Daniel M. Frost - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Daniel M. Frost was born near Duanesburg in rural Schenectady County, New York. He was appointed from New York to the United States Military Academy in nearby West Point and graduated in 1844, ranking 4th in a class of 24. Frost was brevetted as a second lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to garrison duty. With the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, he served under Winfield Scott in the Army of Occupation in Mexico and was brevetted for gallantry in action at the Battle of Cerro Gordo.

Following the war, he spent part of 1849 as Regimental Quartermaster of an immense supply train sent to the Oregon Territory. He was assigned to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis in 1850. The following year, he met and married Elizabeth Brown `Lily' Graham, his second wife. They would have eleven children. After a brief assignment in Europe, Frost returned to the United States. He rejoined his regiment on the Texas frontier. In a skirmish with raiding Indians, he was severely wounded and nearly lost an eye. He resigned his commission in 1853 for domestic reasons and partnered in a lumber planing mill. He later established D. M. Frost & Co., a prominent fur-trading company from Kansas to the West Coast.

Politically active, Frost was elected in 1854 to the Missouri General Assembly as a senator from Benton County and was a strong supporter of "Central Clique" of wealthy planters in Missouri state politics. He worked against the Benton faction of the Missouri Democratic Party, and worked for the expansion of slavery into the Kansas Territory. He served until 1858. He stayed involved with the army by serving on the Board of Visitors for West Point, and was appointed as a brigadier general in the Missouri Volunteer Militia in 1858 by the Governor of Missouri, Robert Marcellus Stewart. He was assigned command of the First Military District, which encompassed St. Louis and the surrounding county.