Republican Senator William P. Frye was born in Lewiston in 1831, graduated from Bowdoin College, and was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1861. He became the state's Attorney General in 1867, and in 1871 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He served in the House for ten years, and in 1881 he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

He was president pro tempore of the Senate for fifteen years until he resigned due to poor health in the last few months of his life. He died on August 8, 1911 in Lewiston.