Webster Flanagan Explained

Caption:Photo of Flanagan from the Texas State Archives
Birth Date:9 January 1832
Birth Place:Cloverport, Kentucky, U.S.
Death Place:Henderson, Texas, U.S.
Spouse:
Parents:James W. Flanagan
State Senate:Texas
District:5th
Termstart:February 10, 1870
Termend:April 18, 1876
Successor:Francis M. Henry
Predecessor:John G. Brown
Party:Republican

David Webster Flanagan (January 9, 1832 – May 5, 1924) was a Republican state senator in Texas.[1] His father, James Winright Flanagan, served as Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Senator from Texas.

A Unionist before the American Civil War, he nevertheless served in the Confederate Army.

He and his father were delegates at the Texas Constitutional Convention held in 1868 and 1869 after which they supported dividing Texas into three states.[2] Web Flanagan was also a delegate at the 1875 Texas Constitutional Convention. After his first wife died he remarried.[3]

He married Elizabeth Graham in 1853.[4] They had six children: Charles C., Emmet C., Marian, Horace B., and Bonnie May. Elizabeth Flanagan died in 1872. In 1878 he married Sallie Phillip Ware and they had several children together.

He was involved in a legal dispute over land.[5] Hill High School was constructed on land that was once part of his estate.

He opposed Governor Edmund Jackson Davis' state police initiatives.[6]

Flanagan was buried in the Flanagan Cemetery in Henderson, Texas.[1]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Legislative Reference Library | Legislators and Leaders | Member profile. lrl.texas.gov.
  2. Book: Spaw, Patsy McDonald. The Texas Senate: Civil War to the Eve of Reform, 1861-1889. December 30, 1990. Texas A&M University Press. 9780890968574. Google Books.
  3. Web site: TSHA | Flanagan, David Webster. www.tshaonline.org.
  4. Archeological and Historic Resources Surveys of 6,295 Acres in the East Part of the Sabine Mine's South Hallsville No. 1 Mine--Rusk Permit, Panola and Rusk Counties, Texas. John. Dockall. Reports of Investigations No. 158, Prewitt and Associates, Inc., Austin, Texas. www.academia.edu.
  5. Web site: Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas. Texas Supreme. Court. December 30, 1878. Hutchings Print. House. Google Books.
  6. Book: Williams, Patrick G.. Beyond Redemption: Texas Democrats after Reconstruction. February 6, 2007. Texas A&M University Press. 9781585445738. Google Books.