Dennis Thomas Flynn

Dennis Thomas Flynn (February 13, 1861 – June 19, 1939) was a Delegate from Oklahoma Territory to the United States House of Representatives.

Flynn was born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania on February 13, 1861. He moved with his mother to Buffalo, New York, in 1863. There, he became an orphan at the age of three when his mother died. Flynn was raised in a Catholic orphanage where he remained until 1880. He attended common school and then Canisius College in Buffalo.

After college, Flynn moved to Riverside, Iowa, where he established and edited the Riverside Leader and studied law. He was admitted to the Iowa bar association in 1882 and commenced practice in Kiowa, Kansas. There, he was the publisher of the Kiowa Herald and served as first postmaster of Kiowa from December 5, 1884, to July 17, 1885. He would then serve as the Kiowa city attorney from 1886 to 1889.

Flynn then moved to Oklahoma Territory where he served as the postmaster of Guthrie, Oklahoma from April 4, 1889, to December 20, 1892. A Republican, Flynn was an unsuccessful candidate for election as the Territorial Delegate to the United States House of Representatives in 1890. Flynn ran again and was elected as the Territorial Delegate to the Fifty-third Congress and began his term on March 4, 1893 and was reelected in 1894. Flynn was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1896.

Flynn would seek office again in 1898 and would be elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. His term began on March 4, 1899 and would be reelected on 1900. Flynn was nominated but declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1902. He term ended on March 4, 1903. He resumed the private practice in Oklahoma City in 1904. He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1908. Later, he would serve as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1912. Flynn died in Oklahoma City on June 19, 1939 and interment was in Fairlawn Cemetery.

References

• Dennis Thomas Flynn at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Dennis Thomas Flynn at Find a Grave

External links

• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Flynn, Dennis