CHAPTER IV.

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General W1ll1am Henry.

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     THE fourth child of the Rev. Robert Henry, William, was born April 12, 1761, in Charlotte County, Virginia, only six years before his father's death. His father's death left the family in straitened circumstances, and, in consequence, he had not the opportunity to acquire a classical education; but, possessing a naturally strong and comprehensive mind, he was able by his own application and perseverance to secure a good English education and a competent knowledge of mathematics and of practical surveying, in which he became proficient. At seventeen years of age he embarked in the war for American Independence as a volunteer in the ranks, serving to the end as a private soldier. He fought under the partisan banner of that famous cavalry officer, Colonel Harry Lee, of Virginia, and afterwards was with General Greene at the battle of Guilford, March 15, 1781, where he fought bravely in a determined effort to wipe out of memory the disgraceful scenes of Camden. He partook of the glory which was conferred on our arms by that well-conducted but indecisive action, in which General Greene, though he did not gain a victory, arrested the career of Cornwallis and actually compelled a retrograde movement of the enemy toward Wilmington, N. C, leaving many sick and wounded behind, while General Greene hung upon the rear and cut off the supplies. This active campaign on the part of Greene, in which William Henry participated, has justly been considered the turning point of the war, as it led to those combinations which resulted in the siege of Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis and his whole army.

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     In the autumn of 1781, at the age of twenty, William Henry came to Kentucky from Virginia with his elder brother, Samuel. I have seen a memorandum of their traveling expenses, some items of which compare with the standard of Confederate times, a single meal costing two pounds, ten shillings, six pence. He settled at first on Salt River, in Lincoln County, and made his home for some time at the house of George Caldwell, a family connection of his mother's first husband. There he occupied himself in surveying and locating lands, acquiring titles, etc. He subsequently moved to the banks of the Great Elkhorn, in Scott County, near the station known as "Flournoy's," and here he renewed his acquaintance with the lady who was soon to become his wife. He had known Elizabeth Julia Flournoy as a young girl in Prince Edward County, Virginia, a county adjacent to his own native county of Charlotte. The acquaintance ripened into love, and on the twelfth day of October, 1786, they were married in the house built by her father, Matthews Flournoy, near where the old North Elkhorn Church stood, on land now owned by E. N. Offutt, sr. It was known as the old Flournoy Fort. 

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     Matthews Flournoy brought the window glass for the house on horseback from Virginia, and this was the first house with glass windows in this region of Kentucky. It was originally enclosed in a stockade, and is now standing, 102 years old. After their marriage William Henry and Elizabeth Julia Flournoy settled on a tract of land about ten miles from Lexington, Kentucky, and four and a half miles from Georgetown, situated on the North Elkhorn, on which stream William Henry erected mills known as Henry's Mills for many years thereafter, and the road from Lexington to them is to this day called Henry's Mills Road. "On this tract of land," says the writer's father, Dr. John F. Henry, "I was born, seventeenth of January, 1793, in a log house which was pulled down not many years after my birth. This was situated on a hill overlooking the Mill Pond. January 10, 1895, Walter Shropshire, of Oxford, Scott County, writes to me, 'your Grandfather Henry's farm near Newton is now owned by Joseph Hall, of Paris, Kentucky, and a man named George Pugh has a lease upon it for many years. The Presbyterian burying ground is still there, but is little used.'

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     "About the year 1800 my father removed from the Mill place, which was considered unhealthy because of its vicinity to the Mill Pond, to a place about one mile north called Cherry Spring, from its association with the name of Moses Cherry, of whom it, with two very fine springs upon it, was bought. One of these springs burst from the base of a beautiful cove and supplied the house and cabins bountifully with the purest and most sparkling water, almost as cold as ice. The other bubbled up in rather a flat piece of land not far from a hill, and supplied the wants of the large congregations which worshiped at the Cherry Spring Presbyterian Church. This in my day was a" large double-hewed log house in which I do not remember to have ever seen a stove even in the coldest weather. It was situated on a beautiful hill-top, about three hundred yards from the spring, on the opposite side of the road which leads from Paris to Georgetown. An acre of ground was given by my father to the church, and to this I (as his executor) made a deed some twenty-five years after his death. In this churchyard were buried my mother, my sisters, Patsy Caroline, Lucretia, and Eliza, and my aunt, Mrs. Sally Irvine, the mother of Mrs. Speake and grandmother of Mrs. McKee, of Danville, Kentucky."

