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DENNIS THOMAS FLYNN
(1861-1939)
During the Oklahoma Territorial period the most important official after the governor was the delegate to the U.S. Congress. Elected every two years, the delegate held a seat in the House of Representatives and could speak upon any measure but was not allowed to vote. Dennis Thomas Flynn held this position a total of eight years (1892-96 and 1898-1902), longer than any other Oklahoman.
Born on February 13, 1861, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, Flynn moved to Guthrie in 1889 and was postmaster of that city until his election as delegate in 1892. Reared from age three in a Catholic orphanage, he attended the common schools and Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. In Iowa he established and edited the Riverside Leader, was admitted to the bar in 1882, and moved to Kiowa, Kansas, where he served as postmaster (1884-85) and city attorney (1886-89) as well as publisher of the Kiowa Herald.
Defeated in 1890 for Oklahoma territorial delegate, Flynn succeeded in 1892, assuming the office at the young age of thirty-one and serving in the Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Congresses. Failing reelection in 1896 when he lost to James Y. Callhan, the coalition candidate of the Democrats and Populists, Flynn was victorious in 1898 and served two more consecutive terms. Although nominated again in 1902, he declined and resumed law practice in Oklahoma City. In 1908 he ran as an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, losing when the Democrat-controlled state legislature gave the nod to Thomas P. Gore.
Flynn's greatest legislative achievement as delegate was passage of the so-called Free Homes Act in 1900. Other than the Oklahoma statehood bill, this bill was probably the most sought-after federal law promoted by Oklahomans during the territorial period. While the provisions of the Homestead Act applied primarily to Oklahoma Territory, much of the public land in the west was not free. To open Indian Territory land to home seekers the federal government had first to abolish Indian title by purchasing each tribe's surplus land. This cost was passed on to settlers, generally running about $1.25 an acre. Flynn's Free Homes Bill proposed to repeal these charges. This legislation, therefore, benefitted the settlers who had staked claims on the former Iowa, Sac and Fox, Pottawatomi, Shawnee, and Cheyenne and Arapaho lands.
Implementation of the Free Homes Act in 1900 returned to the settlers an estimated $15 million. Because "free homes" had been the rallying cry of all Oklahoma politicians since the campaign of 1894, Flynn received an outpouring of gratitude from those who profited by this measure. Praised by territorial newspapers, Flynn was welcomed at celebrations in Guthrie and Oklahoma City, and several towns held a Free Homes Day. Thus, Flynn became one of the most popular and powerful Republican politicians in Oklahoma during the territorial period.
Flynn was constantly involved in factional politics fueled by the question of patronage. During the 1890s Oklahoma Republicans divided into two rival camps. Flynn and his group demanded a "free silver" plank in the Republican national platform in the 1896 election and supported House Speaker Thomas B. Reed for the presidential nomination. The second faction, led by Cassius M. Barnes, territorial representative on the Republican National Committee, opposed free silver and favored William McKinley as the Republican nominee. The latter contingent supported the national party's policies to enable them to distribute federal patronage after the election. Flynn, on the other hand, preferred to sacrifice strict national alignment to build a popular local organization attentive to territorial sentiments. Although Flynn's forces captured control of the Republican convention in 1896, McKinley's nomination and subsequent election to the presidency stymied them.
With Barnes subsequently appointed governor, his forces set out to use patronage to their complete control of the Oklahoma Republican Party, and Flynn's wing of the party was bypassed in the distribution of offices. During the remaining territorial period, the Flynn and Barnes factions remained combatants within the Grand Old Party. Even though Barnes was ousted in 1901 and Flynn retired in 1902, the split never closed prior to statehood.
One of the difficult problems facing the Twin Territories, especially after the federal census of 1900, was the question of single versus double statehood. Advocates of separate states for Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory promoted their views, and the matter of Oklahoma statehood on any terms appeared stalled in Congress. In an attempt to reach a compromise, Flynn proposed a third plan, known as piecemeal absorption. This formula offered immediate statehood to Oklahoma Territory and the absorption by Oklahoma of various Indian nations as they were prepared for statehood. Partisan politics in the Fifty-eighth Congress settled the question, and in 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Enabling Act that created a single state from the two territories. Finally, Flynn introduced several minor bills that would benefit Oklahoma Territory, including the protection of territorial miners, two additional judges for the territory, and the territorial redistricting by a commission. In 1905 two entrepreneurs, Dennis T. Flynn, a former territorial representative to Congress, and his law partner, Charles B. Ames, devised a plan to tap the wealth of natural gas available in the oil fields of north-central Oklahoma. They joined forces with H. M. Byllesby of Chicago, for whom they were attorneys. All three were also involved with Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company (OG&E). They intended to create a new venture to bring gas to Oklahoma City from the Cleveland Field. Flynn was the president and Ames the assistant secretary, and other oilmen served as directors. Oklahoma Natural Gas Company incorporated on October 9, 1906
Following defeat for the U.S. Senate in 1908, Flynn remained active in Republican Party circles and was considered for a cabinet post (secretary of interior) in the William Howard Taft administration (1909-13). His last participation in politics was in 1912 when he served as a delegate to the Republican national convention. At the age of seventy-eight he died on June 19, 1939, in Oklahoma City and was buried in Fairlawn Cemetery.
