Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/504

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476
FLAGET
FLAGG

Sulpitians to Havana for the purpose of establish- ing a college in that city, but they met with oppo- sition from the native clergy, and were forbidden to perform any priestly function. Father Flaget's two companions withdrew from the island, but, as he was prostrated by yellow fever, they had to leave him behind. On his recovery he became tutor to the sons of a wealthy Cuban, and, on the death of the archbishop, was restored to his sacerdotal privi- leges. During this period he rendered great ser- vice to the Orleans princes, which were warmly re- ciprocated when Louis Philippe became king of the French. Father Flaget left Havana in 1801, taking with him twenty-three young Cubans to be educated at Georgetown college. The ensuing seven years were spent in college duties and mis- sionary labors. About the year 1804 he had peti- tioned to be received into the order of Trappists, the severest in the Roman Catholic church, but in 1808 he was ap- pointed bishop of Bardstown, Ky., and though he made several ef- forts to be released, and went to Europe for this purpose, he was consecrated on his return in 1810. He arrived at Bardstown in the following year. The number of priests in his diocese, which extended from the Atlantic states to the of Mississippi, and

from the lakes to

the thirty-fifth parallel, was only seven, with ten chapels, and six more in course of erection. To meet the demand for priests he gave great atten- tion to the diocesan seminary. In 1817 he was able to send missionaries to the French and Indian com- munities living around the great lakes, as well as to supply Indiana and Michigan. By his request he was given an assistant, Father David, in 1819, and in the following years he was engaged in a cor- respondence with Rome relative to the creation of new sees. He was the first to suggest the erection of an archiepiscopal see in the west. His advice was also sought by the propaganda with regard to affairs external to the church in the United States, and a controversy that existed for some time be- tween the Sulpitians of Canada and the bishop of Quebec was decided according to his suggestion. He attended the first provincial council fit Balti- more in 1829, and in the following year, owing to declining health, resigned his see. His resignation was accepted, but so great was the opposition of the clergy and laity of the west that he was com- pelled to withdraw it. During the cholera epi- demic of 1833 his attention to the afflicted of all classes and creeds excited general admiration. In 1834 he received a new coadjutor in the person of Bishop Chabrat. Up to this time he had erected four colleges, a large female orphan asylum and infirmary, eleven academies for girls, and had in- troduced three religious sisterhoods and four re- ligious orders of men. He was in Europe from 1835 till 1839, and in 1841 the seat of his diocese was removed from Bardstown to Louisville. In 1843 he built a convent and hospital at his own ex- pense, and in 1848 was instrumental in establish- ing a colony of Trappists at Gethsemane, fourteen miles from Bardstown. The remainder of his life, owing to his infirmities and his extreme age, was passed in strict retirement.


FLAGG, Azariah Cutting, politician, b. in Clinton county, N. Y., in 1790 ; d. in New York city, 24 Nov., 1873. When he was nine years old his father removed to Richmond, Vt., and at the age of eleven he was apprenticed to a printer in Burlington. Here he remained until about 1811, when he removed to Plattsburg, N. Y., and served as a soldier in the war of 1812, participating in several engagements. In 1812 or 1813, Mr. Flagg established the Plattsburg " Republican," of which he was for many years the editor and owner. In 1823-'4 he represented Clinton county in the assembly, and in 1826 was appointed by Gov. De Witt Clinton secretary of state, which office he held until 1833. He was comptroller of the state in 1834-'9, and again in 1842-'(). During almost his entire public life, and especially after his removal to the city of New York, in 1846, Mr. Flagg was one of the leaders of the Democratic party in the state, and also bore the reputation of being one of its ablest financiers. For many years he discussed the political questions of the day in the columns of the Albany "Argus." He was one of the most determined opponents of the U. S. bank, rendered efficient aid to De Witt Clinton in moulding public opinion with regard to his canal policy, and later was outspoken in his opposition to the pro-slavery tendencies of the Democratic party. He was elected comptroller of the city of New York in 1852, and re-elected in 1855. Soon after leaving office, in 1859, he became blind, but never lost his interest in current politi- cal events. — His nephew, Willard Cutting', agri- culturist, b. in Moro. Madison co., 111., 16 Sept., 1829 ; d. there, 30 March, 1878, was graduated at Yale in 1854, and then took charge of his father's extensive farm. He soon became prominent in local politics, was collector of internal revenue for the 12th district of Illinois in 1862-'9, and a mem- ber of the state senate in 1869-'73. He wrote frequently for the press on agricultural and politi- cal subjects, was one of the originators of the " farmers' movement " in the west, and was chosen, in 1873, first president of the Illinois state farm- ers' association. He served, in addition, as trustee of the Industrial university. Champaign, III., presi- dent of the National agricultural congress, and secretary of the American pomological society. He was for many years horticultural editor of the " Prairie Parmer," and for a few months before his death was editor-in-chief of the "American Encyclopa?dia of Agriculture," for which he had collected much valuable material. He was con- sidered one of the best pomologists of the day.


FLAGG, Edmund, author, b. in Wiseasset, Me., 24 Nov., 1815; d. in Fairfax county, Va., 1 Nov., 1890. He was graduated at Bowdoin, and taught in Louisville, Ky., where he also contributed to the " Louisville Journal," with which his connection continued for nearly thirty years. He read law in St. Louis, where he was "admitted to the bar in 1837. He edited the St. Louis "Commercial Bulletin" in 1838, served with George D. Prentice as associate editor of the "Louisville Literary News-Letter" in 1838-'9, practised law in Vicksburg, Miss., in 1840-1. and at the same time was editor of the " Whig," in which capacity he was severely wounded in a duel with the editor of the Vicksburg " Sentinel." He owned and conducted the "Gazette " at Marietta, Ohio, in 1842, and the St. Louis "Evening Gazette" in 1844-5. He subsequently acted as the oificial reporter of the courts