FROST, George Eldridge (1910 Biography)
FROST, DEVINE, ROSECRANS, BUSH, BURNAP, DUNCAN, THOMAS, WOODFORD, LOVELL, GEORGE
Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/4/2014 at 06:58:11
HISTORY of CERRO GORDO COUNTY, IOWA
WHEELER, J.H. Vol. II. Pp. 553-54. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago. 1910BIOGRAPHY ~ GEORGE ELRIDGE FROST
It would be difficult to find in the annals of Cerro Gordo county a man who made a deeper impress upon the life of the community or touched it at more points than George E. Frost, large land owner, newspaper proprietor, organizer of the county's first bank, postmaster, county surveyor, last county judge and first county auditor, this by no means being a complete enumeration of his offices and activities. Mr. Frost was a New Englander, having been born at Bridgeport in Addison county, Vermont, April 1, 1834, and he was at the prime of life when his death occurred in Clear Lake , June 28, 1887. When Mr. Frost was but three years of age his parents, Levi and Mary E. (Devine) Frost, moved to Canton, St. Lawrence county, New York, and it was there that he grew to manhood, he being the only one of his brothers and sisters who survived to maturity. In 1854, when he was about twenty years of age, his father came westward to De Kalb county, Illinois, bringing his family with him. After a short residence in this state they removed to a farm near Marble Rock, Floyd county, Iowa, here living until they came, in 1860, to Clear Lake, where they resided until the death of the father in 1870 and that of the mother in 1871.
Soon after his arrival in Clear Lake Mr. Frost was appointed surveyor of Cerro Gordo county, a position which he held for five years. About this time he traded a farm which he owned in Floyd county for one hundred and sixty acres in Grant township. This he added to until it consisted of fourteen hundred acres and at the time of his death he owned two thousand acres in Cerro Gordo county, this constituting him a large land owner. In 1870 Mr. Frost purchased the Clear Lake Observer, which he sold in 1874 to Hon. M. P. Rosecrans, and upon the discontinuation of the paper by the latter, he purchased a new press and renewed its publication. In 1879 he sold it again to F. J. Bush, who gave it the name of the Clear Lake Mirror and it is still published under that name at the present day. In 1880 he established the Clear Lake Record, which he sold in 1885.
Mr. Frost was essentially a versatile business man, and among his manifold activities was the establishment of a real estate business in 1861. From 1865 to 1873 he acted as revenue collector and in 1874 was associated with Marcus Tuttle in the organization of the Clear Lake bank, this making them the first bankers of the town. At the termination of a year Mr. Frost purchased his partner's interest. In 1877 he sold his banking interest to W. A. Burnap and in 1880 bought it back again. In 1868-69 he served as county judge of Cerro Gordo county and later as county auditor, and as previously mentioned he was the last county judge and the first county auditor of Cerro Gordo county. He added to his record as a public servant the office of postmaster at Clear Lake, which he held from 1862 to 1877, with the exception of two short intervals.
Much of the unusual success of Mr. Frost was due to his remarkable mental activity and energetic business habits. He was public spirited and his own advancement was never at the expense of the common good, but rather to the contrary. He may be accounted on of Clear Lake's pioneers and his memory will long by kept green in the town which was the scene of his activities.
On September 4, 1865, Mr. Frost took as his wife, Miss Azubah D. Duncan, who was born in Canada, January 21, 1840, and still resides at Clear Lake, in the beautiful family residence. Mrs. Frost was the daughter of Thomas and Almira (Thomas) Duncan, the father being a native of Scotland and the mother of New York. In 1863 they moved from McHenry county, Illinois, to Cerro Gordo county, locating in Lake township. It was there that the father died in 1871, after forty years' residence in America. The mother died April 20, 1895, at the age of seventy-eight years. The marriage of Mrs. Frost's parents took place in Canada in 1838. Mr. and Mrs. Frost were the parents of three children, Agnes, wife of C. R. Woodford, and Mary and George E., the two latter being at home.
NOTE: George Eldridge Frost died at Clear Lake on June 28, 1887. Azubah (Duncan) Frost was born in London, Ontario, Candad on January 21, 1840, and died at Clear Lake on December 10, 1928.
Agnes Ellen (Frost) Woodford, daughter of George E. and Azubah Frost, was born January 15 1867, Clear Lake, and died January 20, 1947, Clear Lake. She married Charles R. Woodford, born Candor NY on August 26, 1861, and died April 8, 1937, Mason City IA.
Mary Almena (Frost) Lovell, daughter of George E. and Azubah Frost, was born at Clear Lake on July 31, 1872, and died December 11, 1961, Encinitas CA. She was married to Fred Hassam Lovell.
George Ernest Frost, son of George E. and Azubah Frost, was born December 13, 1877, Clear Lake, and died at Clear Lake on September, 11, 1938; his wife, Anna B. (George) Frost, was born January 16, 1884, Lucas County IA, and died at Clear Lake on August 25, 1938.
They were interred at Clear Lake Cemetery, Clear Lake IA.
Also interred at Clear Lake Cemetery are George Eldridge Frost's parents: Levi Frost, born September 17, 1892, Bridgeport VT, and died August 24, 1870, Clear Lake IA; and Mary Eleanor (Devine) Frost, born December 15, 1808, Colchester VT, died May 3, 1871, Clear Lake IA.
Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, February of 2014
Cerro Gordo Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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