1840s and 50s in Iowa City, Iowa

The Frosts, Shafers, and Hustons were active in civic affairs wherever they lived. Since the town and county organizations were new, these men got in on the ground floor. Lyman Frost was a Petit Juror, Johnson County Iowa, July 1841.

In 1846, the Board of Commissioners of Iowa County prepared to layout the county seat of Marengo. This was the next county west of Johnson Co. It was said that “Dr. J. Lyman Frost was the first man to attempt to make a survey of the town. He had no compass but thought that he could arrange the squares, blocks and alleys with stakes; he succeeded in making two range but not three. So Cyrus Sanders was called up from Iowa City to complete the job.”

The 1854 Census Iowa City Iowa shows: Luther Paine Frost (L. P.) one adult male, two females, one in militia, one voter. Total 3 in household.

1858 Men in Johnson County eligible for military service. Carlos Frost, and Luther Frost.

By 1850 Johnson Lyman Frost and son Elias Carlos are found living with Daniel and Amelia Shafer in Johnson Co., Iowa. Lyman is a widower, 56 years old and a farmer. Later that year, Carlos married Lucinda Harrington (Oct. 5, 1850). She had come to Iowa from New York. She lived in the Montgomery household of Johnson County before marriage, possibly serving as a nanny to the children. Either her father or mother were born in Rhode Island, but we have not yet found their names.

According to an Audubon County website, Carlos, Lucinda and family moved west to Exira, Audubon Co., IA in 1853, along with Johnson Lyman Frost. Coincidentally, our Griffin and Miller families of West Virginia passed through this same area, living in Exira for a short time following the Civil War. Adonijah Harris (brother in law of William Griffin) and his son, James, are listed in the history of Audubon Co. Iowa as early settlers in Louisville, near Exira.

We learn from the History of Audubon County something about Lyman and his life in Iowa. It is said that J. L. may have been a preacher, doctor, carpenter, postmaster, first to plant an apple orchard in the county, that he was first a Democrat and later a Republican activist. His personality is described in the Biography of Audubon County, Iowa as "contentious" and "mean". He was a staunch Union supporter, and is at least an interesting character. The author of the Audubon County history did not agree with Frost politically…. which could account for part of the negative description that follows tomorrow.

Daniel Shafer and Harriett Amelia Frost

Harriett “Hattie” Amelia Frost, older daughter of Johnson Lyman Frost, married Daniel Adam Shafer on April 8, 1843, Johnson Co., Iowa. By 1850, we find J. Lyman and son, Carlos, 24, living with the Shafer family in Johnson County. J. Lyman is listed as a farmer, age 56. (We will note later that the Shafers are the family that took in our great grandfather, Daniel Patrick McGill, as a foster child and raised him when his mother died.)

Biography of Daniel Shafer:
Daniel Adam Shafer was born in NorthHampton County, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 23, 1818, son of Adam Shafer and Mary Buskirk, the oldest of eight siblings. The father, Adam, was a school teacher and soldier, having served as First Lieutenant, 176th Regt. Pennsylvania Militia, Company F.

Daniel Shafer is said to have been educated as an attorney and a civil engineer. He migrated to Iowa Territory as one of its earliest settlers about 1840, at about age 22, and lived in Iowa City, Johnson County. A first cousin, Samuel Huston, came from Pennsylvania at about the same time. According to the Shafer - Huston family history, he ran the Nebraska State Line for the U.S. Government and laid out the city of Omaha, Nebraska.

Daniel Shafer and Harriett Amelia Frost were married April 8, 1843, in Johnson County, Iowa. Miss Frost, also called "Hattie", was the daughter of Johnson Lyman Frost and Oriana Paine. She was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, May 19, 1820. Harriett's sister, Celina Calista Frost, married Shafer's cousin, Samuel Huston.

To show how primitive the state was at this time, D.A. Shafer received a bounty [probably $1.00] for one wolf scalp, in the Wolf Harvest of 1845. Ninety-five wolves were killed in that year's county harvest. This from an early history book of Johnson County.

In the 1850 Census of Johnson County, Iowa, Penn Township, the Shafers are farming north of Iowa City. The value of their Real Estate was $1,450. (Average for farmers of the community.) Harriett's father, Lyman J., and brother, Elias Carlos, live with them, as well as a young man, Levi Freeze, and Eliza Huston, the daughter of Harriett's late sister Celina Frost Huston, above. Eliza's father Samuel Huston, had gone to the gold fields of California at that time.

Daniel Shafer is the attorney of record for the will of Mary McGill in April 1856. He was appointed one of the guardians of her three children, along with her older son John S. McGill. The younger children were Bridget Jane, and Patrick D. McGill. The latter is our great grandfather, known as Daniel Patrick McGill. He was raised by Daniel Shafer and wife, Harriett. We do not know the relationship of Mary McGill and the Shafers. She had arrived in Iowa from Canada between 1852 and 1856, with her three children.

In August of 1862, Daniel A. Shafer enlisted in the service as a Lieutenant 1st Class, at the age of 43. He was commissioned in Company E, 28th Iowa Infantry, 10 October 1862, and promoted to Full Captain on February 1, 1863. Resigned 16 Mar 1864. He received a pension as an invalid in 1886, and his second wife, Mary, received pension after his death.

Shafer is listed as a Republican in 1865, and a Democrat in 1872 - History of Johnson Co. Iowa. The family identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The census of 1870, North Liberty Township, Johnson County, Iowa, lists Daniel A. Shafer and wife Harriett, farmers with $12,000 Real Estate and $3,000 Personal Property. Daniel P. McGill, 19, is living with them and attending school, as well as working on the farm. We know he was enrolled at the University of Iowa at about that time. Others in the household are: Daniel S. Wise, Farm Laborer, age 14, Catherine Hack, domestic, age 22, and Catherine Wise, age 2, born Nebraska. The Wise or Weiss family of Johnson county consisted of Daniel Shafer's sister, Julia Shafer Wise, and her husband, Jesse, and children.

Harriett Amelia Frost died April 1, 1871. She is buried in the Oakland Cemetery, Iowa City, Iowa. About nine months later, Daniel married Mary E. Frost, niece of Harriett. Her father was Luther Paine Frost, brother of Harriett; mother was Caroline White. Mary was only 23, at the time of the marriage, while Daniel Shafer was 54. There were no children of this union or that of Harriett and Daniel.

In 1881 Shafer was nominated by Democrats in the election for County Surveyor of Johnson County, Iowa, but he was defeated by Mr. Worden, Republican candidate. Also in that year, D.A. Shafer was an officer of the organization of "Old Settlers" who held dinners and meetings to recall and record the early days of the territory.

He died July 19, 1888 and is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Iowa City, Iowa.

As Daniel A. Shafer was a father figure, who acted as guardian, and mentor who saw to the education of our Gt. grandfather, Daniel Patrick McGill, our family owes a debt of gratitude to this man and his wife, Harriett.
He was mentioned in Daniel McGill's obituary with pride:

"Mr. McGill's parents died when he was quite young. He was reared to manhood by Captain Shafer in Johnson County, Iowa. He received his higher education at a college in Liberty, Iowa. He spent a number of years surveying and teaching school, both in Iowa and after coming to Oklahoma."

Frosts Migrate to the New State of Iowa, 1841

The Johnson Lyman Frost family moved west to Johnson County, Iowa, in 1841. This was still at the time of "settling the frontier". Mention is made of forts and Indian confrontations, as well as the "last moose sighted" in the “History of Johnson County, Iowa” published in 1883. [found in Google Books online.]

“Furniture was rare, even of the most common sorts. A few settlers brought a little of the most necessary but many coming a long way in ox teams could not be cumbered with anything but the actual necessities of life, using the most primitive and rudest articles. Tables were made of boards attached to the cabins by leather hinges. They were fastened to the wall, and hung down when not in use so as to save room. Three legged stools and rough benches made of slabs furnished seats, while wooden pins fastened in the wall of a corner and an outside piece from one pin to the other, the pins being wound with a cord, furnished couches for the hardy pioneers that afforded as peaceful a slumber as the luxurious springs of the present time…..” "History of Johnson County, Iowa" p. 609

Johnson Lyman Frost, now a widower, his two daughters, Harriett Amelia and Celina Calista, and younger son, Carlos E., came to the frontier town of Iowa City, in Johnson County, Iowa. His older son Luther Paine Frost, and his wife, Caroline, also came to Iowa City, where Luther was listed as a merchant. We find L. P. Frost listed in the local militia. During the years between 1849 and 1858, Luther and Caroline had three daughters, Mary, Belle, and Adelia. Mary was adopted, but may have been a cousin. She is the one who became the second wife of Daniel Shafer, whose story follows.

Johnson Lyman Frost... A Doctor?

In 1830, we find our 3 gt. grandfather, Johnson Lyman Frost, wife Oriana, and family in Clay’s Landing, St. Clair County, Michigan. St. Clair County is across Lake Erie from the Cleveland OH area. Frost is listed next to Joel Carrington, who was in Brecksville, Cuyahoga Co., OH in previous census. They may have chosen to travel to Michigan together. In later census records, we find that Joel Carrington migrated to Illinois and Wisconsin. We do not find if he was related to the Frost family, however, Johnson Lyman Frost’s brother was Dr. Elias Carrington Frost.

Lyman is listed in a history book of St. Clair County, Michigan, as a physician, in the early 1830s. Another doctor in this county at the time, was Amasa Hemenger, b. CT. It is not too much of a stretch to believe that he asked Johnson L. Frost to come to Michigan and help him. Johnson may have practiced medicine in Ohio with his brother Dr. Elias C. Frost. Hemenger was involved in local politics in Michigan, and we do know that later on, Johnson L. Frost was very involved in politics in Iowa. “Dr. Hemenger used about an acre of ground to grow poppies, from which he made opium, and lettuce, an acrid variety (Lactuca virosa), from which he extracted lactucarium for its hypnotic and anti-spasmodic properties. An old lady friend relates that "he believed in bleeding for most ills." As a physician and as a man, it is said he was well liked.” [St. Clair County, Michigan, Its History and Its People , By William Lee Jenks Published 1912.]

Note, in later years, in Johnson County Iowa, J. L. Frost proclaimed himself a Doctor of “Botanical Medicine”. Once or twice he is referred to as Dr. Frost, but was never an acting physician of record. “J.L. Frost was a member and officer of the “Medical Botanic Society of Johnson County, Iowa Territory” in 1843. The society was formed for “Friends of Botanic Medical Practice”. p. 417 History of Johnson Co.