mitted a partner of the firm of L. B. Horton & Co., which took the name of Horton, Boon & Frost; in 1857, Boon, Frost & Co., and in 1868 Henry Frost & Co. He is at present a large and prosperous silk manufacturer, his firm representing the Eureka Silk Manufacturing Company, of which
Henry Frost.
Mr. Frost is vice-president, and for whom Seavy, Foster & Bowman are selling agents. Of this latter firm Mr. Frost is also a partner.
Mr. Frost was married in Boston, September 4, 1860, to Elizabeth Burrows, daughter of John and Ann (Burrows) Gilbert. They have two children: Henry Gilbert and William Lawrence Frost.
Mr. Frost has been a member of the Boston ward and city committee for ten years; member of the Boston common council 1886 and '87; member of the Legislature as representative 1888 and '89, serving on the committees on public charitable institutions, cities and library.
He has been a justice of the peace three terms; was chairman of the building committee of the Boston Young Men's Christian Association twelve years; is a prominent member of the Boston Merchants' Club, Home Market Club, and Mercantile Association; trustee of Home Savings Bank, and a number of other corporations.
He has been a member of the Congregational denomination since 1853, and is an honored member of the Congregational Club.
Mr. Frost was a delegate to the World's Convention of the Young Men's Christian Association which met at Stockholm in 1888.
Frost, Rufus Smith, son of Joseph, Jr., and Lucy (Wheeler) Frost, was born in Marlborough, Cheshire county, N. H., July 18, 1826. His father, a thrifty farmer, was a native of this town, as were three successive generations of the same family. The English ancestor, Elder Edmund Frost, came to this country in the sloop "Great Hope," during the autumn of 1635, from Ipswich, England, accompanied by his wife and son. He settled in Cambridge, where he became ruling elder of the First church, which was organized soon after his arrival.
From this most excellent patriarch seven generations have lineally descended, Mr. Frost being in the seventh. On his maternal side he derives his origin from Thomas Wheeler, who was established in Townsend as early as 1640. His grandfather was David Wheeler, who married Rebecca Hoar of Concord, and was the first town clerk of Marlborough, N. H., in 1776.
Mr. Frost, the eighth child of his parents, left his native town at the age of seven years, together with his widowed mother and family, and removed to Boston. There he attended the public schools, and supplemented his public school education by a course of academic training in Newton.
Thus fitted for a commercial career, he entered a wholesale dry-goods house in Boston. By vigor, aptitude, and ability displayed in this service, he rapidly rose to the highest position, and at the age of twenty-one was admitted to partnership in the firm which adopted the title of Osgood & Frost, and continued in business for several years. In 1866 the present firm of Rufus S. Frost & Co. was organized for the transaction of a general commission business in American goods. Mr. Frost soon became extensively engaged in the manufacture of woolens. The National Association of Woolen Manufacturers was founded November 20, 1864. Of that association Mr. Frost was president for seven years. He is also chairman of the executive committee.
To the astonishingly rapid development of American manufacture during the last twenty years Mr. Frost has conspicuously and effectively contributed. His adminis-
