Nelson Ozias Flint

Biography courteously provided by Joyce Riedinger, Delaware County Coordinator.

NELSON OZIAS FLINT, proprietor of the Walton foundry and machine-shop, is a manufacturer of ploughs, drags, cultivators, and rollers, for which he finds a ready sale in this locality without the assistance of travelling salesmen. He is respected as one of the most enterprising and upright business men of this part of Delaware County. He was born in the town of Delhi, August 29, 1829, being a son of Albert and Joanna (Jones) Flint, the former of whom was born in Delhi, and the latter in Greene County.

Albert Flint was the son of a pioneer hotel-keeper of Delhi; and after his marriage, which occurred in 1826, he settled down to farming pursuits, and improved a valuable homestead. He and his wife became the parents of seven children, three of whom are living, namely: Cornelius M., a farmer in Delhi; Nelson O.; and Osman, a compositor on the Delaware Republican. The names of the deceased are: Mary, who died April 5, 1894; Romaine R., who died near Amsterdam, at the age of thirty-five years, leaving a widow and three children; Sarah Augusta, Mrs. Robert Henderson, who died while in the prime of life, in Delhi, leaving five children; Phebe Ann, who married Beman Johnson, and died at the age of forty-five years, in Delhi, leaving six children. The father departed this life in 1876, and his widow in 1880.

Having mastered the common English branches in the district school, young Nelson began at the age of twelve years to plough the steep side hill of the old home farm, using two pairs of horses. After growing to manhood, he owned and improved a fine farm in Delhi, on which he resided several years. After that he was for about nineteen years engaged in the foundry in Delhi. In 1877 he sold out his property in Delhi, and came to Walton, where two years later he established his present foundry and machine-shop, quite an extensive building, being one hundred feet by forty feet, and has since carried on a lively and lucrative business, employing from six to ten hands.

Mr. Flint was united in marriage to Miss Electa L. Smith on January 8, 1851. Mrs. Flint was born in the town of Meredith, August 23, 1830, being a daughter of Elijah C. and Electa (Seward) Smith, the latter of whom died when a young woman: and the former, who was successfully engaged in agriculture in Meredith, was subsequently married, and reared a second family of children. He departed this life in 1873, being then seventy-six years old. He was a son of Peter Smith, who removed from Chatham, Columbia County, in 1798, and located in the town of Kortright being one of the original settlers of that town. He was four times married, one of his wives, Abigail Cleveland, being the mother of Mrs. Flint's father. One of his wives died without issue, and by the other three wives he reared twenty children. He lived twenty-one days after celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, dying at the home of his son, Elijah Cleveland Smith, in Meredith. Mrs. Flint had five brothers and three sisters, all of whom, with the exception of one sister, have passed away. Of this family, three of the sons were practising physicians, and one was a lawyer. Three of her half-brothers are still living, as follows: George C., a physician, resides in Delhi. Josiah D., a farmer, who was a volunteer in the army during the late Civil War, lives on the family homestead, which contains two hundred and forty acres of land. Henry Melville Smith is a practising physician in Jersey City. Mrs. Flint is a cultivated woman, who taught school three terms before marriage. She and her husband have reared a foster-child, Maggie, the wife of A.D. Peak. Politically, Mr. Flint is a stanch supporter of the principles of the Democratic party; and he and his wife are devout members of the Methodist church, of which he is a Steward.

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