Frink, John

Born: 1797-10-17 Connecticut

Died: 1858-05-23 Chicago, Illinois

Frink established several stage lines in New York and New England before he moved to Chicago in 1836. A year later he purchased the stage line from Chicago to Peoria, Illinois, and expanded his stage business with various partners. In 1840, Martin O. Walker became Frink’s partner in the firm of Frink, Walker, & Company. In 1849, the name changed to John Frink & Company, though Walker continued to have an interest in the business.

Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 25 May 1858, 1:3; Peoria Democratic Union (IL), 3 June 1858, 3:1-2; Roger A. Matile, By Trace and Trail: The Stagecoach Era in Northern Illinois (Oswego, IL: Little White School Museum Press, 2000), 25-33; 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, 125.