Chatham-Fulton-Taliaferro County GaArchives Biographies.....Flannery, John 1835 - 1910 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 1, 2004, 9:28 pm Author: William Harden p. 1078-1080 CAPT. JOHN FLANNERY. The late Capt. John Flannery was born November 24, 1835, in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland, and died May 9, 1910, in Savannah, Georgia, in which city he had been a prominent banker and cotton factor for many years. He was the eldest son of John and Hannah (Hogan) Flannery. His maternal grandmother was Catherine Fitzpatrick, descended from the prominent Fitzpatrick family who were Earls of Ossory. His education was received in private schools of his native town. John Flannery, Sr., was a merchant in Nenagh and on account of general depression caused by famine and revolutions, his business became unsuccessful. The father and son determined to try their fortunes in America and together they landed in Charleston, South Carolina, on October 26, 1851, when the son was in his sixteenth year. The father soon decided to return to his home and died at sea on the passage to Ireland. John Flannery, Jr., obtained his first business position as a clerk in Atlanta, but returned to Charleston as soon as he could find employment there. He removed to Savannah in December, 1854, where he filled various positions as clerk or bookkeeper until the opening of the war between the states. On May 30, 1861, he enlisted as junior lieutenant in the Irish Jasper Greens, First Volunteer Regiment of Georgia, Confederate army, in which company he had served his state at Fort Pulaski earlier during the same year as a non-commissioned officer. Promoted January, 1862, to first lieutenant on October 20, 1862, he became captain of that historic company. He was in command of Lee Battery, Savannah River, for a year and until his regiment joined the army of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. During the time he was stationed at Lee Battery the garrison, consisting nominally of nine officers and two hundred privates, was by illness reduced to nineteen privates and one officer, Lieut. John Flannery, who during the remainder of his life suffered from the effects of the malarial poison absorbed in the swamps around that post. He was with Hood's army in the disastrous Tennessee campaign, but, being at the time on detached service with his command, was not present at the battles of Franklin and Nashville. His activity in the war was brought to an end by serious illness at Corinth, Mississippi, in January, 1865. He was paroled in Augusta, Georgia, in May, 1865, and returned to Savannah the same month. Prior to its consolidation with the Citizens Bank, under the name Citizens & Southern Bank, he was for twenty-five years president of the Southern Bank of the state of Georgia, which, during that period, was Savannah's largest bank, and of which institution he was one of the organizers and incorporators in November, 1870. After the consolidation he was made first vice president of the Citizens & Southern Bank, which position he held up to the time of his death. For nearly half a century he was the leading member of one of Savannah's most prominent firms in the cotton trade. In July, 1865, he entered the cotton business as a partner in the firm J. L. Guilmartin & Co. In July, 1877, he bought out this business and changed the style to John Flannery & Co., admitting John L. Johnson as a partner. On June 1, 1901, he incorporated the business under the style, The John Flannery Company, and was elected president. In 1906 he sold his interest in this company, which still bears his name, and retired from active business in the cotton trade, but up to the time of his death remained one of Savannah's most public spirited citizens. Scarcely an enterprise of magnitude was launched in Savannah during the last fifty years of his life, which did not receive his aid or encouragement. Captain Flannery was a director and vice president of the Chattahoochee & Gulf R. R. and director of the South Bound R. R. and of the Georgia & Alabama R. R. before they were merged into the Seaboard Air Line. He was a director of the United Hydraulic Cotton Compress Co., The Savannah Lighting Co., The Henderson-Hull Buggy Co., The Southern Pine Co. of Georgia, The Semmes Hardware Co., and the Savannah Hotel Co., owners of the magnificent Hotel DeSoto. He was vice president, for Georgia, of the American-Irish Historical Society and was president of the Jasper Monument Association which erected the beautiful monument to the memory of Sergeant William Jasper, which has adorned Madison Square since its unveiling on February 22,1888. He was a member of the Savannah Cotton Exchange from 1875 and of the Hibernian Society from 1866 until his death. He was a member of The United Confederate Veterans, The Georgia Historical Society, The Savannah Yacht Club and of the Reform Club of New York City. He was a staunch Democrat and took a lively interest in municipal affairs, but steadily refused to become a candidate for public office, though he served as chairman of the Savannah Sinking Fund Commission from 1878 to 1888, when he declined re-election. He was a consistent member of the Roman Catholic church and contributed largely of his time and means to the handsome cathedral of St. John the Baptist erected in 1873 and burned in 1898. He was chairman of the building committee for the present magnificent cathedral of the same name which was erected in 1899 and 1900. In 1873 and 1874 he was largely instrumental in the conversion of the old cathedral into the present commodious home of the Catholic Library Association on Drayton street. Through gifts made in 1903 and others arranged for not long before his death, he created a fund of one hundred thousand dollars known as the Flannery Trust Fund to be managed by a board of trustees, by whom the income shall be applied in shares to various Catholic institutions of Georgia. His life was devoid of ostentation and filled with acts of charity. His purse was always open to those in distress and to young men laying the foundations for future success and to enterprises making for Savannah 's improvement. Captain Flannery was married in Savannah on April 30, 1867, to Miss Mary Ellen Norton, niece of Capt. John and Kate (Harty) McMahon, with whom she lived, and daughter of Patrick and Honora (Harty) Norton of old Locust Grove (now Sharon), Taliaferro county, Georgia, who with their relatives came from Ireland and cast their lots with the Catholic colony in which were the families of Semmes, Brooke, Scott, Thompson and others, who came from Maryland during, or shortly before 1794, and established in that part of Warren county which later became part of Taliaferro county, the cradle of Catholicity in Georgia. Mrs. Flannery died on June 11, 1899. Of the issue of six children, only two lived to maturity, John McMahon Flannery, who died December 29, 1900, and Kate Flannery, now the wife of Raphael T. Semmes of Savannah, Georgia. Additional Comments: From: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chatham/bios/gbs527flannery.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 7.6 Kb