Flannery, L. G. (Pat)

1894 - 1964

Goshen County

Biographical and Professional Information

L. G. (Pat) Flannery was born on March 3, 1894, in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended school in St. Louis and Chicago prior to moving to Denver, Colorado with his parents in 1912. He attended high school in Denver and later enrolled in the old Colorado State College of Agriculture at Fort Collins, Colorado. There he courted Laura Alice Moomaw, married her, and in 1916, Alice gave birth to their daughter and only child, Billie.

In 1921, Flannery moved with his wife and daughter to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, where he engaged in ranching. In 1923, he founded a weekly newspaper, the Fort Laramie Scout, which he later combined with the Goshen County News in Torrington, Wyoming. Its files contain some of the choicest editorial writing ever seen in print.

In the following years, Flannery became a leader in political circles in Wyoming, serving as state chairman of his party. He was also a member of the state legislature from Goshen County and served as secretary of the State Board of Charities and Reform, and at one time was director of the State Department of Commerce and Industry. Flannery spent a year in Washington, D. C. in the Information Service prior to his appointment as State Administrator of the Works Progress Administration for Wyoming. He resigned this high-salaried government post to enlist as a $21-a-month private in World War II. Pat was also a veteran of World War I.

Following his discharge from the army, Flannery became supervisor of the U. S. Agriculture Census for Wyoming and Colorado. In 1947, he was appointed the Administrative Assistant to Wyoming’s Senator O’Mahoney in Washington, D. C. He served this post for six years and then retired from politics in 1953.

Flannery had long owned the homestead site of his old friend, John Hunton, at Fort Laramie. It was here that he retired and dedicated the last years of his life to historical research and to a special labor of love --- the publication of the diaries kept by Hunton in which the entries span more than half a century. Flannery published the diary entries between 1873 and 1882 in four volumes of 1500 copies each, and two more volumes with entries between 1883 and 1888 were published after his death in 1964. In addition to these daily diary entries, he also included narratives by Hunton and others in these books, and his own painstakingly researched commentaries, to clarify and expand upon significant events of that period. As a result, the publications vividly preserved day-to-day life on the frontier and presented profiles as well as episodes in the lives not only of people from that era who have been all but forgotten, but also of such legendary Old West characters as Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane Canary, Buffalo Bill Cody, Generals Custer and Crook, Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Crazy Horse, and many others (most of whom were personally known by Hunton).

Flannery will long be remembered for his political achievements, and even more widely known for his writing and knowledge of early Wyoming history.

This biography was submitted by Pat Flannery’s grandson, Michael Griske, and is included in The Diaries of John Hunton - Made to Last, Written to Last - Sagas of the Western Frontier, an abridged version of Flannery’s monumental works. This new book was edited by Griske and is available from the following sources: online at Heritagebooks.com, Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com; by phone at (800) 876-6103; and in the Fort Laramie National Historic Site and Western History Center bookstores.