“Colonel Ed”
Few int'ii have lived in North
Carolina «luring the present
generation who had a greater
ini in her of warm ami «levoted
friends than did F.
(».
Flanagan,
of f»r«4knville.
Kfl R. C. LAURENCE
PITT is a famous county, named
in honor of that great English
friend of American liberty, and
i> has produced many remarkable men,
hut she never produced a liner citizen
than Edward Gaskill Flanagan. Ho
was commonly and popularly known
as "Colonel Ed” although he held no
n-al military title; but if he had
livol in Raleigh in the days of miue
host, O. W. Blacknull of the Old Yar-
lioro House, that famous conferrer
of honorary military titles would have
named him Field Marshal, or General
at the very least!
The Colonel had a varied and most
remarkable career. Ills father was a
large manufacturer of buggies and
wagons in Pitt, aud there hie son was
lorn in 1S75. When the lad was but
sixteen, love of romanco and the thrill
of high adventure lured him to a
ranch in Texas on the Mexican bor¬
der below Sun Antonio, where he
• pent two years. Returning to bis na¬
tive county be was educated in its
excellent public schools and later took
a business course- in u Georgia busi-
uess college. He held no academic de¬
gree, but neither did President Andrew
Johnson, Governor Clyde R. Hoey,
Dr. Clarence H. Poe, ami other emi¬
nent Carolinians, and ho was not in
the least handicapped thereby.
The Colonel began life as an under¬
taker! Rut wherever be sat was the
head of the table, urn! soon he was
elected as President of the State Fu¬
neral Directors Association. He was
one of the organizer» of the State
Hoard of Embalming and had the dis-
tion of being the tir»t person licensed
by that Board. He was also active in
the affairs of the large manufacturing
plant which had been established hv
hi» father, John Flunngnn, ’way back
in I860. In 1915 be also took the Pitt
County agency for the Ford automo¬
bile, which he conducted under the
idd name of the Flanagan Buggy
Company, a business which ha» ln*en
continuously operated under that
name since 1866 — rivalling the an¬
cient Weil business in Goldsboro
which dates back to 1865.
A Loyal Democrat
. From early manhood the Colonel
took a keen interest in the affairs of
the Democratic party, being a Demo¬
crat of the sort typified by stout¬
hearted Grover Cleveland, to whom
•‘public office was a public trust." The
Colonel became a political wheel-
horse, not only in Pitt but through¬
out eastern Carolina, and those desir¬
ing the enactment of legislation soon
sought the benefit of his support and
influence. He was a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention
which met at Houston in 1928; again
at Chicago in 1932 (when Roosevelt
was nominated) and once again in
1936. Beginning with 1927 bo served
four consecutive terms as a mom her
of the House of Representatives, and
lie then »crved in the Senate of 1937.
He was the active friend, supporter
aud patron of the East Carolina
Teachers College, and he secured for
this hobby of his the largest single
appropriation ever made by the Gen¬
eral Assembly for a state-supported
college, lie was prominent in securing
additional legislation for the benefit
of the highway system; and lie was an
earnest, insistent and ardent advocate
of larger appropriations for the insti¬
tution» for the tubercular, and he was
largely instrumental in securing funds
for the construction of an additional
institution in western Carolina. He
also was the prime mover in ousting
slot lunch i ues (the gambling type)
from this state. That he was one of
the most useful and valuable legis-
tors our state has ever had is attested
by Speaker (maybe future Governor)
Libby Ward, who says that the Colo¬
nel was the most popular figure in
either branch of the General Assem¬
bly — a statement which is verified by
"Cousin Willie" Clark of Edgecoml*-,
who was his colleague in the Senate.
Always Ready to Serve
During the first World War the
Colonel served a» chairman of all the
liberty Loan, Red Cross, War Sav¬
ings aud other war drives; and he was
a director in numerous corporation»
in Pitt and adjoining counties. Fra¬
ternally he was a member of the
Knights of Pythias, and an humble
and consistent member of the Baptist
church. But his fraternal interest was
larger than any one organization or
society for, as did Abou Ben Adliciu,
the Colonel wrote himself "as one
who loves his fellow-man.*' He was
one of the most courteous, friendly,
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