Frink and Walker was a familiar name on stage coaches which were operated in the 1830's and 40's over routes passing through Illinois, one of them being the Rock Island road which extended from Rock Island through Prophetstown, what is now Rock Falls, and up to Dixon, entering and leaving by the road near the Rainbow Inn in west Dixon.

The establishment of the stage line through the village of Albany in 1844, then a town of 1,000 population, was an epoch in the history of the old Mississippi river town, which commanded much trade through its mercantile establishments. The sound of the stage horn was a signal for the gathering of many to see what the stage brought in.

The stage firm of Frnk and Walker operated its route from Chicago to Galena, passing through Buffalo Grove (now Polo) on to Galena, and from there passage had been by water down the Mississippi to Rock Island (formerly Fort Armstrong), later made an all land route. Years ago there stood a giant cottonwood tree at a fork in the road leading to Prophetstown. This tree was blown down and destroyed by a high wind storm. A successor to the old landmark has never been set out on the spot, which was noted as the "lone tree." It has been told by oltimers that the stage coach drivers kept a jug of beverage in a hollow in the fork of the tree. Whey they arrived at it, they would reach down for the jug and imbibe from it, return the jug to its repository and drive on.