Saying Goodbye to the Last One

The trail leading from a small news clipping tucked among Agnes Tully Stevens’ personal papers to the reading of the will of her Chicago pastor ends with a funeral report of Father Flannigan’s last remaining sibling, Agatha. A lifelong public school teacher, Aggie was well known in her hometown of Norway on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The report subsequent to her passing and funeral revealed further information on both her well-known brother Richard—whose legal career spanned decades of service in every role from trial lawyer to state Supreme Court Chief Justice—and her respected father, who evidently hailed from County Waterford in Ireland. Though my own searches failed to reveal where Father Patrick M. Flannigan was buried in Marquette, or bring me to any online record of his unmarried sister Agatha’s own grave, this local newspaper report led me right to the spot: a family mausoleum at Holy Cross Cemetery in Marquette.

The only thing missing from this funeral report is the very thing genealogy researchers look for in obituaries: the names of the survivors. While Agatha Flannigan had been the last one remaining of her siblings, she did leave behind at least one member of the next generation.

In order to find the names from that next generation, though, we first have to work our way further backwards in time.

FLANNIGAN RITES ARE

HELD AT MARQUETTE

            Greenland—Funeral services for Miss Agatha Flannigan, Norway, who died Saturday morning in Duluth, Minn., were held Monday morning in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Marquette and interment was made in the Flannigan mausoleum in Holy Cross cemetery.

            Miss Flannigan, a sister of the late Judge Richard C. Flannigan of Norway, was the last member of a family prominent throughout the Upper Peninsula. Miss Flannigan was born in Greenland, a daughter of the late Captain and Mrs. Flannigan. Captain Flannigan was born and raised in County Waterford, Ireland, and was engaged in mining for years in the old country. Emigrating to the United States in the 40s, he located at Greenland, becoming one of the pioneers of the Upper Peninsula and one of the first to mine copper in this region.

            Miss Flannigan, one of three daughters and ten sons born to Captain and Mrs. Flannigan attended school here, later moving to Marquette, where she also attended school. She later moved to Norway, where she taught school for many years. In her later life, she divided her time between the old Flannigan home in Norway, where she spent most of her winters, and her cottage at Spread Eagle, where she spent each summer.