Henry Delaware Flood

HENRY DELAWARE FLOOD. One of the most important distinctions of the little town of Appomattox is that it was the home for so many years of the late Henry Delaware Flood, representative of the Tenth Virginia District in Congress. Congressman Flood, who died in office, was for several years one of the most influential members of the House of Representatives at Washington. During the eight years of the Wilson administration, as chairman of the foreign affairs committee, he was identified with many measures involving the relations of this country to the foreign nations of Europe. Before going to Congress he had been prominent in the public affairs of Appomattox County, and for over ten years was commonwealth’s attorney of the county and at the same time a member of the State Senate.

He was born in Appomattox County, September 2, 1865, son of J. W. and Ella W. Flood. In his native county he attended public schools, finished his literary education in Washington and Lee University and graduated Bachelor of Law from the University of Virginia in 1886, being admitted to the bar on September 15 of the same year. He at once engaged in practice at Appomattox Court House, being just twenty-one when he was admitted to the bar. The following year he was elected to represent Appomattox County in the House of Delegates, and from that time until the close of his life thirty-four years later his service in some public capacity was continuous. He was reelected to the Legislation in 1889, and in 1891 was elected for his first four-year term in the State Senate and at the same time chosen commonwealth’s attorney for Appomattox County. He was reelected to both these positions in 1895, and again in 1899. Only once was Mr. Flood defeated as a candidate for public office and that was in 1896, when lie sought to represent the Tenth District in Congress. In 1900 he was elected to the Fifty-seventh Congress, but before resigning from the State Senate and his office of commonwealth’s attorney at the beginning of 1901 he was author of the bill in the Virginia Legislature passed in 1900 providing for the submitting to the people of the state the question of holding a constitutional convention. In the constitutional convention held in 1901-02 he was an influential member.

Mr. Flood was one of the Virginia delegation in Congress from March 4, 1901, until his death on December 8, 1921, a service of over twenty years, beginning with the Fifty-seventh Congress and ending in the Sixty-seventh. His long experience in Congress made him a most valuable aid to the Wilson administration, and he did effective work on many committees, particularly foreign affairs committee, of which he was chairman. He was author of the bill in Congress granting statehood to New Mexico and Arizona. He was reelected to the Sixty-seventh Congress and took his seat in March, 1921, and lead served nine months of that term when he died.

Mr. Flood was presidential elector of the Tenth Congressional District in 1892. He was a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia from 1906-1914. April 18, 1914, he married Anna V. Portner, of Manassas, Virginia.