My Genealogy Hound

Griffin Frost, editor and proprietor of the Knox County Democrat, was born in St. Clairsville, Ohio, March 14, 1834, and is a son of William and Rebecca (Wetzell) Frost, both natives of Virginia, where his parents lived during his youthful days. There he acquired a fair education, and at the age of sixteen entered a printing office at Wheeling, where he learned the printer’s trade. In 1854 he came to Missouri, and worked at his trade at Palmyra. He then went to Mexico, where he conducted the Mexico Ledger until shortly before the war. In 1861 he started the Shelbyville Herald at Shelbyville, Mo., but at the commencement of the war enlisted in the Southern Army, serving in Company A, First Regiment Missouri State Guards as private, but was afterward made captain of the company. Later he was transferred east of the Mississippi River, where he served as captain of his company under Gen. Parsons about six months. He then returned west of the Mississippi, when he started north on a recruiting expedition, on which he was taken a prisoner. He spent about eighteen months in Federal prisons, most of the time being passed in St. Louis, and Alton, Ill., and was released from the latter place at the close of the war. He then located at Quincy, Ill., and worked as compositor on the Whig and Herald, and started the Evening Call, which he conducted a short time; then formed a company, and started the Morning News, which he managed until 1874. In January of that year he came to Edina, and leased the Knox County Democrat for one year, and at the expiration of that time bought the paper, which he has since successfully conducted, and has raised the subscription list from 500 to over 1,100. At the time he purchased the paper, it was printed in the old-fashioned country style, by a hand-press, but is now printed by a steam-press. It is now the leading Democratic paper of Knox County, if not of Northeast Missouri. Our subject is a man of no mean journalistic ability, and in 1867 he published a book entitled “Frost’s Journal,” containing an interesting account of his camp and prison life, and which gives good evidence of his literary ability. He was united in marriage to Elizabeth Rebecca Johnson, a native of Marion County, Mo., by whom he had one daughter, who is a highly accomplished musician, and a teacher of vocal music at Cottey College, Nevada, Mo. This lady, Mrs. Annie (Frost) Ringer, is also proficient in instrumental music. Our subject is a stanch Democrat. He is a Master Mason, a Knight of Honor, and a member of the A. O. U. W. Himself and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.