John Henry Flood : Short Biography

According to both his death certificate and newspaper accounts on 100th birthday, John Henry Flood was born May 10, 1810. The newspaper article states that he was born in 'Granite', in county 'Langford'. The village in which he lived at the time was small, and the newspaper reporter was probably a very young person who had no knowledge of Ireland. Obviously 'Langford' is Longford. It is assumed that 'Granite' refers to the area around Granard.

The newspaper account notes that John Henry, his wife, and six kids, Andrew, Eliza, John, Maria, Jane and Joseph arrived in Bath, Maine on August 9, 1849. A daughter Margaret would be born in Maine in 1851. No documentation of the marriage has been found. Family lore states that both John H and his wife were originally Protestant, but that John H converted at some point.

In 1853 this crew moved west to Wisconsin, first outside of Sheboygan in 1853, and then to the village of Elroy, in the western part of the state, in 1859. Wisconsin had become a state in 1848.

John Henry farmed and dealt in land for the next fifty years. His wife, Winifred Kinney, believed to be from Athlone, passed around 1888. At the time of his death in 1911, John Henry was living with his daughter Jane Flood Duffy in Elroy. Family lore has it that some time not too long before he died, John Henry related that there was nothing wrong with him, and that one day, just like an old rope, he would snap.

John Henry's death certificate, which is attached, indicates that his parents were Andrew and Anna Henry Flood. We know of no siblings. Griffith's Valuation reports only one Andrew Flood, who was living in Ratharney, in Shrule, in County Longford. I have not been able to find any gravestones online for an Andrew Flood in that vicinity, so I cannot confirm that this is the Andrew that I am looking for.

I am the GGG grandson of John Henry Flood.