The horologe of time has marked off thirty-nine years since George A. Frost came to the Pacific coast, and thirty years have been added to the cycle of the centuries since his arrival in Lewiston. He is numbered among the esteemed and valued residents of this place, and as a representative citizen of northern Idaho well deserves mention in this volume. He was born in St. Auburns, Somerset county, Maine, November 14, 1836, and is of Scotch and English lineage. His parents were both natives of Kennebec County, Maine, and in 1852 the father came to the west, making the journey by way of the Panama route. He first located in California, where he engaged in mining, and was one of the first at the Cornstock lead, in Nevada. He later removed to Walla Walla, Washington, where his death occurred in 1878, when he had reached the age of seventy-eight years. His widow still resides there and is now in her seventy-ninth year.
George A. Frost is the eldest of their three children. He was educated in Dexter, Maine, and when his father returned to the Pine Tree state for the family he came to the Pacific coast. They followed the isthmus route and located in California, our subject engaging in mining on the American river. He afterward went to Nevada, where he took out considerable gold, and then sold his claim for twenty-seven thousand dollars. Then followed a period in which he was not quite so successful, and he returned to the east by the overland route. He paid Charles A. Robinson fifteen hundred dollars for a claim which was represented to be very rich, and then again crossed the plains for the purpose of finding and working his new claim, but he never found it. He then prospected in the Coeur d’Alene Mountains for three years, and discovered a valuable claim, which he still owns and which is now about to be developed. It is located between the Coeur d’Alene and Buffalo Hump, and is a very rich property.
Mr. Frost, however, has not confined his attention and energies entirely to mining interests. While in San Francisco he studied photography, and in 1871 opened an art gallery in Lewiston, where he carried on business for three winters. Subsequently he accepted a position in John Brearley’s private bank and was thus employed until the death of Mr. Brearley. In 1875 he was superintendent of the Rescue mine at Warrens. He was also engaged in the draying business for a number of years, but eventually sold out and is now partially retired from active business. However, he looks after his property interests, having considerable improved and unimproved city property, and personally superintends its sales. He manages his business interests with marked ability, and his undaunted enterprise, strong resolution and native sagacity have been the salient features in his success.
Mr. Frost was united in marriage to Miss Angeletta Sidelinger, a native of Maine, and to them have been born a son and two daughters: Caro C, George H. and Alta A. In his political views Mr. Frost has always been a stalwart Republican, unswerving in his allegiance to the party. He was elected and served for five years as a member of the city council of Lewiston, and has ever been active in promoting the best interests of the town, giving his aid to all measures tending to advance the social, intellectual, material and moral welfare. He has witnessed almost the entire development of this region. When he came to Lewiston there were but four ranches under cultivation near the city, and all goods were brought by pack trains. Now this is a beautiful railroad center, surrounded by a splendid agricultural district, the fields of waving grain giving evidence of a prosperous and contented people.