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     In reply to inquiries made by Dr. Henry, the Rev. F. G. Strahan, of Georgetown, who married a Miss Duke, and who had charge of the Cherry Spring Church, wrote, July 17, 1872: "I have examined the condition of the graves referred to in your letter. You remember, perhaps, that stone slabs with suitable inscriptions were placed over these graves. These slabs are somewhat damaged by time and the effects of weather. The slab over Mrs. General Henry's grave is perfect, with the exception of a small corner broken off at the foot. The slab over your sister Patsy Caroline's grave is broken in two pieces nearly across the center; otherwise it is perfect. The small slab over your infant sister's is perfect, except that the inscriptions, if indeed there were any, are almost obliterated. Great changes have been made since your day at Cherry Spring. An additional acre has been added to that your father gave and a solid stone wall placed around the whole. The old log meeting-house has been removed and a neat brick church erected in its place. Indeed, I suppose you would hardly know the place now or recognize the country immediately around it. The house in which your father lived has been removed and a fine dwelling erected upon the site." Again on November 22, 1872, the Rev. Mr. Strahan wrote in response to instructions as to improving the surroundings, protecting the graves, and replacing the stones: '' On receipt of the money you sent, the work at the graves of your relatives at Cherry Spring was executed according to the plan suggested. It is very substantial, greatly more so than when first done. The masonry is hammered stone, laid in cement; the old slabs are laid on in cement, and the broken slab looks almost as well as before it was fractured. The work not consuming the funds you sent, the Elders appropriated the surplus, as you instructed, for the benefit of the church, and they are thankful to you for it." On June 17, 1877, the writer visited Cherry Spring Churchyard, Scott County, Kentucky, and found the graves much as stated by the Rev. Mr. Strahan. There is no certain mark, however, upon that of Mrs. Sally Irvine, the sister of General William Henry, though by the side of the others there is a grave marked by two small, rough, irregular stones without any lettering upon them.

The most prominent slab bears this inscription:

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Sacred to the memory
of

El1zabeth Jul1a Henry,

consort of ,
General Wm. Henry,
who departed this life on the
21st day of November, A. D. 1813,
in the
46th year of her age.

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On a slab just north of this there is a small grave with the following inscription:

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Sacred to the memory
of

Patsy Carol1ne Henry,
daughter of
William and Elizabeth J. Henry,

who departed this life on the
14th day of October, A. D. 1814,
in the
16th year of her age.

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On a smaller slab next to Patsy Caroline's grave the inscription is almost obliterated, and is as follows;

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Sacred to the memory
of

El1zabeth Jul1a Henry,

Lucretia Henry,

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     The settlement about Cherry Spring Church is now called New Town. It is about one fourth of a mile east of the point where the "Henry's Mills Road," or Lexington and Versailles turnpike, comes into or crosses the turnpike from Georgetown to Paris. On the south side of the road the church is situated, and the village of New Town is just east of the church. New Town also contains a Campbellite Church about the same size of the Cherry Spring Church building. Dr. A. S. Smith is an elder in the Cherry Spring Church. He lives about one third of a mile from the old Mill site, now called Roger's or Thompson's Mill, on a hill on the east of Henry's Mills turnpike, just where the Elkhorn comes close up to the road on the west. His post-office is Georgetown or New Town.

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     In McAfee's history of the War of 1812, it is said of General William Henry that "he had not forgotten how to fight," alluding to his services in the Revolution and to the part he played in the fierce struggles for supremacy between the white men and the Indians in the then frontier region of Kentucky, a region known as the "dark and bloody ground." He encountered vast numbers of warlike Indians, and time and again imperilled his life in the constant endeavor that was being made to beat the savages back across the Ohio River. The providential interpositions in favor of General  Henry seem very marked in some incidents related of him. When the Indians gathered together in great force at a place now known as Blue Licks, Colonels Todd and Trigg raised a force to go out and fight them. At the rendezvous at Lexington it was ascertained that Flournoy's Station, to which General illiam Henry belonged, was too greatly weakened by the ardor of its volunteers. None being willing to return, a draft was resorted to, resulting in the sending back of William Henry and old Billy Stafford to take care of the women and children at the station. Both of these patriots had been confined at the station until they longed for active warfare, and so much did they object to being immured there again, while their friends marched to Blue Licks, that they offered all they had to their seemingly more fortunate comrades to change positions with them. In vain! the honor in store in a campaign against the Indians was too dazzling to be exchanged for worldly possessions. It was but a brief time after their departure before stragglers came in with the dreadful tidings that Todd, Trigg, and nearly all their men were butchered at the fatal battle of the Blue Licks. They had been led into ambush by their wily foes, and such a scene of carnage followed as never before and never since has been known in Kentucky.

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     Thus it appears that the two who were compelled to return to Flournoy's station were preserved against their wills. It is related of old Billy Stafford, mentioned above, that he afterward became a great land speculator and trader, subjects in which his mind seemed wholly engrossed. Upon one occasion he posted with great haste for a nurse and sent her swiftly to his home. Then on he went upon his journey to sell and purchase lands. When he returned the child was walking. He was a kind-hearted, improvident man, withal, often known to have on three coats at one time and all three worn out at the elbows.

