John   Flanagan

• Death Notes

  Born in Ireland.  Came to America and located in Baltimore, Md.
  
  (The following tracks the family from John through his grandson, John G. Flanagan)
  
  FLANAGAN, JOHN G.
  The subject of this sketch traces his lineage to an old Irish family, several members of which have become prominent in various lines of activity. John Flanagan, his grandfather, was born and reared in Ireland, where his eldest son, Peter, was born about 1819. About 1825 he came to America, where he died in middle life, leaving a widow and two sons and a daughter. He located in Maryland, where he engaged in freighting, driving six-horse teams employed in that service. His three children all married and have families and all came west. Peter, his oldest son, was born in Ireland, became a farmer in Nebraska and died there in 1896, aged about seventy-seven years. His daughter Catherine, known in the family as "Aunt Catherine," married James Davis, who became a farmer in Nebraska, where she died at an advanced age, leaving one daughter.
  His younger son, John, father of John G. Flanagan, was born in Maryland, January, 1827, and died in December, 1898, and his wife, Mary A. Piles, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, August 28, 1831, and married Mr. Flanagan in her native state, March 20, 1851. She was the daughter of James Piles, who married a Miss English, and lived one year afterward in Guernsey county, Ohio, and then moved to Montgomery county, Indiana, where they remained between three and four years. After a short stay in Pottawattamie county, Iowa, they removed in 1856 to Atchison county, Missouri, and there John G. Flanagan, the subject of this sketch, was born, November 9, 1857. Soon after that event they returned to Pottawattamie county, Iowa, where, in March, 1863, they bought and settled on four hundred acres of land, acquired at four dollars an acre, but they had to go in debt for most of it. There stood on their property a small frame house which is a part of the more pretentious residence standing there at this time. Mr. and Mrs. Flanagan reared their family there and lived there until the spring of 1887, when they moved to Malvern, where they lived retired from active life until they died, Mrs. Flanagan in December, 1896, and Mr. Flanagan just three years later. they were laid to rest in East Liberty cemetery. They had eleven children, concerning whom some information will be afforded in the following statements: Sarah, born April 16, 1852, married Thomas McCoy, and has ten children, she lives in Kansas. Charles T., has traveled extensively in the west since 1883 and is living in California, unmarried. Thomas B., was born in Indiana, January 18, 1856. John G. is the immediate subject of this sketch. Emma, born November 11, 1859, is the wife of Edwin Morse and lives in Nebraska. She has had four children, two of whom are dead. Amanda J., born in Mills county, Iowa, September 13, 1861 is the widow of John Nickerson and lives in Malvern, Iowa. Walter A., was born July 23, 1863, and died November 23, 1868. Wilmie was born April 23, 1865, and died April 16, 1866. Frank was born March 19, 1867, and when a young man went to California, where he was married in 1899. Edward Martin was born November 11, 1868, and died March 20, 1888. Lee Webster was born May 30, 1871, and died November 5, 1878.
  John G. Flanagan received a common school education and was reared to farm life. He worked on his father's farm until the spring of 1883 and then went to central Kansas, where he was married, March 31, 1886, to Miss Blanche E. Crawford, born in Lorain county, Ohio, August 23, 1865, a daughter of John W. and Sarah J. (Robertson) Crawford. Mr. and Mrs. Crawford were natives of Ohio. They went to Kansas in 1881 and there Mr. Crawford died at the age of forty-four years, leaving a widow, three daughters and two sons. The eldest son, Bert Crawford, of Oklahoma, is married and has five children. Ida M., is the wife of W. B. Essick, of Ellsworth, Kansas; Maud A., Mrs. Flanagan's twin sister, married Edwin Walker, has four sons and lives in Kansas; Charles C., is living in Kansas, unmarried. Mrs. Crawford, mother of these children, is residing in Ellsworth, Kansas. Mrs. Flanagan removed with her parents to Kansas and at sixteen years of age she began teaching school in Ellsworth county, which profession she followed for six years. Mr. and Mrs. Flanagan have had three children: Roy A., the eldest, was born February 4, 1887, in Ellsworth, Kansas, and is now in school. Ella Maud, also in school, was born April 29, 1889, in Mills county, Iowa. Neva May was born March 7, 1895 and died February 5, 1897.
  In December 1888, Mr. Flanagan returned from Kansas to his old home, accompanied by his family, and has since been farming on the Flanagan homestead, which he bought for ten thousand dollars. He has come to the front as a stock-farmer and raises and fattens beef cattle, which he sells to Omaha and Chicago, shipping about twelve car-loads per year; and he raises and sells also about two hundred fat swine each year. He raises some colts and keeps about twenty horses. He began handling sheep in 1900 by purchasing two hundred and fifty head. He does general farming, selling such of his products as are not required for his stock. He cuts about one hundred tons of hay each year and has about one hundred and twenty-five acres planted to corn, and in addition to his own large crop is usually obliged to buy more corn for feeding.
  Politically Mr. Flanagan is a Democrat and he has served his fellow townsmen as justice of the peace two terms. He was elected assessor in 1898 and still holds that office, and wields considerable influence in the councils of his party. His judgment in business affairs is excellent and he is regarded as one of the foremost stockmen in his part of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Flanagan are both young appearing and are active socially. Their domestic life is a happy one and their geniality and generous hospitality have won them hosts of friends