J. Fred & Lulu Flynn

 I want to talk about J. Fred Flynn and Lulu (Mayo) Flynn.

These are two of my favorite of my wife's ancestors. They were her grandparents on her father's side. J. Fred was born in 1869 and grew up in Bangor, Maine. Lulu was younger. She was born in 1881. Her family was from Standish, Maine. Both J. Fred and Lulu were deaf. In the 1900 census, Lulu is listed as a pupil at the school for the deaf in Portland, Maine. In that same Census we learn that Lulu could both read and write but could not "speak English" (though she knew sign language well enough). 

In 1905, at the age of 24, she marries J. Fred, who was 36. According to the Bangor Directory, he worked as a casket trimmer (casket upholsterer), working for a funeral home in Bangor. The 1910 census describes it as "shop work." I know he was a fine craftsman because we own a cedar chest that he built, and it is quite beautiful.

J. Fred's family bore their share of tragedy. His father, James Flynn, served in the 2nd Maine Infantry, about which we read in Wikipedia:

The 2nd, during its two years' term of service, saw much hard service and participated in eleven bloody and hard-fought battles, besides numerous skirmishes and scouting expeditions. ... A list of the important battles in which it was engaged includes the First and Second Bull Run, Hall's Hill, Yorktown, Hanover Court House, Gaines' Mill, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.

After mustering out in early June of 1863, James joined the Navy and served on one of their armored gunboats on the Mississippi, called the U.S.S. Carondolet.

Getting home from the war, James married Catherine Wright, and they had three children in a 5-year span: Henry, born in 1865. Willie, 1866; and then J. Fred, 1869. Unfortunately, Henry died at the age of eighteen, and Willie while still a boy of four. So J. Fred was the only child to survive to maturity.

J. Fred's ancestors on both his father and mother's side came from Ireland, as I mentioned. The Flynns came from county Cork. They immigrated first to New Brunswick, Canada, and only later down to Bangor, Maine.

Lulu's ancestry is quite different. She came from old New England stock, her ancestors going back to the early Puritans in Massachusetts. The earliest Mayo ancestor in America was the Reverend John Mayo, who was the first minister of the "Old North Church" in Boston. I'll have more to say about this Mayo line in future posts.

Finally, some pictures. Here's J. Fred at 26. He ran the 100-yard dash in "10 flat" apparently!


He must have been quite the athlete lad. Here he is in baseball garb, playing for the Sorrento team (Sorrento is a small town on the Maine coast).


As for Lulu, she was a lovely young lady!

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And here they are together.



My thanks to Henry Flynn, a grandson of J. Fred and Lulu for these pictures. J. Fred and Lulu would have three children together, one of whom, Robert Flynn, was my wife's Dad. I will have more to say about him in a future post.

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