[Source: Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture]
Obituary for Dennis Flynn
RITES ARE SET FOR APOSTLE OF FREE HOMES
Dennis Flynn to Lie In State ToDay
WAS PROUD OF TITLE
Service is Set For Tomorrow
They called him "Free Homes" Flyy, this genial, lovable Irishman who died Monday at the age of 78. Dennis Thomas Flynn was proud of the title. It represented one of the greatest achievements of his long and brillant public career. When President McKinley signed the bill in the late spring of 1900 giving Oklahoma settles free homes, it was the proudest moment of Flynn's life, his son, Streeter Flynn, recalled Monday. That moment was vividly impressed on the mind of his son, because as a boy of 10 years, he was taken into the office of the President to watch the signing of the bill.
BACKER IS GIVEN PEN
The President put his signature on the bill and then gave the pen to the Oklahoma territorial congressman, with a word of congratulations on the victory won after an eight-year battle. The body of the Oklahoma pioneer will be in state from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at his home, 433 Northwest Fifteenth street. Services ill be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Joseph's old cathedral, with burial in Fairlawn cemetery. Street and Draper will be in charge. Active bearers will be Frank G. Anderson, Justin W. Faherty, Charles A. Vose, R.T. Moore, W. E. Hightower, Harrison Smith, Edgar Honnold and R. M. Rainey Jr.
Honorary List is named
Honarary bearers wil be B. W. Lynch, Chicago; R. A. Vose, J.R. Keaton, J.F. Owens, Hugh Johnson, Edgar S. Vaught, E. K. Gaylord, Dr. A. C. Scott, Dr. John Riley, John M. Noble, C. M. Cade, Victor Murdock, Wichita; Col. M. W. Walsh, Louisville, Ky; W. M. Longmire, R. R. Bell, George M. Green, E.E. McInnis, Chicago; John J. Hildreth, R. L. Williams, R. M. Raney, F. E. Kennamer, Tulsa; Gen Roy Hoffman and Will Van Devanter, former United States supreme court justice. Flynn's dream of free homes for Oklahoma pioneers was born amidst the suffering and hardships of the severe drout of 1890. Settles were required to pay $1.50 an acre for their lands. The first half fell due after two years and the second half was to be paid at the end of a five year peiod.
Due Date Follows Famine
During the winter it was necessary for the government to spend $50,000 for flour, bacon and beans for the stricken settlers. After surviving the winter, the settlers were faced with making the first payment, an impossible task. Flynn ran for congress on a platform of free homes. He lost his first race but was elected in 1892. His bill to wipe out the debt on these lands was laughed out of the committee on public lands. But it was no laughing matter to the fighting Irishman who had seen the suffering back home. During that first session, he fought through a measure giving a time extension on the first payments.
Familiar Cry Raised
Opponents of the Flynn bill assailed the measure as a raid on the treasury. But Flynn came right back with bills in both the following sessions. The bill finally passed the house in March, 1898b but was not in the senate. At that time Flynn, being a territorial representative, had no vote in the house. This made his task doubly difficult. He could engage in no log rolling. But in 1900 he finally achieved the remarkable task of whiping the bill through both houses of congress. The feat was credited almost entirely to his great personal popularity with leaders in congress.
Friendly With the Great
Old times contend Oklahoma has never had a representative with the popular appeal of Flynn. He made friends with big men easily. He served in congress with George Sutherland, who later became a justice of the United States supremem court. They became close personal friends. One of Flynn's best friends at his death was Justice VanDevanter, United States supreme court, retired, who was with the interior department when Flyy was in congress. President Taft was a close friend. Flynn's bill waved payments and gave patents to settlers who had lived five years on lands in the Cherokee strip, the Iowa, Sac, Fox and Pottawatomie reserations. One of the greatest pleasures of his latter years was meeting old timers who were enabled to keep their homes because of this bill, R. M. Rainey recalls.
A Handshake Pays
For more than 30 years, these old-timers would come into his office and say, "You got me my home. I want to shake your hand." In latter years, sons of these pioneers would come in to meet him, saying they had heard their fathers talk so much of him. Flynn loved Canada, too. For many summers he spent vacations on an Island in Georgian bay, Ontario, Canada with VanDevanter. Even in ill health he planned this summer to return to his vacation lodge. He had set a week from Sunday as his leaving dat.
Life is Varied
Flynn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage Tuesday night and was taken to St. Anthony hospital Wednesday, where he died shortly after noon Monday. Reared an orphan, Flynn became one of the outstanding leaders of early Oklahoma history. He was printer, editor, utility and business man in addition to territorial congressional delegate. He was born at Phoenixville, Pa., Feb. 3, 1861. He was only 3 years old when both parents died. He went to a Catholic orphanage near Buffalo where he remained until 16 years old.
Papal Honor Conferred
In 1925 he was named a Knight of the Order of Saint Gregory, the highest order that can be conferred on a layman in the Catholic church. Flynn rode the first train into Oklahoma to become postmaster at Guthrie, after running a newspaper and developing townsites at Kiowa, Kansas. There he mdet and married Addie M. Blanton and was picked by Republican leaders as a young man of promise. He retired from politics in 1902. He is survived by his wife and two sons; Streeter, and Oklahoma City attorney, and Olney F. Flynn, Tulsa.
