Frost, Moses

Private Moses Frost was born on 30 June 1886 in North Bay, Ontario. His parents, Moses Frost Sr. and Mary Denault, were both from the Fort Coulonge area in Quebec. Moses had five older brothers and sisters: Mary (born ca1874 in Manitoba), Joseph, David Edward and Maria (Marian) (all born in Quebec), and Samuel (born in North Bay, Ontario). Moses was followed by a sister, Margaret Jane, also born in North Bay. By 1890 the family had settled in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), in northwestern Ontario, and two boys were born there, James Norman and John Robert. Two of the girls were married in Rat Portage/Kenora, Mary in 1894 to Adam Cameron and Margaret Jane in 1908 to Fred Easton. David Edward married Cassie Williams in 1900 in Rat Portage. Moses Sr. worked as a labourer and teamster and in 1911 Moses was working in a local mill.

Around 1912 Moses and his parents moved to Kaministiquia, located northwest of the town of Fort William, Ontario. His brother Samuel was married in 1912 and John Robert in 1913, both in Fort William. In the summer of 1917 the war entered its fourth year and conscription started in Canada that fall. Moses failed to register as required and he was called up as a defaulter on 11 November 1917 in Fort William. He reported the following summer and his medical exam on 4 July 1918 noted that he was blind in his left eye. His occupation at the time was woodsman. He was assigned to the 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment but on 2 August he was transferred to the 10th Battalion, Canadian Garrison Regiment. He served with the garrison regiment for five months and was discharged on demobilization on 7 January 1919.

Moses was married in Fort William on 28 February 1919. His wife, Rebecca Elizabeth Condon, was born in December 1901 in Superior, Wisconsin, the daughter of Joseph and Rebecca Condon. She had moved to Kaministiquia with her widowed mother around 1913. When the 1921 census was taken Moses and Rebecca were living in Ware Township, just east of Kaministiquia, where they were farming. Their first child, Joseph, was a year old at the time. He was followed by two more sons and two daughters: William, June, Laurence Thomas (Lorne) and Patricia. Moses and his wife raised their family in Kaministiquia and he worked on construction and in bush operations. They also spent some time in the town of Geraldton before settling in Fort William around 1942. The two oldest boys, Joseph and William, served with the Canadian forces during the Second World War.

Moses passed away at home on 8 September 1965, at age 79, and his wife followed on 29 January 1969, at age 67. They are buried in St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery in Thunder Bay. Moses’ mother had died in 1933 and his father in 1936 (age 96) and they’re buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Thunder Bay along with their son Joseph (1877-1918). Moses’ brother David Edward (1879-1937) and his sister Maria (Mrs. James Patrick Hill) (1882-1925) are interred in Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora.

By Becky Johnson

Family photo courtesy of Frost public family tree on ancestry.ca. Fort William obituaries courtesy of Thunder Bay Public Library.

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