Even with my newly confirmed 11 percent Irish ancestry, St. Patrick’s Day snuck past me with no commemorative column on my part — until Tom Flanagan died.
Bangor native Thomas Shea Flanagan, who died March 8, was not someone I knew well, but calls and correspondence with him had been part of my writing over the years about Charlie Flanagan, whose likeness can be seen in the sculpted bronze soldier in a Jeep atop the Maine World War II Memorial at Cole Land Transportation Museum on Perry Road.
Charlie, who was killed in Europe in November 1944, was the “best boyhood friend” of museum founder Galen Cole, whose top 10 ideas, I would suggest, include the Maine WWII Memorial and the Maine Vietnam Memorial on the museum campus.
Back to the Irish. I wondered, of course, who the immigrant ancestors were in the Flanagan line. I believe they were Patrick and Bridget, and I don’t think you can get much more Irish than that.
But let’s start where we should, with Tom and Charlie, and work backward. And I’ll give Tom top billing here, because he left a special legacy to history as well, I believe.
Thomas Shea Flanagan was the son of John Patrick and Helen (Shea) Flanagan of 207 Maple St. The 1930 Census lists John P. Flanagan, 41, married for 26 years, as owning a home and a radio. Enumerated with him were wife Helen F., 40; and children Wilfrid J., 14; Eileen M., 12; Mildred, 10; Joseph F., 8; Charles A., 6; and Thomas S., 4. (Not yet born by the time of this census were daughters Patricia, Kathleen and Helen.)
The Flanagans lived in dwelling No. 195, family No. 254 and other Irish surnames found on this section of Maple Street included Quinn, Daley and MacManus.
On Ancestry.com, which can be used free at libraries in Maine, John P. Flanagan’s Draft Registration Card of June 5, 1917, listed him as a “natural born” citizen of the United States on June 18, 1889, living at 151 Parkview Ave., Bangor.
John was employed as a news reporter and later an editor for J.P. Bass Publishing, which we know published the Bangor Daily Commercial, one of the newspapers available on microfilm at Bangor Public Library and Fogler Library at the University of Maine in Orono.
John P. Flanagan claimed exemption from service based on dependents, a wife and 2-year-old child. He served one year as a private in the National Guard. He was described as of medium height, slender build, with hazel eyes and black hair.
If we go back to the 1910 Census, we find John P. as a young man, a news reporter in the home of John Flanagan, 57, a brickmaker living at 45 Pine St., Bangor. Residing with John were Mary E., 52, his wife, who had 10 children, seven of them still living. Children listed were John P., 21; Helen M. 17; James D., 16; Daniel F., 14; Mary A., 11; and Elizabeth, 9. Everyone in the 1910 household was listed as born in Maine, but John and Mary each said their parents were born in Ireland.
The 1880 Census of Brewer lists no parents in the household, but a family of siblings: John Flanagan, 22, born in Maine, with both parents having been born in Ireland; Dennis, 20; Maggie, 16; Nora, 13; and Patrick, 12.
Tom Flanagan and Charlie Flanagan both joined the U.S. Army in World War II, and they had a brief few days home in Bangor at the same time in January 1944. Tom reached Europe first, but it was Charlie who was killed in November. The Army recorded the date as Nov. 25, but Tom researched it and believes Charlie died on Nov. 23.
In Bangor, Monsignor Thomas Nelligan celebrated the funeral Mass on Jan. 3, 1945, but the Flanagans knew their boy would not be brought home until the war was over. He was buried in the U.S. Military Cemetery in Margraten, Holland, Plot B, Row 3, Grave 74.
Tom visited the cemetery in April 1945, writing home: “Almost as far as the eye can see there are white crosses, 8,000 of them, perfectly lined up no matter what angle you look at them from, and among the first in this Infantry of Sleep is the resting place of your soldier son.”
Charlie’s body was brought to Bangor a couple of years later and buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Ohio Street. Galen Cole told me it was an honor to have been a pallbearer for his friend. He has been to Germany to see where Charlie served and has visited the cemetery in Margraten, where several of his squad mates from the 5th Armored are buried.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland lists on its database of some Catholic cemeteries at portlanddiocese.net/genealogy, Charles Flanagan as buried in Section X-A Lot 72-73 of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, the same lot as his father, John P. Flanagan. John P.’s parents John Flanagan and Mary E. (Glynn) are listed in Section X Lot 35-36. Patrick Flanagan is listed in Section V Lot 114. The database for Mount Pleasant Cemetery is not complete.
When I give tours to school classes who visit Cole Land Transportation Museum, we walk through the 5th Armored Room, which displays items donated by members of Cole’s 5th Armored Division. I talk about Cole’s service and the German shell that came through a half-track, killing half his squad in April 1945.
Then I explain about the World War II Memorial outside the museum and the bronze sculpture of the soldier and Jeep. During a tour last fall with a class from Winterport, one young girl enthusiastically raised her hand, then went on to say, “That soldier was my great-uncle, Charles Augustus Flanagan.”
Her name? Augusta Flanagan.
Thomas Shea Flanagan and wife Constance (Coleman) had several accomplished children and more than a dozen grandchildren. Augusta Flanagan is the daughter of son Dr. Mark Flanagan and wife Maggie-English Flanagan.
Based on her enthusiasm and obvious understanding of Charlie Flanagan’s legacy, I am convinced there are young people who will carry forward some of the stories of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Global War on Terror and honor the sacrifices of the men and women who died and of those who lived.
Soldier Tom Flanagan has his own legacy, and granddaughter Augusta is a part of it.
For information on researching family history in Maine, see Genealogy Resources under Family Ties at bangordailynews.com/browse/family-ties. Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402, or email familyti@bangordailynews.com.