Extra: Henry De La Warr “H. D.” Flood (2 September 1865 – 8 December 1921)

Henry De La Warr “H. D.” Flood

During the trial of Clifford Wooldridge, Congressman H. D. Flood told the Buckingham County Court: “This old man here (pointing to Wooldridge) gave me in my boyhood and youth his friendship and loyalty and his devotion. He is in trouble now and needs my support.”

Just how and under what circumstances Wooldridge and Flood became such close friends is yet to be discovered.

According to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, H. D. Flood was born at “Eldon” in Appomattox County, Virginia. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, earned his undergraduate degree from Washington and Lee University, his law degree from the University of Virginia, and was admitted to the bar in 1886. He was the brother of U.S. Representative Joel West Flood and the uncle of U.S. Senator Harry Flood Byrd.

H. D. Flood served as a delegate to the Virginia House of Delegates from 1887 to 1891 and as a member of the Senate of Virginia from 1891 to 1901, as well as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901. He was preceded in the Senate of Virginia by Edmund W. Hubard, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Buckingham County, and succeeded by Frank C. Moon, of Lynchburg and Snowden in Buckingham County. From March 4, 1901 – December 8, 1921, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Additionally, Flood was elected Commonwealth’s Attorney for Appomattox County in 1891, 1895, and 1899.

In 1911, he was responsible for the Flood Amendment, facilitating New Mexico’s statehood. In 1917, he authored resolutions declaring a state of war to exist between the United States and Germany and Austria-Hungary, bringing the U.S. into World War I.

He died in Washington, D.C., following a long illness, and was buried on the courthouse green at Appomattox, Virginia. His death was front-page news in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “Hundreds of Virginians plan to attend the funeral services of the late Representative H. D. Flood, which will be held in the Church of the Covenant in Washington at 11 o’clock Monday morning.”

The Evening Star called him “a lawyer of wide reputation” and noted that, for eight years, he served on the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors.