| Main entry | Frazer, C.A. |
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| Birth place | Ontario |
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| Birth date | c1849 |
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| Death place | Montreal, Quebec |
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| Death date | 31 May 1896 |
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| Identifier | 0283 |
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| Birth name | Augusta Charlotte Fraser |
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| Alternate names | A.C.F. |
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| Marital status | single |
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| Religious affiliation | Church of Scotland; F. C. Presbyterian |
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| Paid work | journalist |
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| Biography | Augusta Charlotte Fraser (c1849-1896), known only to Canadian readers as "C.A. Frazer" and "A.C.F., " was one of seven children in a Scottish immigrant family. In 1846, a year after marrying Charlotte Grant Augusta Mackie (c1821-1903), John Fraser (1818-1893) completed his MA at King's College in Aberdeen. The couple then traversed the Atlantic to settle in Canada West, where John spent the rest of his career ministering to indigenous communities on behalf of the Presbyterian Church. Along with several of her siblings, C.A. studied in North Oxford, Ontario before returning to live with her parents again in Bruce County. The family continued to reside in various Ontario communities before finally settling in Montreal, some time in the 1880s. Although C.A.'s career as the children's editor of the MONTREAL STAR dictated her residence in urban Quebec, she maintained her interest in the customs and tales of Ontario villages. As a member of the American Folk-Lore Society of Montreal, she contributed to the preservation and analysis of Highland Scottish culture transplanted to Canada. With her good friend, Margaret Ridley Charlton*, C.A. collected what was probably the first volume of fairy tales produced in English Canada, A WONDER WEB OF STORIES (1892). She collaborated with Margaret on a second book, WITH PRINTLESS FOOT (1894), published the year of her death. C.A. Frazer died in Montreal in 1896 and was buried in Toronto. |
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| Other notes | Name frequently believed to be "Caroline Augusta Frazer." Census records read "Charlotte." Her death record names her as "A. Charlotte Fraser" and we haven't found a birth record. Check MAJOR ALPIN'S text to confirm identity and occupation. |
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| Residences | Yarmouth, Elgin, Ontario (1851); North Oxford, Ontario (1861); Kincardine, Bruce, Ontario (1871); Kenyon, Glengarry, Ontario (1881); Montreal, Quebec (1891-1896) |
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| Geographic regions | Ontario; Quebec |
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| Primary genres | fiction |
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| Books | ATMA: A ROMANCE (1891); with Margaret Ridley Charleton*, A WONDER WEB OF STORIES (1892); with M.R. Charleton*, WITH PRINTLESS FOOT (1894) |
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| Father's name | John Fraser |
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| Life dates of father | June 1818, Ferintosh, Scotland - 24 September 1893, Montreal; m. 1845 |
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| Father's note | clergyman; M.A. at King's College, Aberdeen (1846) |
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| Mother's name | Charlotte Grant Augusta Mackie |
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| Life dates of mother | c1821, Scotland - 28 January 1903, Montreal; m. 1845 |
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| Biographical references | Peter John Anderson, compiler, MAJOR ALPIN'S ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS (Aberdeen: Privately Printed, 1915); 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia; 1861 Census of Canada; 1871 Census of Canada; 1881 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada; Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 259, 293 |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Image credits | Line drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia). |
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| Copyright | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Please cite Canada's Early Women Writers. SFU Library Digital Collections. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. 1980-2014. |
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