SOL. F. FRYE.

The subject of this sketch has had a varied and exceedingly interesting career, only a mere outline of which is possible in an article of the limits of this review. Sol. F. Frye is a native of Greene county, Pennsylvania, and a son of David K. and Elizabeth (Fordyce) Frye, both born in that county and state, the father on the 14th day of July, 1812, the mother in the year 18l7, These parents were married in Greene county, where they lived a number of years, moving later to West Virginia, where their deaths occurred in 1859. David K. Frye enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment for the' Mexican war, but hostilities having ceased and peace been declared while' en route to the scene of action, he saw little service except the trip to and from Mexico.

Sol F. Frye was born July 22, 1844, and spent his early life in his native county. After the death of his parents, which occurred when he was fifteen years old, he went to live with an uncle, Archibald Fordyce, with whom he remained two years, attending school at intervals in the mean- time. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in Company H, First California Infantry, under Colonel Baker, for the hundred days service, at the expiration of which time he re-enlisted at Camp Oregon, Washington, D. C., for three years. Colonel Baker, being from California, was empowered by the war department to raise two regiments in the Fast to represent that state, the transportation of troops from the Pacific coast at that time being considered an undertaking too great to be practicable. Mr. Frye was in one of these regiments. The bill passed by Congress providing for the organizing of the regiments stipulated that Colonel Baker should keep them on the coast and a-s they entered the service very early in the war, July 1, 1861, they were called the First United States Volunteer Infantry, the name being subsequently changed to the Seventy-first Pennsylvania Volunteers.

From the time of entering the army Mr. Frye experienced much active service and not long after enlisting his regiment was engaged in desperate fighting with the Confederates in various parts of Virginia. He was with his command in the battles of Little Bethel, Munson Hill and the bloody engagement at Ball's Bluff, where he was taken prisoner and where the gallant Colonel Baker fell while bravely leading his men. When captured, Mr. Frye had been four days and three nights without food and was in literally a condition of starvation. He was given but four ounces of bread and, with a number of his comrades, was started for Libby Prison, where he arrived in due time, his weight at the time of his entrance into that infamous pen being one hundred and seventy-six pounds and when exchanged, four months later, he barely tipped the beam at sixty pounds, and that too when heavily, clothed.

While in durance vile he was taken with diphtheria, which necessitated his being treated for three weeks in the prison hospital in Richmond and after his exchange, which took place on the 22d of February, 1862, he was sent to the Soldiers' Home in Washington, where he remained six weeks. By. reason of sickness while in Libby, his throat became so affected that he could not speak and after becoming a patient in the Soldiers' Home the physicians devoted special attention to the treatment of his throat.  On being dismissed from the latter institution, Mr. Frye secured a furlough for twenty-four days and went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where, by special order of Governor Curtin, he was appointed recruiting agent. After discharging the duties of the position until the expiration of the period indicated, he returned, in March, 1862, to his regiment at Yorktown, where the following month he was seized with smallpox while on duty and four days laid. exposed to the rain with no covering other than his blanket to protect him from the fury of the storm. On being rescued he spent one day in an old brick church and was then taken in a dilapidated ambulance through the rain to Fortress Mon- roe, where he arrived at night in a condition better imagined than described. After remaining in the smallpox hospital near Fortress Monroe until the 20th of the following June, he was transferred for one month, when he rejoined his command the day preceding the battle of Malvern Hill, in which he participated. One month later he was discharged, being a mere skeleton at the time with scarcely sufficient strength to walk.

During the years following his discharge Mr. Frye suffered greatly, although he tried hard to work, as he did not like to be dependent upon his friends for his livelihood. When sufficiently recovered he accepted the position of watchman on the steamer "Starlight," plying the Ohio river, but being taken sick at St. Louis, he was obliged to resign the place, after a short time and again seek relief under the physician's care. Later he engaged as watch man on the steamer "Allegheny Belle NO. 4," but did not long retain the position, resigning after a few months and going to the city of Pittsburg where he entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Central road, in which capacity he continued during the ensuing two years. Severing his connection with the road at the expiration of that period, he went to St. Louis, Michigan, thence, on March 13th of the year 1866, came to Isabella county, locating in Coe township, where he made his headquarters while devoting the several years following to different pursuits.

Mr. Frye attended high school at St. Louis for some time, subsequently worked at Indian Mills in Union township and was also employed for some months in a hotel at Indian Mills, kept by John Campbell. Later he looked up timber in Isabella county for Joel Graves and also taught school for four years in Gilmore township and elsewhere. In i888 he moved to Brinton and engaged in the drug trade, to which he has since devoted his attention, being at this time proprietor of a well stocked establishment and doing a safe and lucrative business.

In addition to the several business and other relations referred to, Mr. Frye taught school for two years in his native state and for two years was in the general grocer trade at Farwell, Michigan, in partnership with P. M.Shumway. Disposing of his interest in the winter of 1877, he engaged as clerk in a hardware store kept by Mr. Todd, in whose employ he continued until the following spring, when he embarked in the drug business at Altona in partnership with Dr. J. E. Gruber, to whom he sold his interest in May, 1882. In October of that year he was appointed postmaster of Altona by President Arthur and held the position during the ensuing ten years, also thirteen years as township clerk and became one' of the leading      Republican politicians of Mecosta county. Since moving to Brinton he has been active  in promoting the interests of the village and adjacent country and he is today not only one of the popular business men of the Community, but also among the most esteemed citizens of the township in which he lives. He has served fourteen terms as clerk of Coldwater township, two years as director of school district No. 6, and has been a notary public for a period of thirty-two years. He is still interested in politics and, like all good citizens, keeps in touch with the trend of public thought and well informed on the great questions and issues concerning which men and parties divide. In 1884 he was enumerator of the state census for the township of Hinton, county of Mecosta, and in 1910 was appointed enumerator of Coldwater township for the national census, the duties of which position he discharged in an eminently satisfactory manner.

Mr. Frye was married March 3, 1867, to Lucy Leonard, daughter of David and Sarah Leonard, natives of Pennsylvania, the union resulting in the following children: Edward B. and Edwin, twins, who were born June 5, 1869, the latter deceased, the former a farmer of Kalkaska county, this state. Archibald was born July 2, 1876, in Farwell, Clare county, and Edith, wife of Wayne Parker, who was born August 13, 1882. Mrs. Parker and her husband achieved a national reputation some years ago as aeronauts, having traveled over the greater part of the United States making balloon ascensions from nearly all the large cities. The mother of these children dying in 1882, Mr. Frye, in March, 1890, married Minnie M. Lawrence, who was born October 20, 1868. The pledge of this union is a daughter, Beulah, whose birth occurred in the year 1894, and who is now pursuing her studies in the normal school at Mt. Pleasant.