Heber Lorin Frost

My father, Heber Lorin Frost, was born on July 9, 1909 in Grouse Creek, Box Elder, Utah. He was the youngest child of Edward Scottern Frost and Clara Elizabeth Shaw. Father was blessed on August 29, 1909 by Allen N. Tanner, baptized on August 31, 1917 by David P. Frost and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on that same day by Joseph Barlow.

Father was endowed May 8, 1934, by proxy in the Salt Lake Temple three months after his death at which time he was sealed to his parents and his wife and children.

I am truly sorry that I know so very little about my Father. All I can speak about are quotes from people who remember him. I was three years old when he died on March 13, 1934.

Mother never told me much about Dad that I can remember. I know that when I was a child living in Deep Creek, I accidentally burned our house down trying to build a fire in the stove. With it went all pictures Mother had, Dad’s bridle that Mom was saving for me and Dad’s spurs she was saving for Bob. She also lost her wedding ring. Mother sifted through the ashes time and time again looking for these items but nothing was ever found.

Information I have gleaned from people who knew my Father:

As Father grew up he rode a horse called Slim. He would ride up the road switching the rope. He was a friendly, fun-loving guy.  As Dad grew older he rode a horse named Slivers, a brown horse, and as he rode by Raida Kimber’s house, he would always stop. He liked to hear her play the piano and perhaps liked her as well. Eventually the horse wouldn’t pass without stopping. Quote, Brother Kimber.

They told me that Dad had the lead in the school play once and had to kiss the leading lady and did he ever blush!!!  He was tall with long legs and would, at times, step over the back of the chair to sit on it. All of the Frosts were quite tall.

My grandmother said in her quotes directed to me:  “My parents met in Yost. The Frosts had cattle on feed in Junction and Mother worked as a cook for John Blythe, cooking for many men. The boys stayed on each ranch as they worked there.”

A bit of history I remember from my mother:   Mom was engaged to a man named Lawrence when she met Dad. She said, “I fell for your Dad and sent Lawrence’s ring back to him. I went with your Dad about three months. We kept our marriage a secret because we wanted to go through the temple that fall, so that’s why we didn’t tell anyone but it didn’t work out that way.” They went to Burley, Idaho and were married secretly on July 7, 1928. It came out in the Burley newspaper. A friend of the Frosts read it and told them about it. Mom said they were married about two months before she moved to Grouse Creek.

I was born in Oakley, Idaho, in a log house Grandmother rented for the occasion. Doctor Buener, a nephew of J. P. Thomas, of Oakley, delivered me. Mother had complications so she was taken to Rupert to the hospital there. During one of Dad’s visits to Mother, she fainted while he was holding me. He threw me into an open suitcase of clothes and caught Mother before she hit the floor.

It was getting late in November when we left for Grouse Creek. We had some difficulty traveling between Oakley and home. This road was generally snowed in all winter. There was snow on the ground but it was still passable.

For a short while we lived at the Heber Frost homestead above the upper Frost meadow. One day while walking down to Grandmother’s, my mother became quite ill. She was carrying me in her arms and fainted. It worried the folks so much we moved back to the big house with Grandmother and Grandfather. We lived in the two rooms on the south side of the house. It was a lovely house for its day, and still is.

As a young child I used to sit at the feet of my Grandfather’s rocking chair on the back porch and he would comb my hair. Grandmother would bake cookies that I enjoyed.

There were two beautiful lilac bushes growing in the front yard. I used to think of them as Mulberry bushes, probably because of the nursery rhyme about mulberry bushes.

Bob was born two years after me in Montello, Nevada on March 2, 1932. I thought it was because the roads to Oakley were impassable but have learned since that Dad worked at the Rock Quarry in Lucin and Mother would cook for the men.

When Bob was one year old and I was three, my father died. It came after a long illness of pneumonia with complications of Blight’s disease. Due to his sickness, he wasted away.

A quote from Grandmother Clara Frost:  “If we had lived nearer a doctor, perhaps he would have had a chance. He went to the doctors in Burley, Idaho, and was treated for pneumonia, came home and some time later was taken to Salt Lake, as he did not recover.”

When they took Dad to Salt Lake to the doctor, the roads were so bad they loaded the car, a black sedan, onto a sleigh. The sleigh was a hay wagon on runners and pulled with horses until they reached a road they could drive on. Many of the Grouse Creek residents remembered watching them leave.

When they got him to a doctor for treatment, it was too late. They rented a place up the street from the Medical Arts building on South Temple Street, near State Street. Mother was sent for medicine.

Dad wanted to come home before he died. They were on the way home when he died in Brigham City in a brick home owned by his brother, David Frost. Norma Frost said the house was located at First North and Third West, a brick home on the southwest corner of the street.

Grandmother sent Mother from the room when Daddy died. He died on March 13, 1934 and was buried in the Grouse Creek cemetery.

Grandmother felt it was very important to have Dad and Mom sealed in the temple so on May 8, 1934, Mother and Father were sealed in the Salt Lake temple.

Compiled by: Rosella Frost Anderson