James Winright FLANAGAN, Congress, TX (1805-1887)

FLANAGAN, James Winright, a Senator from Texas; born in Gordonsville, Orange County, Va., September 5, 1805; attended the common schools and received private instruction; moved to Cloverport, Ky., in 1816, and engaged in mercantile pursuits; justice of the peace 1823-1833; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1825 and practiced in the Breckenridge County circuit 1833-1843; moved to Henderson, Rusk County, Tex., in 1843 and continued the practice of law; also engaged in mercantile and agricultural pursuits; member, State house of representatives 1851-1852; member, State senate 1855-1856; member of the State constitutional conventions in 1866 and 1868; elected lieutenant governor of Texas in 1869 and served until his resignation in 1870 to become Senator; upon the readmission of Texas to representation was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 30, 1870, to March 3, 1875; chairman, Committee on Education and Labor (Forty-third Congress); died in Longview, Gregg County, Tex., September 28, 1887; interment in the family burying ground in East Henderson, Tex.

Bibliography

Avillo, Philip J., Jr. “Phantom Radicals: Texas Republicans in Congress, 1870-1873.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 77 (April 1974): 431-44; Welch, June Rayfield. “James Flanagan Was Henderson’s First Merchant.” In The Texas Senator, pp. 24-25. Dallas: G.L.A. Press, 1978.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present