John Frink & Company

City: Springfield

County: Sangamon

State: Illinois

John Frink & Company and its predecessor, Frink, Walker & Company, operated stagecoach lines in Illinois. John Frink and Martin O. Walker established Frink, Walker & Company in 1840. In May 1840, Curran Walker joined the firm. In 1842, the company had routes from Springfield to Peoria, Peru, Ottawa, Joliet, and Chicago. The stagecoach left Springfield daily on Mondays through Saturdays at 4 o'clock am. The fare to Peoria was $4, and the fair to Chicago was $12. Abraham Lincoln was the opposing attorney in six legal cases in which the company was engaged in Sangamon County Circuit Court, Tazewell County Circuit Court, and U.S. Circuit Court, District of Illinois. In 1849, the name of the firm changed its name to John Frink & Company, although Martin Walker continued to have an interest in the company.

Paul M. Angle, “Here I Have Lived”: A History of Lincoln’s Springfield, 1821-1865, new ed. (Chicago: Abraham Lincoln Bookshop, 1971), 149; Roger Matile, "John Frink and Martin O. Walker: Stagecoach Kings of the Old Northwest," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 95 (Summer 2002), 119-25; For Lincoln's cases involving Frink, Walker, & Company and John Frink & Company, search "Frink, Walker & Co.," and "John Frink & Co.," under "Participant," Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; Daniel W. Stowell et al., eds., The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases, (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 2:305.