Person:James Flanagan (395)

FLANAGAN, JAMES WINWRIGHT (1805-1887). James Winwright Flanagan, Texas lieutenant governor and United States senator, was born in Gordonsville, Albemarle County, Virginia, on September 7, 1805, the son of Charles and Elizabeth (Saunders) Flanagan. In 1815 the family moved to Boonesboro, Kentucky, where James received a rudimentary education. As a young man he traded in horses and mules in eastern Kentucky and western Virginia before entering the mercantile trade at Cloverport, Kentucky. He was successful enough that he soon owned a flotilla of flatboats that he sent down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers as far as New Orleans to sell local produce. In 1826 at Cloverport he married Polly Miller Moorman. The couple had five children, including David Webster Flanagan, who became a prominent Republican politician in Reconstruction Texas. Flanagan served for twelve years as justice of the peace at Cloverport and in 1833-34 was a member of the circuit court of Breckenridge County.

In 1843 he moved to Texas and settled in a community called Slabtown, near the Louisiana border, where he established himself as a farmer and merchant. On August 9, 1844, he moved to Henderson, where he opened a store, farmed, speculated in land, and practiced law. His wife, Polly, died in 1844 at Henderson, and sometime after 1850 Flanagan married a widow named Elizabeth Ware. By 1850 he had amassed $14,856 worth of real estate.

A Whig in the 1830s and 1840s and thereafter a staunch Republican, Flanagan was a close friend and supporter of Sam Houston. In 1851-52 he served in the Texas House of Representatives and in 1855-58 in the Texas Senate. While in the state legislature he was a strong advocate of a state asylum for the insane and favored such causes as government-supported railroads. In 1856 he was a presidential elector, and in 1860 he was elected a delegate to the Peace Conference called by Houston. During the Civil War, Flanagan, ever a strong Unionist, retired to his farm and produced leather on contract for the Confederate States Army.

He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1866, but the document produced by this convention was rejected by the federal government, and congressional Reconstruction was instead imposed upon the state. Flanagan was a delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1868-69, this time with his son, Webster. When the new constitution was approved by the federal government, Flanagan was elected lieutenant governor in 1869 under Edmund J. Davis, and his son was elected to the state Senate. When the elder Flanagan vacated the position later that year, having been elected by the legislature to the United States House of Representatives as an at-large representative, his son replaced him as president pro tem of the Senate. The next year the legislature sent Flanagan to the United States Senate, where he served from March 30, 1870, until March 3, 1875, when he was succeeded by Samuel Bell Maxey. In Congress and in the Senate Flanagan supported Ulysses S. Grant and his administration. He was appointed chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Roads, the Committee on Education, and the Committee on Labor. On March 7, 1872, he delivered a speech to the Senate in support of his proposal to alienate to the federal government all of Texas north and west of a line drawn from the northwest corner of Hardeman County to the mouth of the Pecos River. This land, more than a third of the state, was to be designated an Indian reservation.

Upon leaving the Senate, Flanagan retired to his farm at Longview. His third marriage was to Elizabeth Lane. He had a total of eleven children. He died at Longview on September 19, 1887, and is buried in Henderson beside his first wife. He was a Baptist and an Odd Fellow. Some of his papers are preserved in the James Wainwright Flanagan collection Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: James Wainwright Flanagan Collection, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (5 Vols.., ed. E. C. Barker and E. W. Winkler [Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1914; rpt. 1916]). William S. Speer and John H. Brown, eds., Encyclopedia of the New West (Marshall, Texas: United States Biographical Publishing, 1881; rpt., Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1978).

Thomas W. Cutrer

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/FF/ffl4.html (accessed August 9, 2006).

(NOTE: "s.v." stands for sub verbo, "under the word.")

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Copyright ©, The Texas State Historical Association, 1997-2002 Last Updated: June 6, 2001

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from James Winwright Flanagan)

James Winright Flanagan (September 5, 1805– September 19, 1887) was an American merchant, lawyer, and farmer from Henderson, Texas. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1869 and 1870 then represented Texas in the United States Senate from 1870 to 1875.

James was born to Charles and Elizabeth (Saunders) Flanagan in Albemarrle County near Gordonsville, Virginia. Before his tenth birthday the family moved to Boonesboro, Kentucky. As a young man he moved to Cloverport, Kentucky on the Ohio River and became a prosperous merchant. He also read law and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1825. He married Polly Moorman in 1826 and the couple had several children before moving to Henderson, Texas in 1844.

