Francis Theodore Frost, reeve of the village of Smith’s Falls, and warden of the county of Lanark, is a native of this place, and was born December 21, 1843. His parents, Ebenezer and Caroline (Harwood) Frost, were natives of Vermont, and moved from Canton, New York, to Smith’s Falls, in 1839, soon after the Rideau Canal was dug. Here they lived and are buried. In addition to the knowledge obtained in the public and grammar schools of Smith’s Falls, Francis spent one year at school in Coventry, Vermont, and one at the St. Lawrence Academy, Potsdam, New York. His father was a founder, and the son may be said to have grown up in a foundry. Since 1863, when his father died, he has been in business for himself, now being of the firm of Frost and Wood, the other members of which are his older brother, Charles Frost, and Alexander Wood. They employ usually from 150 to 170 men, and average about $150,000 a year in the manufacture of mowers and reapers, threshing machines, horserakes, steel plows, and farming machinery generally. Their threshers and reapers and other machines go from end to end of the Dominion. Their prairie plows are sent by the thousand to Manitoba, to turn the virgin sod of that young Province. All their agricultural implements are among the most popular in the market, and they find prompt sale for every thing they make. The firm is known from ocean to ocean, both for its fair dealing and the excellent quality of its workmanship. At the time of writing (March, 1880), they are laying down the brick for a new molding shop, 50 by 100 feet, their growing business requiring an expansion of their premises.
Mr. Frost is serving his fifth term as reeve of the village, and his first as warden of the county, being an adept in municipal as well as other business, and watching carefully the interests of his native county, as well as village. It is the introduction of manufactures that has built up the place, and in this line of enterprise the Frost family occupies a foremost position.
Mr. Frost is president of the Smith’s Falls Curling Club, and of the Mechanics’ Institute, the latter organization being quite thriving. Its circulating library has 3,000 volumes.
In politics Mr. Frost is a Liberal, and in 1878 he was the candidate of his party in the south riding of Lanark for the House of Commons, and was defeated.
He is a Master Mason, and a member and elder of the Union Presbyterian church, being in 1879, a delegate to the Synod at Montreal. He is a man of solid worth.
On the 3rd of June 18G8, Miss Maria Eliza Powell, of Madrid, N. Y., was joined in marriage with Mr. Frost, and they have no children. Mrs. Frost is a woman of literary and artistic taste, and fine culture.