FROST, Fred J. 1862-1932

FROST, DILLY

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 9/4/2015 at 18:20:37

Fred J. Frost, Former Grundy Mayor, Is Dead

Came To Grundy County 51 Yrs. Ago; Engaged in Farming and Later Owned Telephone Exchange

Fred J. Frost, mayor of Grundy Center from 1924 to 1928 and organizer and manager of the Grundy Telephone Exchange for many years, died at his home in Grundy Center last Saturday. Four years ago he suffered a stroke of paralysis which partially disabled him and kept him largely confined to his home. A second stroke came to him a week ago from which he was unable to recover and he continued to get weaker until the end came.

Funeral services were held at the home Tuesday afternoon. The services were conducted by Rev. J. B. Bird, pastor of the Methodist church. Mrs. L. B. Canfield sang that comforting hymn, "Abide With Me." The D. of P. lodge of which Mr. Frost was an active member for many years attended the services in a body. Business houses in town were closed from two to three o'clock. Burial was in the Grundy Center cemetery.

Mr. Frost was born in Boston. He would have been 70 years old on the 10th of next September. He was the son of Jacob and Susan Frost. There were two other children in the family, a brother and a sister, but they together with the parents, are numbered among earth's departed ones.

While Fred was still a boy, the family left Boston and went to live in Bridgton, Maine. Here the youth grew up and received his schooling, which was not prolonged far into his 'teens, for the boy's restlessness and energy to be doing some work took him into the Bridgton paper mills. But at the age of 19 the lure of the West laid hold on him and he persuaded his father, so that in the spring of 1881 they arrived in Iowa at Grundy Center. By the fall of that year they were joined by his mother and brother George.

The Frost family made their home on a farm. In 1885 Mr. Frost and Miss Cora Dilly were married at Grundy Center. They lived on a Grundy county farm during the early years of their married life. Thirty-seven years ago they moved to Grundy Center where Mr. Frost was the leader in the organization of the first local telephone exchange. He remained as manager of this business until he sold it six years ago.

Mr. Frost took an active part in the civic life of the community and occupied many places of public trust and responsibility. Aside from his four years as mayor of the town, he was for many years a member of the school board, was a bank director and president of the cemetery association.

He was a man of kind heart, and many a person and family will hold him in grateful memory for his generosity and consideration of them in their distress and need.

Mr. Frost is survived by his wife and an adopted daughter, Mrs. Harold Thomas of Des Moines, and her two children, by a foster son, Walter Hutchinson from Freeport, Ill., and by a foster daughter, Mrs. H. J. Watson from Reinbeck.

Relatives and friends from a distance who were here at the funeral were Mr. and Mrs. Walter Hutchinson from Freeport, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Thomas and two children from Des Moines, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Balloit and son from Gleneoe, Ill., Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Biehl from Oak Park, Ill., Mr. and Mrs. Shirley Dilly from Wellsburg, Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Watson from Reinbeck and Albert Frost from Ft. Atkinson, Nebraska.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 12 May 1932, pg 1