Isaac Frost, 4gt Grandfather, b. 1759 CT

The first record I find of Isaac Frost is in the 1800 census of New Haven, CT. Family members are not named, but the ages of his sons correspond to our ancestor Johnson Lyman Frost, b. 1794, and brother, Elias Carrington Frost, b. 1780-90. There are females listed in Isaac’s family, who would be wife, Ann, and daughters, names unknown. Among other families in the Waterbury Township, CT, are the Hoadleys and Bronsons. Both of these families are related to our Frost ancestors, which leads us to believe this is the Isaac Frost who migrated to Columbia Station, near Cleveland, Ohio, along with Hoadleys and Bronsons.

As a background, I would like to share something about the history of the Western Reserve area, which includes Cleveland, Ohio. This information about Columbia Township will explain the migration of our family, and is found online at Wikipedia:

“Columbia Station is part of the Connecticut Western Reserve, lands ceded in 1786 by Connecticut after the American Revolution. In 1805, two years after Ohio became a U.S. State, the federal government finalized treaties with local American Indians. The reserve was surveyed and parceled into rough 5-mile-square blocks (smaller than the typical 6-mile-square townships in the U.S.). The Bronson and Hoadley families of Waterbury, Connecticut, pooled together $20,087 to purchase a township. On April 4, 1807, they drew Township 5 N, Range 15 W from a random selection of townships in the reserve, purchasing the land ‘site’-unseen.
Columbia Station has been continuously inhabited since 1807, the longest settlement in the Western Reserve west of the Cuyahoga River. Columbia has other firsts in the Western Reserve west of the Cuyahoga: the first classroom (Bronson cabin, summer of 1808), first teacher (Sally Bronson, 1808… probably sister of our Isaac Frost), first white child born (Sally Hoadley…distant cousin of Frosts), first gristmill, (1809), first cemetery (1811), first doctor (Zephaniah Potter, 1809), and organized church society (Episcopalian, 1809). Columbia celebrated its bicentennial in 2007.” Wikipedia
One of Isaac’s sons, Elias C. Frost, of Euclid, Ohio, is mentioned as one of the first surveyors in 1807. These first men came from Waterbury, CT to Buffalo, NY, then spent 21 days on the rough waters of Lake Erie to reach Cleveland. Euclid was the new “hometown” of Elias’ wife, Phoebe McElrath.

“In the summer of 1807 the township was surveyed. A surveyor by the name of LACEY was first employed, but his chain was found to be of an incorrect length and he was discharged. In August of the same year Robert WORDEN, a surveyor from Columbiana county, was engaged, who, with Levi BRONSON, Daniel BRONSON, Benoni ADAMS, and Elias FROST of Euclid, as ax and chain men, set out from Cleveland taking a southwest course until the northeast corner of the town was reached. From this point they proceeded west two and a half miles, thence south a like distance to the center of the township. The party made their encampment here, on the west bank of the Rocky River. A daughter of Levi BRONSON, Mrs. Oliver TERRELL, accompanied the party to do their cooking, to whom must be accorded the honor of being the first white woman that ever set foot on the soil of Columbia.” History of Lorain County, Columbia Township (Part 1).

Father, Isaac, and sons, Elias C. and Lyman J. Frost, are shown to settle on lot #28 of the Columbia Township in 1808.

We do not know if there were any of Isaac’s daughters who traveled west with the Frost family, but his wife, Anne, made the trip. A narrative about another family, the Hickox’s, who traveled from Waterbury CT at the same time, gives us an idea of those early beginnings:

“Mrs. HICKOX ‘kept house’ in their wagon while her husband and sons felled trees and built their log cabin, which, though small, was large enough for its furnishings, the most important being the children, four sons and as many daughters. " Cuyahoga Cities

There are many more accounts of the earliest settlement of the townships in Lorain and Cuyahoga County at http://www.columbiahistoricalsociety.org/history1.html
In reading these narratives which have been posted, we find many mentions of the Frost family.