William Clifford Flynn

Father of Winifred (Flynn) Dwyer. Born in Nebraska in 1872 (his father from Canada or England, his mother from Ohio, as his own card had it, the tree notes); married Anna Mary Paulson at Nebraska City on 13 February 1896, after swearing to both sets of parents in the affidavit for the licence (record; in the Gallery); a letter and mail carrier at St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1900, 1910 and 1920, with a houseful of children; later at Portland, Oregon, where he died in 1952.

The St. Joseph papers noticed him. About 1915 a feature, “Family of 13 Raised on Mail Carrier’s Salary Here”, printed a photograph of William C. and Anna with their eleven children, all still at home at 1901 Holman Street: “enough to entitle them to a medal from ‘T. R.’”, though Flynn, who had carried mail under “Teddy”, was a Democrat, and his father, “Justice James M. Flynn”, was then a candidate for the Democratic nomination for police judge. By then he delivered parcel post in his own automobile, with an allowance for it (record). One winter morning his parcel post truck was demolished by a Burlington passenger engine at the Fifth and Hickory streets crossing; he never saw the engine until it was a few yards off, and on the snow and ice the brakes would not hold. He was not seriously hurt (record); the St. Joseph Observer puts it on a Wednesday morning, very probably 30 January 1918. In July 1920 the same paper reported that he had “left Wednesday with his family of nine for Portland, Oregon, on a pleasure trip. The party went in two Ford flivvers” (source). They stayed: his obituary says he lived in Portland from 1920. He became a real estate broker, was a fourth-degree Knight of Columbus in the Archbishop Seghers assembly and belonged to the St. Vincent de Paul and Holy Name societies, and lived at 644 [?] S.E. 20th Avenue. He died at St. Vincent’s hospital on Friday, 25 January 1952, after a long illness, survived by eleven sons and daughters, among them “Mrs. Winifred I. Dwyer, Seattle,” and two daughters who were Sisters of the Holy Names, Sister Patricia Ann and Sister Mary Losa [?]; after a requiem mass at St. Francis church he was placed in a vault at Mount Calvary cemetery (record). His brother James F. Flynn, a conductor on the Grand Avenue street-car line, followed him into the mail service (record). All three clippings are in the Gallery.

In the records the tree attaches (not checked here):

• 1900. Arrival (record)
• 1900. St Joseph Ward 4, Buchanan, Missouri; Occupation: Letter Carrier; marital status: Married; relation: Head (record)
• 1910. St Joseph Ward 2, Buchanan, Missouri; Occupation: Mail Carrier; marital status: Married; relation: Head (record)
• 1920. St Joseph Ward 2, Buchanan, Missouri; Occupation: Mail Carrier; marital status: Married; relation: Head (record)

The tree enters two of the children twice: Hubert L. as Herbert L. (both 1899-1998), and Marguerite as Marquerite Patricia (1906-1995), who became Sister Mary Losa; they have one page each here.