Stagecoach duo ended up best of enemies

In my last column, I wrote a bit about the stagecoach era out here in this region west of Chicago back during the first half of the 19th century. And that got me to thinking about the people who organized those stagecoach companies during that exciting – although brief – era.

In the middle of the 19th century, the most famous stagecoach partnership in the Midwest, that of Frink & Walker, was notable because it held such a dominant place in the entire region’s transportation history. Ironically, it is a place largely unknown nowadays.

Although it lasted almost 20 years, the partnership of John Frink and Martin O. Walker ended abruptly and acrimoniously, Frink going so far as to instigate a perjury charge against Walker. While they were in business together, however, they managed to dominate the stagecoach business in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri and Iowa.

They seemed an unlikely pair. Frink, who was liable to fly off the handle at any moment, had a volcanic temper and little formal education. Walker, on the other hand, was a taciturn, educated Vermonter who kept to himself, maintaining such a low profile as to be nearly invisible, a difficult accomplishment since he was one of the richest men in the city prior to the Chicago Fire.

Frink was born in Connecticut in 1794. His father owned a stagecoach inn in Palmer, Massachusetts, and also had interests in New England stage lines. Young Frink started as a stage driver, learning the ins and outs of the business from the ground up. By his early 20s, he owned an interest in a line of stages operating out of West Sturbridge, Massachusetts, with partner John Kingsley. Selling out his half of the business to Kingsley, Frink then moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he operated a line of stages up and down the Connecticut River.

By 1836, new transportation technology – railroads – had begun eating into the New England stage businesses, so Frink decided to try his luck out West, which during that era was Illinois. In 1836, he sold his Eastern stage interests and moved to Chicago where he and some associates bought the stage line of Dr. John Taylor Temple.

Martin Walker, on the other hand, was born in June of 1809 in Hubbardton, Vermont. He received a better education than Frink’s bare introduction to literacy, and, as a youngster, joined the drygoods firm of A.W. and O.M. Hyde. He stayed with the firm until about 1836 when the Hydes sold their company. Leaving Hubbardton, he moved to the New York state capital, Albany, where he worked in the office of the Baker & Walbridge stage line. After Walbridge died, Walker bought his interest, changing the name of the firm to Baker & Walker.

Sensing the west might offer better opportunities, in 1838, Walker, too, sold out his Eastern stage interests and moved west to Chicago. There he met Frink, and a partnership between the two soon developed.

Frink had first partnered in Chicago with John S. Trowbridge. Trowbridge had established a stage line to compete with Temple, but after Frink decided to buy Temple out, Trowbridge elected to join Frink. Some local histories suggest that a man by the name of Fowler briefly joined the company, which was reportedly renamed Frink, Fowler & Trowbridge. Within months, however, Frink joined with Charles K. Bingham to form Frink, Bingham & Company. The company operated under that name for a couple years.

Walker, after arriving in Chicago, quickly joined Frink’s enterprises. In the 1839 Chicago city directory, Walker is listed as a mail contractor working for Frink & Walker, although the stagecoach company by that name would not be officially established for another year. The same directory lists both Bingham and Frink as principals in Frink, Bingham & Company.

It’s possible Frink and Walker partnered to secure the all-important mail contracts – stage companies could not exist without them –which could then be subcontracted out, a lucrative practice. As Walker’s 1874 obituary noted, he had “been known to make a margin as high as $10,000 and as low as $5” on mail bid subcontracting.

Walker gradually worked his way deeper into the stagecoach portion of Frink’s business. On June 1, 1840, newspapers announced that “The co-partnership heretofore existing between John Frink, Charles K. Bingham, and Martin O. Walker” was dissolved and that the new partnership of John Frink, Martin O. Walker and Curran Walker had been established, with the new firm to be called Frink, Walker & Company.

Frink later recalled that he was a principal in Frink, Walker & Company until 1849 when the firm’s name changed to John Frink & Company. Although his name was no longer on the company, Walker’s financial interest continued. Frink said his dealings with Walker dissolved for good in 1856.

In March of that year, Frink apparently persuaded the Cook County State’s Attorney to charge Walker with perjury over testimony given in a lawsuit in which Frink was one of the defendants. Walker gave a crucial bit of evidence in that case, resulting in a $15,000 judgment against Frink and several others involved in the destruction of a printing press and type owned by Alfred Dutch, publisher of The Commercial Advertiser, a Chicago newspaper. During his perjury trial testimony, Frink said of Walker: “I have a very great disrespect for Mr. Walker.” Added witness E.D. Wadsworth: “The only man I ever heard question Mr. Walker’s character was Mr. Frink.”

Frink died two years later at the age of 65, estranged from his wife and eldest son. Walker lived on until 1874, surviving the reverses of the Chicago Fire to die one of Chicago’s wealthiest business owners. Neither was beloved, Frink described by contemporaries as having an “arbitrary and uncontrolled will,” while Walker was baldly described in his obituary as “a very unpopular man. His disposition was pugnacious.” Those, however, were the very qualities the frontier required. While their partnership didn’t survive, their legacy – the early development of Chicago’s overland transportation network – certainly did.

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