All in the Family

Periodically, I enjoy dabbling in family genealogy. I knew that my great-grandfather's name was Chester Dana Flynt. As a boy, when I inquired of my dad what Chester had done for a living, I was told that he was a spy during the Civil War, and that he had been an inventor. "What did he invent?" I asked my dad. He didn't know.

Occasionally, when the spirit moves me, I've gone into a library or on the Internet to search for more details about this elusive relative. I tried a few years back to search online for Patent Office information that might tell me more about Chester's inventions. No luck.

Chester was married in the 1840s to Caroline Yohe, my great grandmother. When I lived in Pennsylvania, I visited the church (still standing) where they were married. I also trolled through the church's cemetery hoping to locate a few more distant relatives. No luck.

During a recent search, I stumbled upon information from another person seeking information about Caroline Yohe. In her post, she wrote: "I am also keen on finding out more about CAROLINE'S husband CHESTER DANA FLYNT, an artist who traveled from town to town as a portrait painter and inventor of the universal automatic lubricating pads for trains which are still in use today. a painting of his entitled "the good samaritan" was presented to the sons of temperence, wyoming division in Wilkes Barre, PA"

Wow! My dad was right. Chester was an inventor. I was then able to search and found the patent for the lubricating pads. It was filed in the 1880s. I learned a couple more bits of trivia. Caroline's family was among the first settlers of Pennsylvania, and Chester was living in Philadelphia at the time of his first patent application. Suddenly, my family history brings me a little closer to the location for my books, my interest (expressed via Brad Frame) in trains, and perhaps my fascination with Philadelphian Ben Franklin.

Genealogy helps unravel Life's Mysteries.