A. L. FLINN
December 6, 1864 - March 9, 1954
born St. Alban Leon, changed to Allan L.
married Alice Julia Hammond and had three children:
Alice J. married Otis Hickman Godfrey
Leon
Charles A. married Cecelia Pagel
Oelwin, Iowa, 1891
A. L. Flinn is the telegrapher fourth from the right
St. Paul Daily News March 31, 1936:
Those "in the know" agree A. L. Flynn, (sic) rate expert for the state railroad and warehouse commission, is one of the foremost authorities in the country on that complicated structure sometimes referred to as a railroad rate schedule.
He gets dozens of telephone calls a day from shippers throughout the state inquiring into railroad rates. So complicated is the rate structure that it sometimes takes him two or three hours to look up the full answer to a question.
Authorities agree he has saved Minnesota farmers and shippers thousands of dollars daily through his participation in investigations that resulted in lower railroad rates.
He has been with the commission 34 years, having started on his present job July 7, 1902. Railroads have colored virtually his entire life. He started as a youth in a Winnipeg railroad yard on a clerk's job.
Then he moved to Iowa with the Chicago & Great Western as clerk to a divisional superintendant. He next worked for a Seattle steamship company, then came to St. Paul for the Chicago & Great Western, to work in the rate department. He left this job to take his present job.
(A. L. Flinn is sitting at his desk on the left. This photograph from the St. Paul Daily News Library was taken for this article, and is located online at the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul. Used by permission of the MNHS. Visit www.mnhs.org)
