Submitted by Det. Brian E. Crites, Warren Police Department
On April 3, 1919, Warren Police Chief Frank H. Flowers was with Youngstown, Ohio Police Chief Watkins driving back to Youngstown with an unknown female on Niles Avenue between East and South Homewood Ave. SE. Chief Flowers was sitting in the tonneau of a Packard car. An unknown vehicle was broken down on the right side of the roadway with a male working on the car. Watkins then went around the left side of the disabled vehicle and misjudged a fast-approaching westbound Mahoning Valley streetcar. Watkins Packard car then struck the streetcar just in back of the front seat The impact threw Watkins and Flowers car off the road and hurled Flowers out and thru him the air about twenty feet where his head struck the ground breaking his neck.
Watkins was pinned beneath the steering wheel unable to move and the uninjured woman ran down Homewood Ave. SE screaming. Several people went to over Chief Flowers as he lay on the ground on his back with his head in a pool of blood. An ambulance arrived on scene and Chief Flowers was still breathing. Both were rushed to City Hospital but Flowers died before he arrived at the hospital.
Thousands of Warren citizens, city officials and police officers from all over Ohio attended Chief Flower’s funeral that was held at First Presbyterian Church in Warren and is buried at the Western Reserve Mausoleum on Niles Ave. SE in Warren, Ohio.
He was 51 years old at the time of his death and served on the Warren Police Department for 25 years. Flowers was born on March 23, 1868 in Vernon Township, Ohio the son of Mr. & Mrs. Henry Flowers who were pioneers’ residents of Trumbull County. He moved to Warren when he was 21 years old and joined the police department serving two years as a special policeman for two years before being appointed to regular patrol. During the term of Mayor M. J. Sloan was appointed Chief of Police succeeding Chief William Griffin. He married his wife Hannah Flowers-Hamilton in 1890 and she died a few months prior to his accident. A son, Harold Flowers, survived them who was serving in the United States Army in France during World War I at the time of his death.
Placed on Ohio and National Law Enforcement Memorial Walls:
Ohio Fallen Officer’s Memorial Wall-London, Ohio on May 1, 2008
National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial Wall-Washington D.C. on April 21, 2009
Panel 10, E-26
Resources
111e Warren Daily Tribune; Warren, Ohio articles April 4, 1919 and April 7, 1919.
