Anthony Flannigan’s eldest brother John (1831-1912), had married Mary Gallagher (1841-1935) in Aglish parish church, Castlebar, on 11 Feb. 1858, before emigrating to the United States around 1862. It is believed that he established himself in the Pennsylvania mining communities of Schuylkill and Forest Counties before sending for his wife and their young son William (1861-1927?). Anthony expected immediately to follow his older brother to the United States, but his family told him to wait until the conclusion of the Civil War. Irish immigrants in the U.S. already had voiced their violent opposition to the country’s first-ever draft in 1863. The bloody draft riots that broke out in New York in July 1863 and that quiickly descended into a race riot between whites and blacks would have tempered the enthusiasm of many Irishmen eligible for the draft to emigrate. Accordingly, shortly after the conclusion of hostilities in April 1865, Anthony, with his sister-in-law Mary and young nephew William, sailed from Liverpool on the Chancellor, arriving in New York on 3 May 1865.

In the 1870 Census, the Flannigans are shown to reside in Tionesta, Harmony, Forest County, Pennsylvania, near Oil City. The household consists of John Flannigan, his wife, several of their children, and John’s brothers Anthony and Patrick, who apparently had come to the U.S. before Anthony. Other members of the household are Michael Brett and Edward Hastings. Also living with the Flannigans is eighteen-year-old Margaret Jordan, a domestic servant, who six years later married Anthony Flannigan. Edward Hastings may have been employed by Margaret Jordan’s family in Castlebar; it is possible that she and Hastings emigrated together from Ireland.

Anthony and his brother John and the latter’s family moved to Aurora, Kane, Illinois, around 1872. Stories have been passed down that the rise of the Molly Maguires, a violent, secret society that warred against mine owners in Pennsylvania, had discouraged the Flannigans from staying in Pennsylvania. Anthony and John Flannigan applied for and received U.S. citizenship in Aurora in 1873. Both took jobs with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad that ran from Chicago through Aurora to points west. John and Mary Flannigan settled in a home on Jericho Road on Aurora’s West Side where both of them lived until their deaths. In 1876 (although the record has not been located), Anthony Flannigan married Margaret Jordan, with whom he had been reunited after she had left the family’s service, moved to Chicago, and finally settled in St. Louis, Missouri. Their first child, John Jordan Flannigan (1877-1944), was born in an apartment on River Street in Aurora’s West Side on 20 June 1877 and baptized at St. Mary’s Church on Downer Place on Aurora’s East Side.

Shortly after the birth of their son, Anthony and Margaret moved to Big Rock, Kane County, Illinois, also situated on the Burlington Railroad west of Sugar Grove, Illinois. The family apparently maintained a small farm in Big Rock, and Anthony became a track inspector for the Burlington. Each day he traveled a six-mile stretch of track looking for loose spikes, obstructions, and, given the recent violence surrounding the railroad strikes of 1877, possible sabotage. Anthony and his crew probably had access to a handcar to travel some of the distance. This outdoor job apparently suited him because he continued in this capacity with the Burlington for a number of years, even after moving to Sugar Grove in 1887. Most of Anthony and Margaret’s remaining children were born in Big Rock: William Collins, later City Clerk of Aurora (1878-1964), Edward Jennings (1881-1956), Patrick Henry (1883-1954), Francis (1885-1936), and Mary (1887-1953). Two other children, Maggie and another unnamed daughter, died in infancy. Their last child, James (1893-1908), was born in Sugar Grove.

Anthony Flannigan (seated on porch), with his daughter-in-law, Agnes Hanlon Flannigan and granddaughters Mary and Margaret, Woodlawn Avenue, Aurora, 1920

There were few Catholics in rural Kane County at this time, and the Flannigans, anxious to assimilate with their neighbors, downplayed their Irish ancestry and Catholic faith. Although all of their children were baptized at St. Mary’s Church in Aurora, it seems that the Flannigans seldom attended Mass given the distance and expense of travel between Big Rock and Aurora. The Flannigan children attended public schools in Kane County, some of them the classic two-room country schools.

In 1887 the Flannigans bought a small tract of land adjacent to the railroad in the town of Sugar Grove. Anthony continued working for the Burlington on the stretch of track between Sugar Grove and Big Rock, and life for the family probably improved with the move to Sugar Grove, given its proximity to Aurora. Around 1897 the family rented a frame house at 445 Woodlawn Avenue on Aurora’s West Side, and in 1899 Anthony and Margaret purchased the home. Around this time, Anthony left the Burlington and worked as a watchman for the Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin Railroad, the electric interurban train that linked Aurora and Batavia to Chicago’s Rapid Transit Lines.

Apparently Anthony and Margaret Flannigan talked little of their Irish roots, and few details of their time in Ireland were passed down to their children. The family’s attitude toward Ireland changed dramatically in the next generation, however, as was typical of the children of immigrants, and some of the Flannigan children became vocal boosters of everything Irish and openly hostile to people of British (or even non-Irish) ancestry.

