Butte County
Biographies
THOMAS J. FROST
THOMAS J. FROST.--A citizen with an interesting Civil War record, and
one of the prominent builders of Oroville, in whose extensive operations his
energetic wife has often been interested as a partner whose personality is
always felt, Thomas J. Frost was born at Sneedville, Hancock County, East
Tennessee, on June 7, 1841, the son of Robert Frost, a native of Tennessee, who
was a farmer. In 1851, Bob, as he was familiarly called, migrated with his
family to Iowa and settled at Unionville, and in that state he died, in 1860.
Grandfather Thomas Frost was born in North Carolina, settled in Hancock County,
Tenn., and there married Miss Celia Ray, also of North Carolina. Thomas J.’s
mother was Miss Mary (or Polly) Trent, the granddaughter of Zachariah Trent,
whose wife was a Greene, through whom the family traces back a connection with
General Greene of Revolutionary fame. An uncle, Stokely
Trent, was judge in the courts for twenty-seven years. Mrs. Robert Frost died
at Unionville, Iowa, the mother of twelve children, four of whom are still
living. Two brothers also had a war record: Andrew J., who was a member of the
Forty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and John R., of the Second Missouri
Cavalry.
At ten years of age, Thomas J. Frost
migrated to Iowa, when his father built two flat boats that took eighteen
families down Clinch River to the Tennessee, down the Tennessee to the Ohio,
and on the Ohio as far as Cairo, Ill., and there the party left the flat boats.
They then took passage on a stern-wheeler, the old Kate Kearny, to Alexandria,
Mo. The father had brought with him an old prairie schooner, and for one
hundred dollars in gold he bought a yoke of cattle. With this outfit the family
went on to Unionville, Iowa, where the father bought and took up land, which he
soon improved; sticking to the task until, in 1860, he passed away. Thomas J.,
therefore, got his first formal instruction in a private school, and later
attended school in a log cabin, where he sat on a slab bench.
Remaining home until July 4, 1861, he
enlisted in the Volunteer Company I of the Third Iowa
Cavalry Regiment, and was mustered in at Keokuk. He was sent to Camp Benton in
St. Louis, was in the Battle of Pea Ridge, went down the White River and with
his fellows cut his way to Helena, Ark., taking Arkansas Post and capturing
Little Rock. He was in the campaign with General Steel, when he tried to
intercept Banks on the Red River, and was driven back to Little Rock. He saw
the Siege of Vicksburg, which lasted forty-one days, and the Battle of Jackson,
Miss., after which he went on to Memphis to fight. He thus served until his
term expired, and in September, 1864, he was mustered out at Keokuk, Iowa. At
Pea Ridge, he had received a wound in his right knee, and yet was mustered out
as sergeant.
On his return to civil life, Mr. Frost was
married at Centerville, Iowa, to Miss Mary E. Rinker, a native of Iowa, and for
a year he engaged in farming. Then he became a merchant in Unionville,
continuing the same line of activity at Livingston. At the end of nine years he
sold out and went to Kansas, where he took up a homestead near Marysville, on
the Big Blue River; and there he remained two years, when he sold his right and
returned to Iowa. Then he embarked in the lumber business at Seymour, Iowa,
where he was mayor of the town for four years, and built the Union Block,
containing five stores, which he leased out. The year 1877 saw his next move to
the westward, when he came to Montana and engaged in the lumber business. For
sixteen years in Iowa and Montana he was justice of the peace. Concluding to
try his luck wool-growing, he sold out the lumber yard and went in for
sheep-raising.
In 1892, Mr. Frost completed his final
stage westward, selling his Montana interests, coming to California and
locating in Oroville, in which place he saw the best outlet for his energy and
experience in the field of building. Here also occurred his second marriage--to
Mrs. Lizzie (Looney) Stroever, a native of Shudell, Manchester, England. Her father died in her native
country, but her mother, who afterward became Mrs. Cordies,
came to California by way of Panama, in the early fifties, to Bidwell’s Bar, when it was the county seat. When the center of the
county government was removed to Oroville, she came and built the United States
Hotel here, now the annex to the Union; and until her death, in September,
1894, she remained in the hotel field. Mrs. Frost was educated in England,
crossed the ocean and came to Philadelphia, when she was seventeen years old,
and then to California. At her first marriage here she was wedded to Fred Stroever, who was born in Germany, became a butcher in
Oroville, and died in November, 1893.
Mrs. Frost owned a tract of land, having
taken up a mining claim here, and in time she came to own nearly two hundred acres.
In this venture, she had two partners, George Peters and Mr. Russell; later,
they improved this land and sold it at seventeen dollars an acre, and the new
high school building now adorns it. She kept a portion of it and platted the Stroever Addition, on Bridge Street, Washington Avenue and
Yard Street. Here a fine residence has been built, and they also built twelve
other cottages which they rent out.
By her first marriage, Mrs. Frost had one
child, Georgiana, now Mrs. G. C. McGuffin who died here,
leaving two children; and by his first marriage Mr. Frost had eight children,
all of whom are living. He also has fifteen grandchildren and six
great-grandchildren. Mr. Frost is a Republican in national politics, and a
member of the W. T. Sherman Post, No. 96, G. A. R., in which for two terms he
was Post Commander. Mrs. Frost is a member of the Women’s Relief Corps and
the Rebekahs.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
21 May 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 987-988, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies