Charles Eugene Flandrau was born in New York City on July 15, 1828, the son of Thomas H. Flandrau, who had practiced law with Aaron Burr, and Elizabeth Macomb. Flandrau grew up in New York City and Washington, D. C., and spent three years at sea between the ages of 13 and 16. He joined his father's law firm in Whitesboro, New York, around 1849, and became a full partner after being admitted to the bar in January 1851. In 1853, Flandrau moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he practiced law with Horace R. Bigelow and served as an agent for the company that established the town of Traverse des Sioux (near present-day St. Peter), where he lived in 1854. Flandrau held several political offices, serving as the United States agent for the Sioux in Minnesota (1856-1857) and as a justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court (1857-1864). He also served as the captain of a volunteer militia unit sent to suppress the Sioux Uprising in 1862. Flandrau later moved to Nevada, where he resumed his legal career; he returned to the Twin Cities area in 1867. He married Isabella Ramsay Dinsmore (1800-1867) in 1859; they had two daughters, Martha Macomb and Sarah Gibson. He and his second wife, Rebecca Blair Riddle (b.1839), had 2 sons: Charles Macomb (b. 1872) and William Blair McClure (b. 1876). Charles Eugene Flandrau died in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 9, 1903.
From the guide to the Charles E. Flandrau letters, Flandrau, Charles E. letters, 1853-1888, 1853-1857, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
