In 1904 His First Cousin, Patrick Flanagan From Cloncannon, Edenderry Was Eventually Declared The Sole Heir

When Michael Flanagan, a Blacksmith and business man, died suddenly in Pittsburg in 1899 he left an estate then valued at $50,000 (Equivalent to $2 Million today). His passing set in motion a protracted legal battle that would weave its way through the courts of Pennsylvania and involve claim and counter claim before eventually and finally being resolved in favor of a poor bachelor farmer living alone on the outskirts of Edenderry in County Offaly.

Michael Flanagan was born in 1836 in a small area called Ballyonan, close to Broadford, which was then included in the Union Registry of Edenderry. His baptism record confirm his parents were Patrick Flanagan and Mary Keely and they would register three more Flanagan boys in this baptism book over the next 5 years, Dominic, John and Christopher. The family would tragically lose their Mother Mary in the late 1840s and as a result would move to an area just outside Dublin where Patrick Flanagan would re-marry. Michael Flanagan would not move with the family to Dublin, he instead took the decision to emigrate to the USA settling in the “Steel City” of Pittsburgh. Back in Ireland tragedies would continue for his family as one by one the Flanagan men would succumb to the then deadly disease of Tuberculosis. As a result, by 1880, all of Michael Flanagan’s immediate family in Ireland were dead.

Baptism Record of Michael Flanagan 1836 & Dominick in 1839

– 04206/03, Balyna – Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI

Soon after his arrival in Pittsburg Michael Flanagan was taken under the wing of a local Blacksmith and would become a skilled tradesman eventually starting his own blacksmith shop and stables in an area within Pittsburg called Lawrenceville. Over the next 30 years Michael Flanagan would become a very successful and wealthy business man, not only due to his work as a blacksmith, but he had also acquired several valuable properties in the Lawrenceville area.

At the outbreak of the US Civil War in 1861 Michael Flanagan would enlist in the Union Army. He joined the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment and would serve for the full 4 years of the conflict. His regiment would see action in several of the main battles of the bloody conflict including Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor and also towards the end of the war they would be present at The Siege of Petersburg, a vital event in the war that helped bring about the final surrender of Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Not much detail is available of Michael’s service but later reports state the he “served with honor and distinction during the four years”.

At end of hostilities Michael would return to his life in Pittsburgh and would marry Mary Ann Grant and while the marriage seemed a very happy union the couple would never have any children. Maybe for this reason Michael was always good to the children in his area and reports always mention him as a kind hearted member of the community who was “generous to a fault”. Michael would lose his wife in 1897 and on her death he would come to rely on a close knit group of friends. One in particular, Edward McCabe, who was in fact the local Undertaker, would become a close confidant of Michael’s. Edward McCabe would convince Michael that he should make a will and in doing so guarantee his wishes would be safeguarded on his eventual death. At least that was the story that Edward McCabe would tell when Michael Flanagan died suddenly in 1899 at the age of 62. The problem though was that the mysterious will in question could not be found and as now that Michael Flanagan had died without any known family in the USA his estate was fair game for anyone who could prove they were his closest next of kin. What was then termed as “one of the most confusing court cases in Pennyslvania’s long history” was about to get under way.

The first up in court to claim rights to the estate was the Sister In Law of Michael. Mrs. Hugh Grant presented herself as a second cousin of the deceased. She had married a brother of Michaels Wife, Mary Ann Grant. The judge in the case did not take long to decide that this claim was not valid and, whatever the motives of the Grant family, they were denied their application. This case was quickly followed by another potential “cousin”, Ann Giles, coming forward with the same claims. Again this claim was denied. Thomas Farrell was next in line to make a claim with, yet again, the same result. Amazingly, over the next two years, 17 people in total would make claim to the estate of Michael Flanagan and all would fail in their attempts. As hard as this is to fathom in today’s world of online records and access to information, 1900 America was a very different place with records and certificates of birth not so easy to trace and where the identity of a person could be easily manipulated.

One of the more interesting cases brought forward was by a woman called Kate Flanagan. She caused quite a stir in the local newspapers when it looked likely that she would indeed be declared the sole heir of the contested estate. Her appearances in court were watched carefully as she was considered an “elegant beauty”. She told a story of how her Father, John Flanagan, was in fact a Brother of Michael Flanagan. Her testimony was that John Flanagan had moved to Hull, England and had married there. She claimed to be born in Hull but had moved to Pittsburg with her Father upon the death of her Mother. She would further explain that Michael Flanagan was aware that she was his Niece as she had visited his premises several times as a young child along with her Father, John Flanagan. She explained how she had lost touch with Michael due to very sad circumstances. Her Father had became an alcoholic and was abusive towards her which led to her being placed in foster care until the age of 18. She also provided a witness to further substantiate her claim in the form of a stable man who actually worked for Michael Flanagan in Pittsburgh. His testimony was that Michael Flanagan had on several occasions acknowledged to him that Kate Flanagan was indeed the daughter of his Brother. As a result, after several hearings, Kate Flanagan was declared the rightful heir to the estate.

It would prove to be a hollow and short lived victory for Kate Flanagan. That old friend of Michael Flanagan’s, Edward McCabe, now appeared on the scene and would file an appeal against the decision. He would also sensationally finally produce “The Will” that had now been located in a notebook among the papers of Michael Flanagan. In order to further delay the granting of the estate to Kate Flanagan he also volunteered to finance a Private Investigator to visit both England and Ireland to further clarify her claims. The court agreed to this and so an investigator set sail for Ireland and England with a view to finally unravelling the case.

