Frank Stevens Flint was born on October 22, 1844 at Hereford, England to George Flint, a tailor, and Mary Stevens.   Frank was educated in England and France before immigrating to America.   Once in New York Flint worked as a clerk before deciding to enlist for military service.   He was 37 years of age and enlisted at Thompkinsville, New York on March 5, 1864, for a period of three years.   His enlistment roster indicates he was supposed to be credited to Richmond’s Company, in the 1st Congressional District of New York. He instead ended up though, in Captain Colter’s Company D, 5th New York Heavy Artillery.

At that time, according to pension papers and company rosters, instead of enlisting under his own name, he used that of his brother; Owen Harris.   Flint’s regiment participated in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864 as part of the Army of West Virginia and saw action in the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on October 19, 1864; but according to his Company D roster, Owen Harris was reported as “absent” so he may not have participated. In September he was still reported absent, but on detached, service continuing from December through January, as a clerk of the Commissary.

In February he was again reported, serving as a clerk of the commissary at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Still at Harper’s Ferry in March and April, on June 26, 1864 he was transferred to Company M, 5th Infantry; which on the muster roll, of Company D, he was recorded as absent from the Regiment. The July 19th, Company D. roster again noted he had been transferred to Company M and in November and December, Owen Harris was still on the Company D roster cards, but still recorded as “absent, on detached duty”; presumably at Harper’s Ferry.

Company D roster on February 25, 1865 reveals Harris had not been paid since August 31, 1864, but made note it had been corrected. On the Company D March and April roster, it was noted Harris was clerk of Commissary Subsistence and had received the 3rd installment of the bounty due him.  Many soldiers of that period went long periods without receiving their pay. The only mention on Company D roster for May and June was that he was still absent from Company D and had been transferred on June 26th to the Department of Commissary Subsistence, Department of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. It appears record keeping in Company D left much to be desired, as reports for May, June and July likewise carried the same notations.

Finally, on the roster from Harper’s Ferry, on July 19, 1865, it was noted that Owen Harris had been  “mustered out under provs (sic) of G.O. No. 94 C.S. A.G.O. War Dept.”.  Flint received an honorable discharge at Harper’s Ferry on July 19, 1865, but little is known what transpired during that time except that he worked in the Harper’s Ferry Commissary Subsistence Department, under Captain George S. Leland.  One incident, is recalled often, however, relating to his narrowly escaping death in a Rebel ambush. Fleeing from the Rebels, he was swimming his horse across the Mississippi River when a bullet struck his prayer book, which was in his knapsack across his pack. The prayer book, he said,  saved his life and the bullet failed to ruin the book; which his wife cherished for many years.

Flint again enlisted in the U.S. military a little over a year later, again using the name Owen Harris; at Baltimore, Maryland on December 11, 1866. According to family descendants, Frank used the name Owen Harris because he was actually to young to have enlisted in the first place; not because he was using a brothers name, as some have stated. At the time, Flint stated his age as 21, which was obviously not true, and the untruth was discovered in 1915 during a pension investigation by officials processing his pension claim. He was said that time to join the Provisional Company, General Service Recruits, at David’s Island, New York. He was then transferred to “Permanent Party, General Service Recruits at David’s Island New York” on March 25, 1867. From there he was transported to Fort Columbus, New York for assignment to a regiment in September or October of 1867. The Battery was stationed at Fort McHenry, Maryland until his discharge. Muster rolls don’t show that he was detailed as Clerk in the Post Commissary or that he was in the guardhouse anytime during his enlistment. Records for July and August 1867 however, do show him daily present. The muster rolls for Battery “D” 4th U.S. Artillery for November and December 1868 to September and October 1869 records him as daily acting as Post Clerk.

After the war he worked in the Commissary Department in America, a position he held for a number of years until he returned to London in 1872, to see his mother. Flint returned to England for a while; then again returned to the U.S.. After returning he lived in several locations, including the Baltimore, Maryland area, in 1874.  Eventually Flint decided to sail for Australia, for a visit with his sister who lived in Mulyan, Cowra; arriving in New South Wales. From there he traveled to Cowra, New South Wales and after seeing his sister, decided to make Australia his home. Her husband was a boundary rider for the Ousby Family.  Frank Stevens Flint went to work as a bookkeeper for Mr. Peter Murray, then Cowra’s leading store keeper whose store occupied the site where the Theatre Cowra used to stand.  A Mr. and Mrs. Langfield, together with their daughter Mary, left their home in Devon Court, in Liverpool in 1875 and came to reside at Morongla Creek, where today many Langfield families live still. Sometime later, following nine weeks of courtship, Flint decided to settled down and married 32 year old Mary Langfield in a marquee on Morongla Creek in Cowra; on May 29, 1876. The service was presided over by Rev. James Adams and Flint found employment as a bookkeeper. They lived in Cowra where for six years he worked in Mr. Murray’s employment. Shortly after that, they went to Old Goolagong,  returning several years later to Cowra and lived in a cottage on land where a portion of Squire Pepper building now stands. It was during this time that he became actively identified with public affairs in Cowra.

