Charles Ranlett Flint

Charles Ranlett Flint (January 24, 1850 – February 26, 1934) was the founder of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company which later became IBM. For his financial dealings, he earned the moniker "Father of Trusts".[1][2] He was an avid sportsman and member of the syndicate that built the yacht Vigilant, that was the U.S. defender of the eighth America's Cup and was the owner of the yacht Gracie.[3][4]

Charles Ranlett Flint
Flint in 1907
Born(1850-01-24)January 24, 1850
Thomaston, Maine, U.S.
DiedFebruary 26, 1934(1934-02-26) (aged 84)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Other namesComputer King
Alma materPolytechnic Institute of
Brooklyn (BS)
OccupationFinancial capitalist - founder of Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company
Spouses
  • Emma Kate Simmons
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1883; died 1926)​
  • Charlotte Reeves
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1927)​

Early life and education

Flint was born on January 24, 1850, in Thomaston, Maine.[5] His father, Benjamin Chapman, had changed the family name to Flint after being adopted by an uncle on his mother's side. The family moved from Maine to New York City where his father ran the family's mercantile firm Chapman & Flint, which had been founded in 1837.[6] Flint married the composer Kate Simmons in 1883.[7]

In 1868, Charles Flint graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, which is now New York University Tandon School of Engineering, in Brooklyn. In 1871, he entered the shipping business as a partner in Gilchrest, Flint & Co., which became W. R. Grace and Company following a merger.

Career

From 1876 to 1879, he served as the Chilean consul in New York City. He also served as consul general to the United States for Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

In 1892, he consolidated several companies to form U.S. Rubber.[8] In 1893, he fitted out a fleet of naval ships for Brazilian Republic. He purchased the Esmeralda from the Chilean Navy and delivered it via Ecuador to Japan during the First Sino-Japanese War.[9] In 1899, he repeated the success he had in forming U.S. Rubber by consolidating Adams Chewing Gum, Chiclets, Dentyne, and Beemans to form American Chicle. He was also responsible for the formation of The American Woolen Company that year. Some newspapers began to refer to him as "the Rubber King".[10][11]

In 1911, he formed the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company through an amalgamation of stock acquisition of four companies: Tabulating Machine Company, International Time Recording Company, Computing Scale Company of America, and the Bundy Manufacturing Company.[12][13][14] Amalgamation was unusual at the time - Flint described it as an "allied" consolidation.[15] In 1924, CTR was re-christened as International Business Machines. Flint served on the board of directors of IBM until he retired in 1930.[16]

He died on February 26, 1934, in Washington, D.C.[17]

Legacy

Charles Flint was an avid sportsman and loved swimming, hunting, fishing, sailing, and aviation. He was one of seven founders of the Automobile Club of America.[18] He held the world water speed record.

His Time magazine obituary stated he negotiated the Wright brothers' first sales of airplanes overseas.[19] But it was the Wrights themselves, in sometimes contentious negotiations with Charles R. Flint & Co., who determined contract terms.[20]

Bibliography
  • Flint, Charles Ranlett (1923). Memories of an Active Life: Men, and Ships, and Sealing Wax. G.P. Putnam's Sons.
  • Flint, Charles Ranlett (1892). Industrial Combinations: Address by Charles R. Flint, Before the Commercial Club of Providence On the Evening of April 29th, 1892.
  • Flint, Charles Ranlett; James J. Hill; James H. Bridge; S. C. T. Dodd; Francis B. Thurber (1902). The Trust, Its Book: Being a Presentation of the Several Aspects of the Latest Form of Industrial Revolution. Doubleday, Page & Co. 21

References
  1. Cashman, Sean Dennis (1984). America in the Gilded Age: From the Death of Lincoln to the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: New York University Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-8147-1387-7. OCLC 9762495.
  2. "'Father of Trusts' Going Back to Work at 80; C.R. Flint Will Undertake Another Merger". The New York Times. January 21, 1930. Retrieved December 14, 2010. Charles Ranlett Flint, who on Friday will celebrate his eightieth birthday, expects to go back to Wall Street and resume business at the old stand, 25 Broad Street. Not that he has ever retired, for the offices have been maintained and he has been more or less in touch with them,
  3. "Charles R. Flint Head Of Trusts, Dies In Capital". Times Union. Brooklyn, New York. February 14, 1934. p. 8. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
  4. "Charles R. Flint Secured By Chamber Of Commerce". Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, New York. December 27, 1903. p. 19. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
  5. "Coal Merger?". Time. February 16, 1925. Archived from the original on February 19, 2012. Charles Ranlett Flint was born in Thomaston, Me., in 1850. His people had always been shippers; he, looking-for his first job, went to "every shipping office in Manhattan," but no one would hire him. Thereupon he wrote himself a reference, had cards made which declared him to be an expert dock-clerk, entered Grace & Co., shippers.
  6. Stinson, John: The Charles Ranlett Flint Papers, 1872–1930 Archived June 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, New York Public Library, November 1991.
  7. Simmons, Kate (February 14, 1934). "Times Union". Newspapers.com. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  8. Flint, Charles R. (1923). Memories of an Active Life: Men, and Ships, and Sealing Wax. G.P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 300–302.
  9. John William Leonard; William Frederick Mohr; Frank R. Holmes (1907). Who's who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. pp. 505.
  10. "The Bicycle Trust". Cincinnati Commercial Tribune. July 29, 1899. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  11. "Millionaires". New York World. November 23, 1901. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  12. "Tabulating Concerns Unite: Flint & Co. Bring Four Together with $19,000,000 capital". The New York Times. June 10, 1911.
  13. Bennett, Frank P.; Company (June 17, 1911). United States Investor. Vol. 22, Part 2. p. 1298 (26).
  14. "IBM Archives: Frequently Asked Questions" (PDF). p. 28.
  15. Flint (1923) p.312
  16. "Flint, 81, Retires; 'Father of Trusts'. Passed 50 Years of His Life in Making Big Industrial Concerns From Small Units. Intends To Hunt and Fish. Woolen, Chicle, Rubber and Many Other Combinations Due to His Efforts. Arrived Here 65 Years Ago. Proud of Money-Making Mergers". The New York Times. February 19, 1931. Retrieved December 14, 2010. Charles Ranlett Flint, who spent fifty years of his life organizing small industrial units into large corporations, announced here yesterday that he was retiring at the age of 81 for the second and last time.
  17. "C. R. Flint is Dead. 'Father of Trusts'. Former Industrialist Was a Pioneer in Consolidation of Large Corporations. Helped Form U.S. Rubber. Retired at 78, but Returned to Activities Two Years Later. Owner of Speedy Yachts". The New York Times. February 14, 1934.
  18. "Fifty Years in World Trade". The American Explorer. 94: 15. March 1924.
  19. "Died". Time. February 26, 1934. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010. Charles Ranlett Flint, 84, retired industrial promoter, international agent, sportsman; of arteriosclerosis, after two years' illness; in Washington. Son of a New England clipper fleet owner, he fitted out warships for Brazilian revolutionists; sold torpedo boats and submarines to Russia, a cruiser to Japan; negotiated the Wright Brothers' first sales of airplanes abroad. He gathered a fortune reputed to be $100,000,000, had a hand in forming so many U. S. corporations that newspapers christened him 'Father of Trusts.'
  20. Crouch, Tom (1989). The Bishop's Boys (1 ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 328–30, 331, 334–335, 337–338, 342, 346, 359, 360, 406, 440, 451–452. ISBN 0-393-02660-4.
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