First installment from Kate (A, Carolyn)
First installment from Kate (A, Carolyn)
As written by Kate Frost Linehan
[Retyped by David Frost, (B, Victor)]
My grandfather, Arthur Knowlton Frost is the person with whom I will start this genealogical account. It is from letters, newspaper clippings and my own memory or things told me by other members of the family.
Arthur Knowlton Frost was the son of David Henry Frost and Caroline Eaton born in Vinton, Iowa, May 24, 1869. He had six sisters and there exists a log that members of the family wrote in the years 1879-83 as they were preparing to move to Antelope County, Nebraska. Donald Frost, son of Arthur [Knowlton] who took over the Nebraska Farm after the death of his father, said recently, at a family reunion in South Dakota, that the move to Brunswick was an economic mistake and that the Frost's were misled by the relative. I think it was their mothers' brother-in-law who talked them into buying the land that they did and selling the Iowa land. Donald is of the belief that "they ended up with the least productive and most barren piece of land in Antelope County, Nebraska." The farm was not a total waste but was definitely not the rich farm land they had left in Iowa.
It seems the land was broken up into pieces of forty acres and each sibling got one. That means that indeed each of the sisters, none of whom ever married, each had a forty acre plot and later as they gave up farming or died the land was again joined as one farm and that is what Donald had when he sold the farm in about 1950. Arthur Knowlton, (I shall use his whole name because his son, my father is also Arthur K but the K is for Karl) was very political and in fact a great deal more interested in the town comings and goings than he was in farming. He was not a particularly successful farmer, and did not seem to pay attention to detail. He was a good carpenter and he and his sons (Hans, Ellery, Karl, Elbert, Donald and Kenneth) all worked as carpenters for at least some part of their early life and built homes in the Brunswick area. Karl, at least, remained a good carpenter all his life and in the years when he lived in Lead, South Dakota, he built some very fine pieces of furniture which are still in the hands of the child or children he made them for, or as in the case of a desk he made as a youth, in Tom's home. It was in our house all of my young years, this desk he had made as a young man at home. Somewhere along the way it was transported to Lead and given back to him. We always thought of it as a family treasure. It was not really a magnificent piece of work but admirable for one as young as he was when he made it (about fifteen, if I remember correctly).
But to get back to grandfather (Arthur Knowlton) Frost. I remember him as a grandfatherly figure but not the warm gentle, kind of grandfather. He seems crabby to me and not interested in us as children or people. But I think maybe he was already elderly when I recall him and we only saw him when we went back to Nebraska for summer vacations and that was for harvest of for helping on the farm when Dad would go back to help for a week and take all of us with him. No wonder that grandfather seemed remote and crabby, he was extremely busy and we were probably a real bother.
In his last years he was either senile or had Alzheimer's because he became a real care for grandmother and would do things like going out in the early morning and getting lost and once I recall, he was found caught and tangled in the fence not far from the house and totally disoriented. He died March 3, 1947 in Norfolk, Nebraska at the age of 77. He was married to Sophie Petersen on May 16, 1896 and "lived happily together for 51 years". They had two daughters and eight sons, two of whom preceded Arthur Knowlton in death. According [to] the obituary in the Brunswick newspaper after his death, one son died in 1919 which probably indicates that he died in early childhood. I have not heard about that child. But another son, Elbert died in a car accident in 1936 and I often heard both my mother and father talk about him. He had been married and divorced and was very much a ladies man and I think was remarried at the time of this death. He has a son named Thomas who lives now (1992) in Omaha, Nebraska. He answered the first letters we sent out for the reunion held in the Black Hills this year. Someone I talked to later, indicated that he was somewhat retarded. He said he would like to come to the reunion but that he did not drive. I judged his age to be somewhere in his mid 60's. His mother was known to us as she lived in Lead and her name was Gertie Bushnell, she was a very beautiful woman.
At the time of his death Arthur Knowlton was survived by his wife; David of Lincoln (whom we always knew as Hans); Arthur K of Lead (my father); Edith Martin of Seattle; Ellery of Joliet, Illinois; Harold of Wichita, Kansas; Kenneth of San Angelo, Texas; Donald of Brunswick; and Dorothy Riggs of Spearfish, South Dakota.