In 1888 he was appointed the first Town Clerk of Cowra when the first council was formed. The first meeting of the Council of the Borough of Cowra commenced at 3.00 pm on 23 July 1888 at Cowra Court House.  Those present were returning officer, J V Bartlett and Aldermen Fitzgerald, Donnelly, Ford, Daly, Smith, Campbell, Boxhall, Stibbard and McPherson.  At this meeting Alderman George Campbell was elected first mayor of Cowra and F S Flint was appointed Town Clerk. However, Flint’s appointment was not finalised until September (after tenders were called for the position), when a salary of 65 pounds, or $130 per year, was approved for an initial eight-hour week.  Hours of Flint’s attendance at the Council Chambers were fixed at 10.00 am to noon and 3.00 pm to 5.00 pm on Tuesdays and Fridays.

For his work as Town Clerk he received seventy-four pounds per year, and to fit himself fore this, he rode on horseback to Young, Bathurst and Forbes Councils to study their bylaws; occupying those positions for a number of years. Closely associated as he was with the early struggles of the institutions, he did much towards placing them on a sound footing that they enjoy today. He carried his motto “A mans word is his bond”, out to the latter and he was held in high esteem. During the first World War no less than five of his sons saw active service.

In later life he bought “Sunnyside”, a property two miles from Cowra, he started a tobacco and peanut farm, he also had a vegetable farm and was one of Cowra’s first travelling greengrocers. The government tax on growing tobacco was so high that he had to relinquish the project. That wasn’t until after he’d built a dam and installed his own pumping plant to irrigate the farm. Just prior to his death, Mr. and Mrs. Flint and family moved to Cowra, and lived on Vaux Street; the house later being used as a Cooking school within the Cowra Intermediate High School. During the seven years the Flints lived at Goolagong three of their sixteen children were born, the eldest son being kidnapped by blacks and kept for three days.

Flint was not only Cowra’s first Town Clerk, he was also a founding member of the local Hospital Board, became the first secretary of the original Jockey Club and the first secretary for the P.A. & H. Association of Cowra.

Flint applied for a pension in January 1900, but was ordered to submit more paperwork to positively identify himself as the individual that had served in the Regiment and Companies he had stated. His using a false name had once more caught up to him and caused him great distress in obtaining his pension.  It took more correspondence to clear up the discrepancies he caused by using his brothers name at enlistment; on both occasions. On March 12, 1915 he was still completing pension application forms to acquire what was due him. Eventually, Flint was able to clear up the discrepancies. After he reached the age of 60 years, in 1904, Flint received the Civil Veterans pension from the American Government, until his death at the age of 80.

Flint became a prominent citizen of Cowra and lived there until his death on April 7, 1923 at 80 years of age. When he died, Frank was still working as a gardener and living on Faux street in Cowra. The reasons given for his death by Dr. Hugh McLaren, was Senile decay and influenza which he had endured for some four weeks. His death certificate was filled out by his son, C.L. Flint of Cowra, and witnessed by D. W. Reed on April 9, 1923. Frank Stevens Flint was buried on April 9, 1923 in the Anglican Monumental Section, Church of England Cemetery in Cowra. The undertaker Mr. H. H. Mirrington prepared his body, witnessed by J. H. Ryall and E. R. Dawson.

Frank Stevens Flint was survived by 15 of his 16 children; George W. 46, Frank S. 45, Thomas L. 43, Mary E. 41, Walter J. 40, Martha J. 38, Eva 36, Harry S. 31, Charles S. 32, Septimus D. 30, Arthur S. 28, Percy L. 26, Gladstone 24, Edward J. 22 and Vida 20. One son had died before his death. All his children eventually married and had children of their own. At a Flint family reunion in the 1980’s it is said Frank’s descendants numbered some 400 individuals.

In October 1823 Mary Flint prepared a letter and sent it to the Commissioner of Pensions detailing her plight and supplying him with the information concerning her husband’s military service and appealed for a widows pension; sending with it a copy of her marriage certificate. Mary continued to live in Cowra until she died at the age of 93, in 1951. Before her death Mary Flint was made a life member of the Australian Red Cross for her work carried out with the Cowra and Morongla Creek, Red Cross branches for sewing and other services during her lifetime.

Sara Lang [Flint], descendant, Young, NSW

Adjutant Generals Office, New York

Bureau of Pensions, Dept. of Interior, USA

Cowra Cemetery - Cowra Shire Council

Co. D, 5th New York Heavy Artillery Rosters

Co. M, 5th New York Heavy Artillery Rosters

 Cowra Oral History

Court Records, New South Wales, Australia

Report for the Military Secretary’s Office, Washington January 1905

Sue Kurtz, Cowra, New South Wales Gov.