The Flannigans were close-knit, and for years the entire family would meet at the Woodlawn Avenue home for Sunday dinner. The Flannigans, like many Aurorans, kept chickens, and the Flannigan grandchildren vividly remembered their grandmother Margaret chasing, killing, plucking and preparing chicken at the hand-pumped kitchen sink.

Anthony Flannigan apparently was a salty, tobacco-chewing fellow who occasionally caused embarrassment to others. His grandson John Jordan Flannigan (1913-1986) recalled an incident in the early 1920s when he was riding in the back seat of his father’s Reo Touring Car and Anthony was seated in the front passenger seat. Anthony couldn’t get the hang of rolling up the isinglass window and so repeatedly spat tobacco juice at the closed window.

Anthony Flannigan died at home in 1924, and the following obituary appeared in Aurora Beacon News of 19 November 1924:

Margaret Jordan Flannigan, about 1900

Margaret Jordan Flannigan was born 1 January 1852 in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland, the daughter of Myles Jordan, Crown Solicitor for County Mayo, and Margaret Shields. She was baptized at Islandeady parish church on 7 January 1852. No marriage record for her parents has been discovered, and the circumstances of Margaret’s young life suggest that her parents were not married. Myles Jordan, a resident of the town of Castlebar, owned farmland in Islandeady parish, and it is possible that the Shields family were his employees or sharecroppers on one of his farms. Stories passed down in the family told of Margaret's being raised in a comfortable home in Castlebar with servants and of being ill-equipped for the difficult, servant-less life that awaited her in the United States.

Margaret later related stories of a relative of her father’s who converted from Catholicism to the Church of England in order to keep the family’s lands from forfeiting to the Crown as required by the harsh penal laws of the time. Whenever she mentioned this ancestor, she piously crossed herself. There is indeed a record for an uncle of Myles Jordan named James Jordan, a barrister, who did change religions for that reason; he was killed in a duel in 1785.

Margaret told few other stories of her life in Ireland that have survived. She was forced by her father to leave Ireland because of disagreements between Margaret and her stepmother. A Catholic marriage record has been found of Myles Jordan’s marriage to Margaret J. Graham of Westport, Mayo, in 1858, and, given the impossibility of Catholics’ obtaining a divorce in Ireland, it is likely that Margaret Jordan was the product of an earlier liaison between Myles and Margaret Shields. The latter immigrated to the United States without her daughter, and the two never had any real contact although they knew of each other's whereabouts. In 1916, Margaret Jordan Flannigan’s second son, William, visited Margaret Shields in New York State while on his honeymoon, but William’s mother was uninterested in hearing about the visit.

Margaret Jordan probably sailed from Liverpool on the Star of the West and arrived in New York on 10 June 1868. Soon after her arrival she must have traveled to Pennsylvania, for she appears as a domestic servant for the Flannigan family in the 1870 Census for Tionesta, Harmony, Forest County, Pennsylvania. Around this time she left Pennsylvania and traveled to Chicago. She was working as a chambermaid in a downtown hotel and sharing accommodations with a friend when, on 8 October 1871, the Great Chicago Fire consumed all of the business district. She and her roommate hired a man with a horse and wagon to carry their belongings to safety, but, while they were making a last check of their room, the man and their possessions disappeared. It is not known where Margaret was living at the time of the fire, but she is supposed to have fled east over the Van Buren Street bridge to safer ground.

After the Fire, the city was without food, water, or shelter for the dispossessed, and the railroads were induced to provide free transportation to anyone leaving the city. Margaret obtained a ticket to St. Louis and settled there. No records of her residence in St. Louis have been found, but it is believed that it was there she met Anthony Flannigan for whom she had worked as a maid in Pennsylvania. She and Anthony were married around 1876 and settled first in Aurora, Illinois, and later in Big Rock, Kane County, Illinois.

It must have been difficult for Margaret to adjust to her change in life. She and Anthony told their children of how the relationship between the wealthy Jordans and the impoverished Flannigans in Ireland was reversed in this country; the Flannigans had achieved some prosperity and stability while Margaret was forced to become a servant to earn a living.

James A. Flannigan (1893-1908) and his sister Mary (1887-1953), with the family dog, Woodlawn Avenue, Aurora, about 1904

She and her husband had nine children, seven of whom survived. The untimely death of her youngest child, James A. Flannigan (1893-1908), was a devastating blow to Margaret. James was much loved in the family and showed great promise. When he was twelve he could beat all of his much older brothers at chess. Family members spoke of how grief over James' death changed Margaret from a rather passive, soft-spoken member of the family to a much more assertive one.

She remained a colorful if somewhat distant member of the family after her husband’s death in 1924. Her grandchildren spoke of how she puttered about the house in Aurora, speaking or singing softly to herself, happy to regale them with stories of the Chicago Fire. She died unexpectedly at her home in Aurora on 13 December 1937 only two weeks short of her eighty-sixth birthday. The following obituary for her appeared in the Aurora Beacon News for 14 December 1937: