 Frost's grandfather William Goodell was also a notable abolitionist and temperance supporter, and Frost's aunt, Lavinia Goodell, was the first woman licensed to practice law in Wisconsin.Frost graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1876 and served as a professor of Greek at Oberlin and was ordained as a Congregationalist minister.Frost turned down the presidency of Berea College in 1889 before accepting in 1892.