Flanagan established himself in Henderson by opening a store. He bought a farm, speculated in land, and practiced law. Politically, he was a Whig and an active supporter of Sam Houston. He later became a moderate Republican. Flanagan served in the Texas House of Representatives (1851-1852) and the Texas State Senate (1855-1858).

When the Civil War came to Texas, Flanagan was a Unionist, but he withdrew to his farm and lived quietly. He returned to active politics during the Reconstruction. He served as a delegate to both Constitutional Conventions. The first, in 1866, produced a state constitution that was rejected by the radical Republicans in the U.S. Congress. The second, in 1868-1869, was successful.

Under the new Constitution, Flanagan was elected Lieutenant Governor. He served there only until 1870, when Texas was re-admitted to the Union. The legislature named him, along with Morgan Hamilton, to the U.S. Senate. He served one term as a Senator, until 1875 when he was replaced by the Democrat Samuel Maxey. In the Senate he was a supporter of the Grant Administration.

After his Senate term, Flanagan took up residence on one of his farms near Longview, Texas. He married again (he was widowed twice and married three times), this time to Elizabeth Lane. The three marriages produced a total of eleven children, one of who was David Webster Flanagan who also became a politician in Texas.

Flanagan died on his farm in Longview in 1878 and was buried next to his first wife, Polly, in their family graveyard in Henderson, Texas.

[edit] External link Biographic sketch at U.S. Congress website James Winwright Flanagan from the Handbook of Texas Online

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Flanagan" Categories: Handbook of Texas citations | 1805 births | 1887 deaths | Lieutenant Governors of Texas | United States Senators from Texas | Texas State Senators | People from Longview, Texas

Find additional info on James Winwright Flanagan in the notes of his grandson, Emmet Camp Flanagan

Congressional papers on file somewhere if any one is interested

Flanagan, James Winwright (1805-1887). Approximately 50 items (1805-1942): papers relate mainly to family genealogy; Flanagan served at Texas Lieut. Govenor.... (1869-1870) and In the U.S. Senate from 1870 to 1875 Research and Collections Division Phone Numbers: Reference Desk: 512/495-4532 Information Desk: 512/495-4518 Fax: 512/495-4542 Photo Orders Fax: 512/495-4370

Mailing Address: Sid Richardson Hall 2.101 1 University Station D1100 The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78712-0335

Reference E-mail Address: cahref@@uts.cc.utexas.edu Online Reference Request Form

Janes Winwright Flanagan http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=3baacb75-1845-4fd5-b2c7-632e6be53083&tid=6751508&pid=-1232660334 James Winwright Flanagan Obituaries http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=07afbf1e-b29a-4f52-98d3-ef57f0a32d3e&tid=6751508&pid=-1232660334 James Winwright Flanagan - Handbook of Texas Online http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=0e3e2f9d-4e9c-484a-af76-ad2e53fdc0c2&tid=6751508&pid=-1232660334

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article James W. Flanagan.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census. (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1)
   Year: 1860; Census Place: Beat 1, Rusk, Texas; Roll: M653_1304; Page: 212; Image: 43.

   Birth date: abt 1806Birth place: Virginia Residence date: 1860Residence place: Beat 1, Rusk, Texas

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census. (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2003.Original data - 1870. United States. Ninth Census of the United States, 1870. Washington, D.C. National Archives and Records Administration. M593, RG29, 1,761 rolls. Minnesota. Minnes)
   Year: 1870; Census Place: , , ; Roll: M593.

   Birth date: abt 1806Birth place: Virginia Residence date: 1870Residence place: Precinct 3, Rusk, Texas

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census. (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Seventh Census of the United States, 1850. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1850. M432,)
   Year: 1850; Census Place: Rusk, Rusk, Texas; Roll: M432_914; Page: 240; Image: 127.

   Birth date: abt 1805Birth place: Virginia Residence date: 1850Residence place: Rusk, Rusk, Texas

4. ↑ Ancestry.com. Texas Marriage Collection, 1814-1909 and 1966-2002. (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.Original data - Dodd, Jordan R, et. al. Early American Marriages: Texas to 1850. Bountiful, UT: Precision Indexing Publishers, 19xx.Hunting For Bears, comp. Texas marriage information).

   Marriage date: 21 Jan 1845Marriage place: Rusk, Texas

5. ↑ Ancestry Family Trees. (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.)
   Ancestry Family Trees.

   http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=6751508&pid=-1232660334