Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/204

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HENRY
HENRY

caster county, which office he held until his death. During the Revolution he held the rank of com- missary. He was a member of the Continental congress in 1784-'5, and during the former year was commissioned president judge of the courts of common pleas and quarter sessions of Lancaster county. He was a member of the American philo- sophical society, and was favorably known as an inventor. In i768 he invented the "self-moving or sentinel register," which was followed in 1771 by the " screw-auger." He was among those antecedent to Fitch and Pulton in the application of steam as a motive power to propel boats. His original draw- ings, made in 1779, were found among his papers after his death. In 1785 he exhibited the " model of a wheel-carriage, which rolls close in against the wind by wind-force." — His son, William, manufacturer, b. in Lancaster, Pa., 12 March, 1757; d. in Philadelphia, 21 April, 1827, removed in 1778 to Northampton county, where he engaged in the manufacture of fire-arms, and in 1808 erected a forge on the Bushkill, where the first iron that was manufactured in the country was drawn, 9 March, 1809. He was commissioned, 14 Jan., 1788, justice of the peace and associate judge of the courts for Northampton county, but resigned in 1814. In 1792 he was elected one of the presidential electors of the state, and voted for Washington. — Another son, John Joseph, jurist, b. in Lancaster, Pa., 4 Nov., 1758; d. there, 15 April, 1811, enlisted in Capt. Matthew Smith's company of riflemen at the beginning of the Revolution, and took part in Arnold's expedition to Canada, where he was taken prisoner and confined for nine months. He sub- sequently studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1785. In 1793 he was commissioned by Gov. Mifflin president judge of the 2d judicial dis- trict of Pennsylvania, consisting of the counties of Chester, Lancaster. York, and Dauphin, but he re- signed in 1810. He was the author of " Accurate and Interesting Account of Arnold's Campaign against Quebec, and of the Hardships and Sufferings of that Band of Heroes who traversed the Wilder- ness of Maine from Cambridge to the St. Lawrence in the Autumn of 1775 " (Lancaster, Pa., 1812).


HENRY, William, soldier, b. in Charlotte county, Va., in 1761 ; d. in Christian county, Ky., 23 Nov., 1824. He entered the army when a lad, and fought at Guilford, the Cowpens, and York- town. After the Revolution he removed to Ken- tucky, and took part there in many conflicts with the Indians. He was appointed major-general of Kentucky volunteers, 31 Aug., 1813, commanded a division of three brigades in the battle of the Thames, on 5 Oct., and also served in Scott's and Wilkinson's campaigns. Gen. Henry was a member of the Constitutional convention of his state, and of both branches of the legislature. — His son, Robert Pryor, b. in Henry's Mills, Scott co., Ky., 24 Nov., 1788; d. in Hopki'nsville, Ky., 25 Aug.* 1826, was graduated at Transylvania college, studied law with Henry Clay, and was admitted to the bar in 1809, serving in that year as prosecuting attorney for his district. He was aide to his father in the war of 1812, and afterward settled in Chris- tian county, Ky., where he became prosecuting attorney for that circuit. He was then elected to congress as a Clay Democrat, and served from 1 Dec, 1823, till his death. As a member of the committee on roads and canals he obtained the first appropriation that was ever granted for im- proving the Mississippi. — Another son, John Flournoy, physician, b. in Henry's Mills, Ky., 17 Jan., 1793 ; d. in Burlington, Iowa, 12 Nov., 1873, was educated at Georgetown academy, Ky., at- tended lectures at Jefferson medical college, Phila- delphia, and was graduated at the College of Ehysicians and surgeons, New York, in 1817. He ad previously served at Port Meigs in 1813, as surgeon's mate of Kentucky troops. In 183n while a resident of Hopkinsville, Ky., he organ- ized the first temperance society there. He was elected to congress for the unexpired term of his brother Robert, served in 1826-'7, and in 1831 be- came professor in the Medical college of Ohio, Cincinnati. During the cholera epidemic of 1891 he was active in relieving the suffering in that city. He removed to Bloomington, 111., in 1834, and in 1845 to Burlington, Iowa, where he prac- tised his profession. Dr. Henry contributed ar- ticles to medical journals, and published a treatise on the " Causes and Treatment of Cholera " (1833). — Another son, Gustavus Adolphus, orator, b. in Cherry Spring, Scott co., Ky., 8 Oct., 1804 ; d. in Clarksville, Tenn., 10 Sept., 1880, was graduated at Transylvania university in 1825, and became a lawyer. He was a member of the Kentucky legis- lature in 1831-'3, and shortly afterward removed to Tennessee, where he was one of the leaders of the Whig minority. He achieved great reputation as a public speaker, and was known throughout the south as the " eagle orator of Tennessee." He was in the Tennessee legislature in 1851, was four times on the Whig electoral ticket, and in 1860 was a delegate to the convention at Baltimore that nominated Bell and Everett, afterward speaking in their behalf in the northern states. He was a member of the Confederate senate from 1861 till the close of the civil war, and after the fall of Vicksburg, at the request of Jefferson Davis, made public speeches to encourage the people. He was twice a candidate for governor of Tennessee, but was each time defeated by Andrew Johnson.


HENRY, William Alexander, Canadian jurist, b. in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 30 Dec, 1816. He was educated at the high-school, Halifax, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in November, 1840. In 1841 he was elected a member of the Nova Scotia assembly, in which he sat for many years. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Canadian parliament in 1867 and 1869. He has been ina<>r of Halifax, became a member of the provincial ex- ecutive council in 1849, and subsequently held office three times as solicitor-general, and" was also provincial secretary and attorney-general. He took a prominent part in the question of the union of the British American provinces, was a delegate to Great Britain on public business in 1858 and 1865, and in the winter of 1866 took part in an un- successful negotiation for the continuance of the reciprocity treaty between Great Britain and the United States. He was a delegate to the Charlotte- town union conference and to that of Quebec, and in July, 1866, with the delegates from Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, met in London and adopted a scheme of union for submission to the home government, which was adopted. He was a judge in the trial of election cases in Nova Scotia in 1874, and was appointed a judge of the supreme court of Canada in October, 1875. He was instrumental in securing measures for the pro- tection of the Canadian fisheries, in establishing a complete system of telegraphs for Nova Scotia, and in publishing the revised statutes of that province.


HENRY, William Seaton, soldier, b. in Albany, N. Y., in 1816 ; d. in New York city, 5 March, 1851. His father was a lawyer in Albany. The son was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1835, assigned to the 3d infantry, and served OH the frontier in the Florida war of 1841-2, and in