Grandma Frost lived in her house there on the farm, which Donald also lived on and now was farming, for the next few years but then she went to live with her daughters, Dorothy and Edith. I don't know what the arrangement was tho I recall her being at Dorothy's in Spearfish for some time and yet for the last years of her life she was with Edith, first in Lead and then in Seattle where she died on March 29, 1960. I do remember visiting her in Brunswick on the farm and I also remember her slightly when she was in Spearfish at Dorothy's and again in Lead with Edith. I will tell you what I know about the other brothers and sisters before I go into my own brothers and sisters and our childhood or lives.
Hans was a chunky man who loved to talk and philosophize and was, at one time in his life, a preacher. He married Gertrude Snodgrass, who I remember as having piercing eyes and a rather severe manner. I think that we kids were all somewhat afraid of her. They had one daughter, Donna Gertrude and they lived in Lead when I was very young and we saw them frequently. I've heard both uncles and brothers say that Hans did not like working at the mine in Lead and as soon as he could, he got out. They moved to Minneapolis sometime around 1938, and we visited them there in the summer of '39. There was conversation about my dad looking for work and home in that area. We did indeed almost move there in a few years but that is a story I will tell in context of my own family.
Edith lived in Lead with her husband, Gilbert Martin, who worked for the Homestake Mining Company. As I recall, he did not work down in the mine as my father did and we did not see them so very often. My mother had the notion, probably at least somewhat true, that dad's family looked down on her because she was Catholic and had so many kids and had 'converted' dad. I look back and feel badly that we didn't know Edith better because while she seemed severe, she also was very nice to us in many ways as little kids and I think liked us. She had one son, Gene, who was about the same age as Victor and Richard and they moved to Seattle, Washington when Gene graduated from high school. Maybe they moved so he could go to college there or something like that, I recall some conversations like that. Anyway he became a geologist and a teacher at the University of Oregon and lived there most of his life. After Gilbert retired they moved to Oregon also and remained there the rest of their lives. Gene moved to California and taught at Chico State College. He still lives in Chico, California. I saw him once in 1985 in Seattle when he visited Bonnie while I was there. Edith brought her mother to live with her and she died in 1960 in Seattle.
Arthur is the next child in that family but since he is the line I am following I will leave him to the end of this family.
Ellery is the next member of the family. He was married to a woman named Mildred Pierce and they never had any children. They were both teachers and lived in Joliet, Illinois all of the time that I remember. Helen has more memory of them than any of us since she visited them during her high school years when she went to boarding school in Illinois. They were very nice to her and she stayed with them a few times. Mildred died around 1962 and Ellery got more interested in his family. He came to a reunion that my brothers and sisters had in South Bend, at Notre Dame in 1981. He was very congenial and we all enjoyed his being there. He had been in touch with David who lived in South Bend and had also stayed in relatively close contact with my dad before he died. Ellery died in 1982, I believe. He left the residue of his estate to all of his nieces and nephews and we each received a bequest of about $1400 when the estate was settled.
Harold was a very pleasant man who smiled a lot and did not talk a lot. H was married to Helen [Fee?] and they have one daughter named Barbara. Harold sold insurance most of his life and I think did rather well financially. We saw them only two or three times in our lives, usually in Brunswick on the farm or once or twice in Lead. Barbara now lives in Wichita, Kansas where in fact they lived all their lives. She showed interest in the reunion but in the end did not come.
Kenneth was the beloved younger brother. He was married to Marion Nagle and they lived in Lead and he worked in the mine when he was a young man. In fact they lived very near us at one point - just at the end of our street. But they both worked and we did not see them often tho I recall pleasant visits with them in our home. They moved to San Angelo, Texas around 1950 and Kenneth was a pilot and gave flying lessons. He was killed in a plane crash and I had thought that it was during a lesson flight with the student flying into a mountain. However it was described to me more clearly during this most recent reunion and I will find out who it was that related the story and what the truth of it is. Kenneth and Marion never had any children and after Kenneth died Marion remarried and after some years we lost track of her. We did hear an account of her death somewhere in the 60's.
Dorothy is the aunt I knew best. She is married to Clarence Riggs from Spearfish, South Dakota and we visited with them more often than any other relatives. In fact for about four or five years between 1948 and 1952, I would guess, my dad worked for Clarence at his sawmill in Spearfish.
Last revised August 3, 2002.