Shawnee County KS Archives Biographies.....Frost, John E. 1849 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 26, 2006, 7:43 pm

Author: James L. King (1905)

JOHN E. FROST.

    JOHN E. FROST, ex-president of the Commercial Club of Topeka, and a citizen
who has been prominently identified with public affairs in Kansas for very many
years, was born April 22, 1849, at Rome, New York, and is a son of Hon. Thomas
Gold and Elizabeth A. (Bancroft) Frost.

    Mr. Frost comes of distinguished ancestry which extends in both paternal and
maternal lines to old and honoroble English families and early New England
settlers. The father of Mr. Frost was prominent in politics and in the law prior
to 1857, when he removed to Illinois, and took up his residence at Galesburg.
The closing years of his life were spent in Chicago, and in both cities he was a
representative legal practitioner and the recipient of many honors.

    John E. Frost had liberal educational opportunities, including collegiate
advantages at Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois, and at Hamilton College at
Clinton, New York. At the latter institution he carried off honors at his
graduation in 1871. He then read law, not so much for the practice of the
profession as to thoroughly inform himself upon points which might come up in
his business transactions later in life. His business career began and has been
mainly connected with land and immigration interests and probably no man in
Kansas more thoroughly masters questions relative to these lines than does Mr.
Frost, after more than 30 years devotion to their study. In 1904 he was elected
a trustee of Hamilton College, his alma mater. He is a member of the Chi Psi
college fraternity.

    From 1872 to 1879, Mr. Frost was district agent of the land department of
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, and after his removal to
Topeka, in 1882, he filled still higher offices with the company until 1890 when
he was appointed general land commissioner for the corporation, in which office
he continued until his resignation in 1898, when he purchased the still unsold
lands of the company in Kansas.

    Mr. Frost has held many honorable positions and offices with dignity and
efficiency. As president of the Exhibitors' Association at the International
Cotton Exposition, in 1881, at Atlanta, Georgia; as vice-president in 1895 of
the National Irrigation Congress at Denver and as its president in 1896, at
Albuquerque, New Mexico; and as vice-president and treasurer of the Kansas
Commission of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition at Omaha, in
1898, he displayed not only all necessary executive ability, but also the
courtesy, tact and diplomacy so essential in a public representative.

    Since coming to Topeka he has been interested in many of the city's most
successful enterprises and has shown a most commendable amount of public spirit.
As president of the Commercial Club from 1901 to 1804 he encouraged and headed
many movements looking to the material development of the city and, with the
brain of a scholar, the vigor of a worker and the heart of a gentleman, enjoys
the esteem of all who know him best.

    At the time of the disastrous flood in the Kansas River in 1903, Mr. Frost
served as chairman of the General Flood Relief Committee. It is acknowledged by
all that similar work was never better done than was performed by this
organization. Mr. Frost, as chairman, deserves much of the credit for the
committee's excellent showing.

    In 1871, Mr. Frost was united in marriage with Margaret E. Kitchell, who is
a daughter of Hon. Alfred Kitchell, of Illinois, and they have six children. The
family belong to the First Presbyterian Church of Topeka. Their beautiful home
is situated at the corner of 10th and Western avenues and it is the scene of
much hospitality and many social functions. A portrait of Mr. Frost accompanies
this sketch.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SHAWNEE COUNTY, KANSAS
AND
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

EDITED AND COMPILED BY
JAMES L. KING
TOPEKA, KANSAS 

"History is Philosophy Teaching by Examples"

PUBLISHED BY
RICHMOND & ARNOLD,
GEORGE RICHMOND; C. R. ARNOLD.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
1905.

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