Frances “Fannie” Dallam (Blandy) Claypool was born April 23, 1867, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Sarah Lloyd and John Fredrick Blandy. With her sister, Bessie, Fannie came to Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, in 1890 to create a home for their recently widowed father, a mining engineer. The trip began on a train and ended on a stagecoach. Their father died September 23, 1903, in Prescott.

The Blandy home in Prescott was at 127 S. Mount Vernon Street. Fannie became a member of the "10 Old Maids Club." (A photograph of the group is in the Sharlot Hall Museum Archives). With her family, she was a founding member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church. In addition, she was an early member of the General George Crook Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, an interest she continued throughout her life. She also belonged to the Colonial Dames and to the Daughters of the American Colonists.

At her father’s home in Prescott, on April 21, 1891, she married William Morgan Claypool, a mining engineer and merchant. Fannie and William had three children: John Blandy, born in Prescott in 1892; William Morgan, Jr., born on one of their mining claims in El Paso, Texas, on July 25, 1893; and Frances Boom, born in Prescott on December 2, 1895.

In 1904, the Claypool family moved to Needles, California, to open a dry goods store. In the early 1930s, they relocated to San Bernardino, California, and established the family feed mill.

Fannie is remembered by her granddaughter as a "loving but stern woman who could paralyze you with one look." Fannie spent many years researching her ancestry which, thanks to her efforts, can be traced back well into the 1600s. Her sister, Bessie Blandy, is also represented in the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden.

Fannie died November 5, 1943, in San Bernardino, where she was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in San Bernardino, California. Her newspaper obituary, published in The San Bernardino County Sun on November 6, 1942, stated she was an active member of the Episcopal Church, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of American Colonists.

Donor: Jane Frances Claypool Johnston, 1997
Photo Located: RGC MS-39, Box C, F-Claypool, Frances (Blandy)
Updated: 4/16/2015, D. Sue Kissel