John Frost, who follows farming on section 27, Hazel Dell township, which is the old homestead property, has here one hundred and twenty-six acres of rich and productive land and has resided thereon continuously since 1896. It was upon this farm that his birth occurred June 28, 1858.

His father, Robert Frost, was born in England, December 21, 1817, and on the 9th of April, 1843, was married to Miss Susanna Roberts, a native of Canada. He had crossed the Atlantic from the mother country to Canada and in 1855 came to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, casting his lot with it's earliest settlers. He made the trip with ox-teams and first took up his abode near Crescent City. In 1857, however, he located upon the farm on section 27, Hazel Dell township, which is now the property of his son John. It was entirely wild and unimproved, not a furrow having been turned, for he secured the land from the government. The original tract comprised eighty acres, which he transformed from wild prairie into productive fields. His first home was a little cabin built of logs and boards with a thatched roof. During the season of 1857-58, which was known as the cold winter, three yoke of oxen and three of his cows perished in the cold. He carried corn on his back--one hundred bushels in all--in order to feed his animals and keep them alive. Many hardships and trials incident to frontier life were borne by the family in those early days and the arduous work of developing a new farm was carried on by them. At the beginning of the war Mr. Frost assisted in organizing a company of Home Guards but never went to the front. By trade he was a shoemaker but after his removal to Iowa always carried on general agricultural pursuits and spent his remaining days upon the home farm in Hazel Dell township, which he purchased from the government. As stated, he was married in Canada to Miss Susanna Roberts, whose people were Mormans, her uncle James Roberts, being a preacher of the Morman faith.

In the family of Mr. & Mrs. Frost were eleven children: A.A., who is a blacksmith of Crescent, Iowa; William, who died in the army when a young man; Robert, who was killed by lightning on the 15th of May, 1871; Eliza, the deceased wife of Patrick McGann of Council Bluffs; two who died in infancy; Mary, who became the wife of David Helvern and now resides at Mammoth Springs, Arkansas; Susanna Lonsboro, a resident of Colorado; Mrs. Emily Cobble, who makes her home in Seattle, Washington; Clara, a resident of Omaha, Nebraska; and John, of this review.

No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of farm life for John Frost in his boyhood days. He worked in the fields from the time of early spring planting until crops were harvested in the late autumn, then attended school for a few months, after which he again took his place in the fields. He continued to work upon the home farm until twenty-two years of age and then went to the west, where for eleven years he was engaged in mining but his health became impaired during that period and returning to Pottawattamie County, he purchased the old homestead farm of one hundred and twenty-six acres upon which he has resided since 1896. He has made may substantial modern improvements here and in the tilling of the soil he finds that good crops result from the careful cultivation of the fields, the soil being naturally rich and productive.

Mr. Frost was married to Miss Wilhelmina Hank, who was born in Bavaria, Germany, and died in Council Bluffs in 1890, leaving three children: Andrew E., now of South Dakota; Frederick of Hazel Dell; and Robert G., of Treynor, Iowa. In 1890 Mr. Frost was again married, his second union being with Mary Lowe, a daughter of Henry Lowe, a farmer of Honey Creek township. They have two little sons, Charles and Lorenzo.

Mr. Frost is a democrat in his political views but has held no office other than that of school director. He is interested in the county, it's up-building and it's welfare, for with the exception of about a decade he has lived here continuously from his birth to the present time. Strongly impressed upon his mind are many pictures of the early days when much of the land was unclaimed and uncultivated and one could ride for miles over the prairie without coming to a fence or habitation to impede his progress. There were few conveniences or comforts in those early homes but the labors of the pioneer settlers wrought a decided change in the methods of living, and today Mr. Frost carries on agricultural pursuits in accordance with the most progressive ideas of modern farming.