Frederic Louis Flint. Among the solid, reliable men of Ottawa County no one stands higher in public esteem and confidence than Frederic Louis Flint, president of the Minneapolis National Bank of Minneapolis, Kansas.
Mr. Flint’s paternal ancestor, Thomas Flint, immigrated from Wales to America in the early part of the seventeenth century, he being one of the first settlers of Salem Village, Massachusetts, now South Danvers.
Frederic Louis Flint was born at Lowell, Massachusetts, June 11, 1855. His parents were Joseph K. and Hulda (Wilder) Flint. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Flint, was born at Salem, Massachusetts, April 19, 1784, and died at Francistown, New Hampshire, in 1863. His paternal great-grandfather was Joseph Flint, who was born at Danvers, Massachusetts, April 21, 1759, and died in 1787. This great-grandfather fought at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Joseph K. Flint was born at Francistown, New Hampshire, in 1817, and died at Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1893. His life was spent in New England. He was reared in New Hampshire but was married in Vermont and then moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, where he was employed as an expert pattern maker. He married Hulda Wilder, who was born in 1826 at Waitsfield, Vermont, and who died at Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1894. To this union was born a family of seven children, as follows: Lydia Viola, deceased; Almy J., artist, of Lowell, Massachusetts; Ella M., deceased; Frederic Louis, of Minneapolis, Kansas; Ida J., instructor of needlecraft in the city schools of Lowell, Massachusetts; Asa W., treasurer of the Institution of Savings of Lowell, Massachusetts; and Arthur H., art instructor in the Boys High School of New York City.
Frederic Louis Flint was educated in the public schools at Lowell. For two years he was bookkeeper in a grocery store and then learned the drug business, which he followed at Floyd, Iowa, prior to 1879, when he came to Kansas. He spent one year at Salina and another at Leavenworth, but in 1881 came to Minneapolis and for the past thirty-six years this city had been his home and the center of his business interests. He embarked in the drug business, having purchased the pioneer drug stock of the Solomon Valley which was established by Dr. James McHenry in Minneapolis in 1868. He conducted this drug store on Second Street for twenty-one years, selling the business in 1902. He, with others, was interested in building and constructing the first telephone exchange in Ottawa County and always had had an interest in the same. He was a charter member of the Sons and Daughters of Justice, a lodge organized at Minneapolis, Kansas, in 1897, and served as one of its national trustees from that time until 1917.
Mr. Flint’s chief business interests have been centered in banking. Upon the organization of the Minneapolis National Bank in 1887 he was asked to become a director. In 1892 he was elected vice president and in 1902 was elected president of the institution and had ever since remained at its head and had been one of its strong assets. He helped to organize the Bank of Santa Fe at Newkirk, Oklahoma, in 1893 and also the Bank of Oak Hill at Oak Hill, Kansas, in 1906 and was a stockholder and officer in these institutions for a number of years. Additionally, Mr. Flint had been a member of the board of directors at the First National Bank at Barnard, Kansas, since the bank was organized in 1890. His sound business judgment and his strict integrity have always made him one of the most respected and honored business men and citizens of Minneapolis. He had invested wisely in real estate and not only owned his handsome residence on Second Street but also a valuable business block located at the corner of Second and Ottawa streets.
Mr. Flint was married at Dubuque, Iowa, in 1878, to Miss Genovefa Edwards, the only daughter of Jesse and Maria Ann (MaGill) Edwards, of Iowa, formerly of Pennsylvania, both of whom are deceased. Mrs. Flint’s father was of English descent and her mother of Scotch-Irish parentage. Mrs. Flint is president of the City Library Association, which position she had held for several years. Since coming to Minneapolis she had been prominent in church, club and social work.
Mr. and Mrs. Flint have two sons, Jesse Edwards and Louis Joseph.
Jesse Edwards was born at Dubuque, Iowa, January 2, 1879. He was married to Pearl S. Rees, of Minneapolis, Kansas, February 7, 1906. They have one child, Frederic Rees, born November 21, 1906. Jesse is manager of the United Telephone Company of Minneapolis and is one of the energetic young business men of the town.
Louis Joseph was born at Leavenworth, Kansas, October 11, 1881. On October 31, 1906, he was united in marriage to Edith R. Le Van, of Lawrence, Kansas. They are the parents of one child, Louis Joseph, Jr., born April 29, 1908. Louis, who is an electrical engineer, lives at Detroit, Michigan.
Mr. Flint, like his father before him, is a staunch republican in his political views. He had never been willing to accept any political office but served for ten years as a member of the City Board of Education. He had been one of the upbuilding forces of Minneapolis for the past third of a century. Always manifesting a helpful interest in things relating to better civic life, his influence had always been on the side of right. His benefactions to charity have been liberal, although unostentatious.