John Frink and Martin Walker: Stagecoach kings of the old Northwest

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 2002 by Matile, Roger

By the early 1840s, years before the first rail lines were pushed west of Chicago, the aggressively successful business practices of John Frink and Martin O. Walker had already made Chicago the center of a web of stagecoach routes connecting the southwest tip of Lake Michigan with virtually every important economic region in the fast developing area of the old Northwest Territory. Both New Englanders, Frink and Walker seem to have been the classic Illinois frontier odd couple. Frink was described by virtually everyone who knew him as a boisterous, hard-driving man, while Walker was considered by many to be a rather cold fish, at least by the standards of the Illinois frontier. Besides their opposite personalities, the pair were also separated by politics. Frink was a staunch Whig, while Walker was active in Democratic politics.1

The two began their business relationship in 1839, then went on to formally establish Frink, Walker & Company in 1840. They continued their apparently uneasy, although financially successful, partnership until 1856, when the two finally split, both personally and professionally. During the nearly two decades of their association, the company the pair built came to dominate virtually all the stagecoach business in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, and Missouri.2

Frink was born at Ashford, Connecticut on October 17, 1797 into a family closely tied to the stagecoach industry. His father, also named John Frink, operated stagecoach inns in Connecticut and Massachusetts and also had interests in stage lines in those states. Frink reportedly had "begun life as a stage driver" before becoming a successful stagecoach operator himself, establishing lines between Boston, Massachusetts and Albany, New York as well as a line linking New York City with Montreal, Canada.3

Years after his death, a friend described Frink as, "A man of limited education and without cultivation, yet he was a man of strong mind, wonderful natural intelligence, indomitable will, great sagacity and a remarkable knowledge of human nature."4 Despite the respect and real affection with which he was often regarded by his friends, Frink also had a dark and ruthless side, one that would eventually result in the dissolution of his successful partnerships and estrangement from his family.5

Although he was reportedly a skillful stage operator in the East, Frink was, like most skilled and capable entrepreneurs, always open to new opportunities. The stage business was not for the faint of heart at the best of times, given its cutthroat competition and the politics involved with securing the all-important mail contracts. In addition, railroads had begun to make gradual inroads into the areas Frink's lines served, and starting as early as 1831 had begun to carry the U.S. Mail, though in admittedly extremely limited areas. At least partly due to those reasons, he traveled west about 1830 to gauge economic opportunities, and returned home impressed by the growing region's potential.6 For these reasons at least, and probably others, Frink, his first wife, Martha R. Marcy Frink, and their three children emigrated to the western boom town that was Chicago in 1836.7

When Frink arrived at Chicago, he found Dr. John Taylor Temple, a young physician, in possession of not only the area's largest and oldest stage line, but also the all-important mail contracts that went with it.8 Temple established the first stagecoach link between Chicago and the head of navigation on the Illinois River at Ottawa in 1834.9 Two years later, he established a new stage route to the booming lead mining area at Galena. Upon his arrival, Frink lost no time in establishing a competing line. Shortly thereafter, he managed to persuade John S. Trowbridge, who had established a stage line in 1835 to compete with Temple, to join him. This began a series of short-lived partnerships with a varied collection of individuals, each headed by Frink.

By the time Frink and Trowbridge joined forces, Temple was apparently the target of a growing list of competitors in the stage business. In the summer of 1836, Temple began advertising in Chicago newspapers, something he had previously done only infrequently. The advertisement, published in the August 5, 1836 edition of the Chicago American, touted the Temple line's two-day trip from Chicago to Peoria.10

Besides competing stage companies like Trowbridge's and Frink's, Temple may also have been feeling the bite of competition from freight haulers. In that same edition of the American, Kinzie, Hunter & Company and Hubbard & Company advertised they were running a "regular line of teams" from Chicago to Peru at the head of navigation on the Illinois River.

Although the start of regular mail and passenger stage service west of Chicago had been eagerly welcomed by the city's residents and business community, by early 1837 Temple's popularity had apparently cooled considerably. In the April 1, 1837 Chicago American, a news item headlined "South-Western Mail" reported that "It affords us much pleasure to be enabled to inform our readers that Dr. J.T. Temple has sold out his Stage line to the Illinois Stage Company. Our only regret is, that the arrangement was not sooner made. Success to the new line."11