Julia Fraysee DeLeGal Palmer (March 23, 1841 - July 8, 1938), was the primary caretaker of the Palmer House from the late 1880s until her death in 1938.
Early life and marriages[]
She was born Julia Fraysee in Walterboro, South Carolina to John A. Fraysee and Catherine Stevens Fraysee. Her father was a French postmaster.[1]
In 1860, she married Colonel Edward Wentworth DeLegal, Jr, a prominent Georgia plantation owner. They had six children: Katherine, Thomas, Julia Florence, Edward, Jane, Fraysee, and Isabel. In the years following their marriage, Colonel DeLegal continued to exploit and profit off the labor of enslaved Africans on his Delta Plantation until his death in 1876.[2]
In 1884, Julia DeLegal married Dr. Johnson Sheredan Palmer of Loudoun County, Virginia. However, three years later, in 1887, Dr. Palmer passed away, and Julia Palmer moved to Darien with her children.[1][2]
The Palmer House[]
Due to her difficult financial situation, Palmer accepted a live-in position at a Darien boarding house owned by the Wilcox family. Under Palmer's care, the building became the most popular boarding house in the town. Locals and boarders begin referring to the building as the Palmer House.[2]
During the Darien & Western railroad's short period of operation, the hotel industry begin to thrive in Darien. The Palmer House was by far the most prominent hotel in the town.[2]
The Palmer House
In 1911, Edytha Wilcox, the boarding house's owner, sold the house to the town physician, Dr. P.S. Clark, and two months later, Dr. Clark sold the property to Augustus Moultrie Quarterman, the husband of Palmer's daughter Julia Florence. Around this time, the building was renamed the Palmer Hotel. Julia Florence Quarterman became the boarding house's proprietor until she passed away in 1918, and her children, Edward and Florence Quarterman, assumed ownership.[2]
After Julia Florence Quarterman passed away, Julia Palmer's other daugher Jane Woodward and her family moved into the boarding house to assist with the house's operations.[2]
On July 8, 1938, Julia Palmer passed away at age 97[1], and her family closed the boarding house to the public shortly after.