Thomas J. Flint was born on a farm near Brookville, Franklin county, Indiana, on the 4th day of August, 1835. His parents removed to Daviess county when he was six years of age, and settled upon a farm in what is now Washington township, where he lived and grew up, receiving a good common school education, attending the common schools of the, township and the select school at Miami, in Saline county. When eighteen years of age he began teaching school in Butler township, Harrison county, and continued in that occupation in Harrison and Daviess counties, up to 1868, excepting four years he served in the Union army.
He enlisted in the State militia in 1861, served six months, and at the expiration of that time reaeelisted, becoming a member of Company D, Twenty-seventh Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and remained in the service until January, 1863, when he was discharged on account of disability caused by sickness. On regaining his health he again enlisted, this time in Company F, Forty-third Missouri Volunteer Infantry. As a private in the. Twenty-seventh Regiment he was elected second lieutenant by his company, and held the same position in the Forty-third, when mustered out at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, June 30, 1865. Returning to Daviess county, he soon after engaged in the mercantile business with S. W. Flint, under the name and style of S. W. & T. J. Flint, at Bethany, Harrison county, they doing business there and at Salem, this county, until 1867, when he retired from the firm. He was next en-gaged in school teaching, continuing until the fall of 1868, when he was elected treasurer of Daviess county, served his term, and was, in 1870, elected sheriff of this county, which office he also held one term. In 1873, in connection with his brother, L. S. Flint, he established his present business, dealing in musical instruments, oil paintings and sewing machines, under the firm name of Flint & Bro. His brother retired from the firm in 1874, and he carried on the business alone until 1879, when he became associated with another partner.
Thomas J. Flint was united in marriage to Miss Lydia A. Adams, of Daviess county, on the 4th of September, 1859. Mr. and Mrs. Flint are members of the Christian Church, of Gallatin.