1838-1918
Adoniram Judson Frost
Baptist Pastor/Lecturer NY/CA
I am sure there must be an obituary or summary of the life of Adoniram Judson Frost but I have not yet discovered it. Calculating that he was 80 years, 3 months and 20 days old when he died in 1918, we can assume he was born in 1838. He graduated from the Baptist-related Madison College (now Colgate University) in 1865 and was a Baptist pastor in Syracuse, NY, 1867-69, and in Bay City, MI, in 1869. From there he moved westward toward California and we can pick up his trail through newspaper articles that give sketchy information.
Ten years after graduation, the Chicago Daily Inter Ocean announced on 2 July 1875, that Rev. A. J. Frost resigned a pastorate in Chicago. “It became generally known yesterday that the Rev. A. J. Frost, pastor of University Place Church, had resigned his church on account of an alleged dissatisfaction among the members of the congregation and the church with unorthodox tenants promulgated by him from the pulpit.”[1] We are left to wonder what these unorthodox tenants were.
Ten years later Adoniram Judson Frost was pastoring the Baptist Church in Sacramento, CA (1884-1888), and again raising eyebrows.
’Lying as a Fine Art’ was the subject of a lecture delivered by A. J. Frost of Sacramento, before the Y.M.C.A. of San Francisco last Thursday night. Frost was the pastor of the Baptist Church in this city [San Jose, 1878] a few years ago. In the lecture referred to he spoke like a man who was thoroughly familiar with his subject, and when he speaks of pious lying for religious ends, he creates a grave suspicion in the minds of some persons concerning his own truthfulness….[2]
In September, 1896, Frost lectured on the “Wonders of the Yosemite” in Prescott, AZ, where the rector at the local Episcopal Church wrote to the local newspaper,
I have heard Dr. Frost’s lecture on the Yosemite. I consider it the best descriptive lecture I ever heard…. The doctor is not only very instructive in his lecture, but exceedingly humorous in some of his descriptions.[3]
While Adoniram Judson Frost was pastor of the First Baptist Church in San Bernardino, CA (1889-1901) on
October 19, 1900, Mrs. A. J. Frost, wife of the well-known Baptist minister, died at Los Angeles yesterday. The deceased was well known in this city where the family has many friends who will learn with regret of the good woman’s death.[4]
Ten months later in July, 1901, we find Dr. Adoniram Judson Frost in Portland, Oregon.
The pulpit of the First Baptist church will be occupied this evening by the Rev. A. J. Frost, D.D., of Los Angeles who is well known as a lecturer and a preacher. He is regarded as one of the ablest men in the California ministry. He has filled pastorates in New York and Chicago and has attained a wide reputation as a scholar thorough his exposition of the Book of Roans, given as Bible readings.[5]
On July 13, 1901, the Oregonian (Portland, OR) reported the last day of Chautauqua for the Williamette Association has been a success.
The most prominent literary features today were the lecture by Dr. A. J. Frost of Los Angeles and Polk Miller’s “Old Times Down South” entertainment. Dr. Frost’s description of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado was listened to with rapt attention throughout and was so vivid that the listeners imagined themselves threading its might labyrinths, where magnificent height was coupled with the colors of a flower garden.[6]
Three years after the passing of his first wife (1903),
The announcements are out of the marriage of Dr. Adoniram Judson Frost, the well-known Baptist divine, and Lizzie Avery, the marriage taking place on September 12, at Denver, Colorado, the newly wedding pair taking their departure for Minneapolis to make their home.[7]
Fifteen years later, “Dr. A. J. Frost, for 12 years pastor of the First Baptist Church in San Bernardino, widely known in church circles, died at the Good Samaritan hospital in Los Angeles Wednesday night.”[8]
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[1] “Rev. A. J. Frost,” Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois), Volume IV, Issue 85, July 2, 1875, p. 8.
[2] “A. J. Frost, A Strange Subject for a Christian Minister,” Evening News (San Jose, CA), Volume 5, Issue 104, November 21, 1885, p. 3.
[3] “Rev. A. J. Frost’s Lecture,” Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner (Prescott, AZ), Volume, XXXIII, Issue 23, September 16, 1896, p. 1.
[4] “Mrs. A. J. Frost,” Riverside Independent Enterprise (Riverside, CA), October 19, 1900
[5] “Will Preach Today,” Oregonian (Portland, OR), July 7, 1901, p. 22.
[6] “Last Day of Chautauqua,” Oregonian (Portland, OR), July 13, 1901, p. 10.
[7] “Personal,” Riverside (CA) Enterprise, Friday, October 2, 1903, p. 8.
[8] “Death of Dr. A. J. Frost,” Riverside Daily Press (Riverside, CA), January 4, 1918.