George A. Frisbie is now concluding his second term as county treasurer of Jefferson County, but the main business of his mature years had been farming. His father was one of the early settlers of Jefferson County, and Mr. Frisbie had spent all his life since boyhood in the same locality.
He had an interesting Colonial and Revolutionary ancestry. The Frisbies were originally French, went from that country to England, and in Colonial times settled in Connecticut. Mr. Frisbie’s great-grandfather, Levi Frisbie, was born at Bristol, Connecticut. He atterward moved to Pennsylvania, was a farmer and died at Orwell, Pennsylvania. He served as a fighting soldier of the Revolution. He married a Miss Gaylord, a daughter of Katherine Gaylord, who was therefore the great-great-grandmother of George A. Frisbie. Katherine Gaylord was born in 1745 and died in 1840. She was the wife of Lieut. Aaron Gaylord, who lost his life in the Wyoming massacre in Western New York during the Revolutionary war. While her husband and his comrades were bravely attempting to fight off the combined forees of British and Indians Katherine managed to escape and after three weeks of unparalleled suffering and wandering through the woods with her three small children, one son and two daughters, arrived among friends. She started with a horse from Forty Fort, but after the first day was obliged to abandon the animal, and then wandered about on foot, much of the time carrying her children, until three weeks later she arrived in her native town of Bristol, Connecticut. The Bristol Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is named Katherine Gaylord Chapter, and the monument erected to the memory of this noble Revolutionary woman stands in a conspicuous site in the City of Bristol.
Mr. Frisbie’s grandfather was Chauncey Frisbie, who was barn at Bristol, Connecticut, but spent his active life as a farmer near Orwell, Pennsylvania, where he died before his grandson George was born. He married Chloe Howard, a native of Connectieut, who also died at Orwell, Pennsylvania.
Hanson Z. Frisbie, father of George A., was born at Orwell, Pennsylvania, in 1818. He grew up and married there, and studied and qualified for the bar and was admitted to practice at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. Subsequently he removed west to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he was a merchant, and on September 2, 1872, he arrived with his family at Lawrence, Kansas. On January 1, 1874, he located at Grantville in Jefferson County, Kansas, and there conducted both a farm and store. He died at Grantville in 1896. Hanson Frisbie was a democrat, and in Kansas filled the office of township treasurer and other positions of trust and responsibility. He was a member and active supporter of the Episcopal Church and belonged to the Masonic order. His first wife was Elizabeth Russell, who was born in Pennsylvania and died at Battle Creek, Michigan. Her three children were named Clarence L., who now lives at North Topeka, Kansas, retired, and Selwin C. and Charles H., both deceased. Hanson Frisbie married for his second wife Julia S. Merikle, who was born in Courtland County, New York, in 1837, and died at Topeka, Kansas, January 30, 1915. Her only child is George A. Frisbie, who was born at Battle Creek, Michigan, December 24, 1864, and was about eight years of age when his father located in Kansas.
He acquired his early education in the rural schools of Jefferson County, finishing his school work when about nineteen. He then became an active member of his father’s household and a practical farmer, and eventually inherited the old homestead at Grantville and had found in farming both a profitable and congenial profession. His success had enabled him to acquire other land, and he now owned 375 acres, situated a mile north of Grantville.
Politically Mr. Frisbie’s activities have been with the democratic party. He served two terms as trustee of Kaw Township, and was the first county assessor of Jefferson County, an office he filled two years. In the fall of 1912 he was elected county treasurer and in 1914 was re-elected, his present term expiring in October, 1917. In a business way he is also director of the Citizens State Bank at North Topeka. Mr. Frisbie is affiliated with Oskaloosa Lodge No. 14, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Oskaloosa Chapter No. 9, Royal Areh Masons, Star Lodge No. 20, Ancient Order of United Workmen at North Topeka, and Oskaloosa Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America.
He was married at Newman, Kansas, in 1887, to Miss Etta Willits, daughter of Thomas and Charlotta Willits. Her mother is living at Topeka and her father, deceased, was a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Frisbie have four chilren: Julia E., who is a graduate of the Topeka High School and is now deputy county treasurer with her father; Helen G., a member of the class of 1917 in the University of Kansas; George H., who is testing his ability as a practical farmer and is operating his father’s large farm near Grantville; and Herbert L., a freshman in the high school at Oskaloosa.