Biography - George Flint
GEORGE W. FLINT, a manufacturer of brick and formerly a dealer in lumber and coal, is numbered among the leading business men of Greenville, Bond County. A native of St. Clair County, Ill., he was born February 6, 1847, a son of William and Mary (Gedney) Flint. His parents were both natives of England, who, immediately after their marriage, crossed the broad Atlantic to the United States. This was in the spring of 1842. They located in Lebanon, St. Clair County, and Mr. Flint engaged in farming. In 1848, he purchased a farm about four miles north of Lebanon, and there engaged in agricultural pursuits for nearly twenty years. He then purchased a farm of two hundred acres of land, adjoining the corporation limits of the city, and made his home thereon for ten years. In 1878, he removed to the city and his death occurred the same year. In politics, he was a Republican, was a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was a highly respected citizen.
The Flint family numbered nine children, eight of whom are yet living: Mrs. Mary Nelson, of Missouri; Edith M., wife of Rev. L. W. Thrall, of Greenville; George W., of this sketch; Rev. John W., Presiding Elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with a residence in Carbondale; James G., a manufacturing chemist of Decatur, Ill.; Henry H., who resides in St. Louis, where he conducts a grocery store; Samuel L., a salesman in the jewelry house of Brooks Bros., of St. Louis; and William W., who is general agent for a Chicago publishing house, and resides in Lebanon.
In the usual manner of farmer lads, our subject was reared to manhood. His education was completed by his graduation from McKendree College, of Lebanon, in 1872. Previously he had taught for a time, and after his graduation engaged in teaching one term. For a year after finishing school, he remained at home, and then started for Iowa, where he engaged in teaching and farming near Glenwood, about eighteen miles south of Council Bluffs, where he remained three years and a-half. He then returned home and later went to Mt. Olive, Macoupin County, where he conducted a lumber yard and a drug store in company with his brother, James G. This partnership continued for five years and they did a successful business.
During his residence there, Mr. Flint was married, in May, 1881, to Miss Anna E., daughter of T. C. Kirkland, of Litchfield, Montgomery County, Ill. One child graces their union, Earl W., born November 3, 1885. In 1882, Mr. Flint came with his wife to Greenville, and engaged in business here.
In his political views, our subject is a Republican, and socially, is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen. In the Methodist Episcopal Church he is a faithful and consistent member, and serves as one of its Trustees. In the ten years of his residence in Greenville he has built up an excellent trade, and by his courteous treatment of his patrons and his fair and honest dealings, he is now doing a fine business which yields to him a good income. He is recognized as one of the substantial, prominent and representative citizens of the community, and has the confidence and high regard of all with whom business or social relations have brought him in contact.
Extracted 21 Dec 2016 by Norma Hass from 1892 Portrait and Biographical Record of Montgomery and Bond Counties, Illinois, pages 475-476.