It would be 10 Months before the court would hear the new evidence gathered in Ireland and England. The Private Investigator had, while in Hull England, interviewed the family of Kate Flanagan. Their evidence was that John Flanagan was indeed from Ireland but was in fact from County Roscommon and in no way related to the Michael Flanagan named in the case before the courts. The original ruling in favor of Kate Flanagan was subsequently over turned and the estate of Michael Flanagan was yet again still unclaimed.

It seemed at this stage that Edward McCabe, due to the wording of the newly found will, was in prime position to lay claim to the full estate. But in another twist to the tale and, no small bit of irony, it would be the investigator hired by Edward McCabe and the information he had unearthed while in Ireland that would delay the decision in his favor. On his visit to Ireland a new claimant had been established in the form of Patrick Flanagan from Cloncannon, near Edenderry in County Offaly. He now also lodged papers with the courts in Pennsylvania stating that he was a first cousin of Michael Flanagan. He claimed that being now the only living descendant of Michael Flanagan he was entitled to inherit the full estate. The details of his claim centered around a man named Christopher “Kit” Flanagan who was the Uncle of Patrick Flanagan and therefore also the Uncle Of Michael Flanagan. To prove this claim he had provided the court with baptismal and birth certificates as well as testimony from several prominent people, including the local priests, from the Edenderry area.

“Kit” Flanagan had settled in Edenderry and had been a very well known character around the town. He had drove the mail car from Edenderry to Enfield every day for over 20 years before a railway line was established in Edenderry in 1877 which then made his role redundant. Up to that point the mail car driver in any area was always a well know personality due to the vital role the postal service played in the daily life of every business and of every family all over Ireland. The evidence given by the people questioned in Edenderry was that “Kit” Flanagan was always known in the area to be the Uncle of Michael Flanagan and that Patrick Flanagan from Cloncannon was without question a first cousin of Michael Flanagan. As a result of all this new information the preponderance of evidence now pointed to the claim of Patrick Flanagan from Edenderry being the strongest case.

After nearly 5 years of litigation the final decision in the case had now been narrowed to only two claims. Edward McCabe at this stage now challenged the facts before the court in relation to Patrick Flanagan. The bone of contention being that in some earlier documents Patrick had claimed to be a nephew of Michael Flanagan and in later documents had claimed to be a first cousin. To explain this error Patrick stated that his Father had died when he was only 2 years of age and his only information at the initial stages of the investigation was what he had been told as a young boy by his Mother who had also died several years earlier. When alive she was seemingly, and considering what we now know, never too sure of her husbands family tree.

The Judge reviewing the case now made the decision to send another investigator to Edenderry, this time at the courts expense, to further clarify the details and to help bring this long running case to a close. This of course delayed the decision by a further 8 months and it would be August of 1904, almost 6 years since the beginning of the saga, before a new report of the evidence gathered in Ireland was laid before the court. It was while this evidence was being examined by the judge that a serious of meetings between the Lawyers of Edward McCabe and Patrick Flanagan concluded in an agreement that would finally break the deadlock in the case. As a result of this agreement the court would eventually declare that Patrick Flanagan from Cloncannon near Edenderry was indeed the rightful heir to the estate but would allow for the wishes stated in writing in the will of Michael Flanagan. In other words some of the properties in Pittsburg would be handed to Edward McCabe and certain amounts would also be paid to the people mentioned in the will, The balance of the estate would then pass to Patrick Flanagan from Cloncannon.

So what then for Patrick Flanagan ? Well the 1901 Census shows a 31 year old Patrick had been living alone in Cloncannon on a very small property. Unfortunately we have no information as to the exact amount inherited by Patrick Flanagan in 1904 but the figure must have been significant enough for him to decide to get married. A 23 year old and newly widowed Mary Deegan(Formerly Connor) who was living with her parents and daughter after the sudden death of her young husband Michael Deegan in an area called The Derries (which was part of the Cloncannon towns land) would be the new bride of Patrick Flanagan. They would marry in September of 1904 in Killane Church Edenderry and, coincidence or not, the marriage took place only one month after Patrick had received confirmation of his new found wealth.

census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000945865/ – 1901 Census (Cloncannon)

5715888.pdf – Marriage of Patrick Flanagan

Over the next 6 years the couple would move to Blundell Street in the town of Edenderry where four children would be born and, just like the family of his Uncle Michael Flanagan, all would be boys. But there would be another more unfortunate and sinister coincidence peculiar to the Flanagan family to come. In July of 1910 Patrick Flanagan would die in the local Edenderry hospital from Tuberculosis. The cruel irony now being that the same disease that had made him the sole heir to the fortune of Michael Flanagan had now also taken his young life. His wife Mary was now also a widow for the second time in less than 10 years and left to rear a young family.

4514527.pdf – Death Cert of Patrick Flanagan

census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002655310/– 1911 Census (Blundell Street, Edenderry)

Unfortunately at this point the records available make it difficult to pinpoint what exactly happened to the Flanagan family after this terrible tragedy. For now this is where the story of Michael Flanagan’s fortune comes to an end and maybe now is also a good time to reveal to the reader that I actually also grew up in the area of Cloncannon very close to where Patrick Flanagan had lived. I had never heard of this secret story of the Flanagan fortune. Maybe on reflection it is best if the rest of this story should remain a secret……………………………………….although if there is anyone out there who has any more information please do tell !!!

By Kevin Guing

(Thanks to Danny Leavy and all his initial research into this story)