FLINT, RICHARD B. This worthy gentleman and veteran landlord
came to Railroad street as a pioneer, contemporaneous with the Passumpsic
railroad, fifty-two years e ago, when there was only one or two primitive
houses here. As a youth he helped plant the acorn, and as a hale and hearty
veteran of seventy- eight, he rejoices in the shade of the mighty oak;
he sees a long, handsome, prosperous street, with fine residences and magnificent
blocks, “arise as by the stroke of an enchanter's wand.” His grandfather,
James FLINT, was a soldier of the Revolution, and a pioneer settler in
Randolph, who married Jerusha LILLIE. His father, Joel FLINT, fought as
a Yankee volunteer at Plattsburg, and was a long time blacksmith in Walden
where R. B. was born in 1825. His mother was Hulda HAWES, and he was the
youngest and now the only survivor of a family of five children. Mr. FLINT's
youth and early manhood was spent in his native town, where he conducted
a blacksmith shop, also a shoe shop, and served the town two years as constable
and collector. In 1850 Russell HALLETT built on the site of LOUGEE Brothers'
and SMYTHE's store, the building which is now occupied by D. FRECHETTE,
and in the ground floor of this building R. B. FLINT and L. C. WOODBURY
started a grocery store and eating saloon, and were the first merchants
on the street.
Mr. FLINT also started the first livery stable and the first meat
market, and built the slaughter house near Portland street bridge. In 1852
he purchased the Cottage hotel lot, paying for the same a horse, valued
at $200. That year he built his house, 22x28 feet, two stories, which he
used many years as a residence, but which has since by degrees grown into
the Cottage hotel, 50x70 feet, and three stories high.
For nearly thirty years Mr. FLINT conducted this hotel, and during
this time never sold a glass of liquor to a guest, always maintaining a
good table, a good reputation, and a good financial standing, an emphatic
refutation of the statement that “a landlord can't make a living unless
he sells rum.” Mr. FLINT was widely known as a skilful connaisseur of good
horses, and was a good horseman, and has many years exhibited fine roadsters
on the fair grounds. During the war he bought, as a government agent, 253
horses, all but one being accepted, and took them on to Washington, everyone
arriving in prime condition. He has fitted and sold many good ones at rising
prices. In 1857 R. B. FLINT married Marcialine M. HOPKINS of Montpelier,
a lady of fine social gifts and a true helpmeet.
Two children now living, Willis D. and Ella M. (Mrs. D. C. HORNER
of St. Johnsbury). Mr. HORNER is well known in Masonic circles and as a
thorough mechanic and the superintendent of the tool department of Fairbanks
works. Mrs. HORNER has resided with her parents, and is favorably
known, not only to guests of the Cottage hotel, but as a prominent member
and district deputy grand matron of a the Order of the Eastern Star of
Vermont.
Mr. and Mrs. R. B. FLINT have for many years been esteemed members
of the South Congregational church, and have a wide circle of acquaintances
and friends.
Source: Successful Vermonters,
William H. Jeffrey, E. Burke, Vermont, The Historical Publishing Company,
1904, page 40-42.
Prepared
by Tom Dunn January 2003
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