divorced in 1888. I found her to be an interesting woman, however, and continued to do some research on her.

Alice Fuller was the daughter of William James Appleton Fuller of Boston and Charlotte Elizabeth Oakes of Charleston, SC. Mr. Fuller was an attorney who had graduated from Harvard. Mr. Fuller was a master chess player and appears to have lead an interesting life:

William James Appleton Fuller was born at Boston, April 8th, 1822.
After spending some time at Harvard College, he paid a brief visit to Europe. He commenced playing chess at sixteen; and enjoyed the instruction of Mr. Hammond, who, with Dr. Oliver, used to play with him at odds. A checkered life gave him but few opportunities to cultivate the game. Among his numerous adventures, we are told that "he has hunted whales in the Polar seas - swam for a wager, and most unexpectedly for life, at Niagara Falls and among the amphibious Fayaways of the tropics - taught school and edited newspapers in the Far West - lost his way and everything else but his life, in crossing the wilderness on his route to California - doubled every cape and horn on the globe - and last, not least, drunk champagne with M. Godard while high up in a balloon." Although he taught chess while on a whaling voyage to the officers of the ship, and encountered in Cuba the magnates of the ever-loyal isle, he did not resume regular practice of the game until he settled in New York in 1854. Then he entered the Club, and in the following year took charge of a Chess department in Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, where he displayed high literary as well as powerful Chess abilities. He was chiefly instrumental in giving accelerated impulse to the outward march of the game, and his brilliant, humorous, and instructive column aroused an enthusiasm for our sport, which had never before been experienced by the public of this country. Mr. Fuller is now (1859) engaged in the successful practice of the law, in New York, and is an Honorary Member of the New York Club.

-Prof. George Allen, 1859 (copied from http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/Fuller.html)

Back to Ms. Alice... after divorcing Frederick H. Wright, she married Dr. Francis MacDonald Frazer in September of 1896. MacDonald was the son the Rev. Dr. Frazer, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Newark, NJ.