New York (State). Dept. of Environmental Conservation. Bureau of Real Property.

James Frost was a surveyor in private business who also occasionally worked for the New York State government. Some of Frost's first survey work included projecting and completing a plank road from Albany to Fort Hunter, and drafting one of the earliest maps of Schenectady County. In 1819 Frost began a survey of the eastern shore of the Hudson River, under the direction of the New York State Surveyor General. Frost's other survey work included surveying and creating maps of old Schoharie and surveying lands for the second railroad built in the United States, which ran between Canada and New York State, as well as parts of Clinton, Essex, and Franklin counties. Frost also surveyed Elizabethtown, New Jersey in 1835.

After discontinuing his survey work, Frost's other occupations included farming, running a general store, acting as a Justice of the Peace, and serving as a member of the New York State Assembly for three terms. Frost died at his home in Mariahville, New York on December 23, 1851. He was survived by his wife Mary Marsh Frost and ten children.