Timothy Flint, pioneer, missionary, author, editor, 1780-1840; the story of his life among the pioneers and frontiersmen in the Ohio and Mississippi Valley and in New England and the South

Front matter

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Contents

Preface 15

Introduction . 17

I Youth and Education 21

Preface

A large amount of material and that for a period for this study, where I had almost nothing else, came from Mr. Flint's grandchildren, Mrs. Emeline Flint Seip of Alexandria, Louisiana, and James Timothy Flint of Nashville, Tennessee. Family letters, photographs, newspapers and traditions -everything which could in any way aid me - have been freely and gladly put at my disposal. With them I have shared the pain in thinking of the treasures that were destroyed by the Union army in Alexandria, which burned the library of James Timothy Flint Sr. This was a very large and rare collection of books that was hardly equaled by any private collection in the south. It contained also most of Timothy Flint's collection of books and some of the manuscripts which he left at the time of his death. A more recent and unavoidable accident, the Galveston flood of 1900, destroyed a number of the books and papers of Timothy Flint which were in the possession of his grandchildren. The only portrait of Mr. Flint, which is known to have been in existence, was destroyed at that time.

I am under special obligations to the librarians of Hartford Theological Seminary, Yale University, and Harvard University for their aid in procuring books and manuscripts which could not have been obtained otherwise. The Essex Institute at Salem, the Amer-

1 6 PREFACE

ican Antiquarian Society of Worcester, the Boston Public Library, and the Congregational Libraries of Hartford, Connecticut, and Boston, I have found rich and generous with their manuscript collections. The librarians of Reading, North Reading, and Lunenburg, Massachusetts, the local historians in these places, and indeed in almost every place that I have had occasion to visit or address have been most willing and generous in the aid they have given me in my researches.

I desire also to express my obligations to Professor Samuel Simpson, PH.D., of Hartford Theological Seminary for valuable suggestions after reading my manuscript, and to the Robert Clarke Company for permission to use material from W. H. Venable's Literary Beginnings in the Ohio Valley.

John E. Kirkpatrick.

Hartford, Connecticut, May i, 1908.