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     One cold winter's day, when the snow was four or five inches deep, General Henry and his wife were at the station. He left two negro men near his house splitting rails. They were surprised by a large force of Indians, and after a hard struggle one, Dick, was captured, bound and hurried off toward the Ohio River. The other negro made his escape to the station and gave the alarm. It was then late in the evening, and David Flournoy (Mrs. Henry's brother) alone could be spared from the station to accompany General Henry in pursuit. They mounted their horses in haste, and dashed to the spot where Dick was captured. The Indian tracks were plainly to be seen, so on they rushed, hoping to overtake the Redskins. They imagined they could, every now and then, hear a sound floating over the hills like a cry for help. The tracks of the Indians in the snow showed plainly they were running; the pursuers urged their horses to their utmost speed, and then, as they could catch no further cry, they surmised that Dick had been gagged, and they determined to push on until dark. Then they halted and held a parley. It was apparent that the Indians numbered fifty or more, and, realizing it would be madness to rush into such a band, they resolved to return for help. It was afternoon the next day before the pursuit could be renewed. Just two hundred yards from where General Henry and David Flournoy had turned back the day before they found two Indians had taken to the tops of trees on opposite sides of the trail, and were there awaiting the arrival of the pursuers, with their deadly rifles in hand. These two videttes were quickly dispatched, and the main party pushed on to the river, but the captors had crossed it and carried Dick with them. He was never heard of again. This reduced General Henry's negroes to one man and a half dozen women. Surely "there is a Providence which shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may." One moment more and these daring young men would have bitten the dust, but Providence interposed and saved them.

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     General William Henry became almost immediately one of Kentucky's most distinguished citizens. In the year 1802 he served as a member of the Convention which framed the first Constitution of Kentucky, and he was for nearly twenty years a member of the Legislature from Scott County. In those days there was but one Congressional District in Kentucky. General Henry became a candidate for Congress with such competitors as General Thomas Sanford of Campbell County, Col. Robert Johnson of Scott County (the father of the R. M. Johnson who killed Tecumseh, and the grandfather of the late Jilson P. Johnson), and the celebrated Joseph Hamilton Daviess, commonly known as Joe Daviess, of Franklin County, who was afterwards killed at Tippecanoe.

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     This contest confirmed the rivalry, the hostility, in fact, which so long existed between the Henrys and the Johnsons. The Congressional contest resulted in the election of General Sanford, General Henry being second in the race, Colonel Johnson third, and Joe Daviess last. Though subsequently in the Legislature, General Henry was never again a candidate for Congress. The Johnsons succeeded to Congress in the person of R. M. Johnson, and maintained their political ascendency. At that day there was a Henry and a Johnson party in Scott County that existed for many years. The feud was great, and the struggle each year intense, but one of either party was almost invariably elected. The only personal difficulty recorded of General Henry was with Col. James Johnson, brother of Col. Robert M. Johnson, a quarrel that was the outcome of one of these elections. Col. Johnson had done him a gross injustice, and he manfully resented it. The antagonism of former days has been forgotten, however, by these two families, and among the later generations there exists the most sincere friendship and attachment, indeed love and confidence. General Henry's chance for national reputation, as a statesman, was destroyed by his defeat in the Congressional race. Had he been elected to represent his district in Congress, such was his suavity of manner and nobility of bearing, and such were his intellectual attainments, that no position seemed too high for his aspirations. He had friends in public life who would have been proud to have been associated with him. He was the particular friend of Henry Clay. When Mr. Clay came to Kentucky, he bespoke the kind offices of General Henry, who was a leading and very prominent man in Kentucky affairs. So highly did the latter esteem Mr. Clay that he placed his eldest son, Robert P. Henry, in Mr. Clay's office to pursue his law studies, and during his whole life Mr. Clay manifested an exceeding attachment to General Henry. After his death Mr. Clay's friendship was manifested to his sons, Robert P. Henry and Dr. John F. Henry. This feeling was not disturbed by the fact that when the names of John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford, and Andrew Jackson came before Congress for the Presidency, Robert P. Henry resisted the warm and urgent appeals of Mr. Clay to vote for Adams and voted for Andrew Jackson in preference, although Mr. Jackson was known to be opposed to Mr. Clay. This course, however, Robert P. Henry did not pursue from hostility to Mr. Clay, but to carry out his honest conviction that General Jackson was the preference of his district, a fact conclusively established by his unanimous return at the next election, without opposition, to serve a second term in Congress.

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     The question is often asked if we, as a family, are related to Patrick Henry, the great orator of Virginia and of the Revolution. There is, perhaps, little doubt that a relationship exists. General Henry, after talks with Patrick Henry, confirmed it, and said that they were certainly either first or second cousins. They were clearly branches of the same Scotch family, both imbued with the same general characteristics of blood, and equally devoted to liberty and religion, their freedom and their conscientiousness of principle. General William Henry's branch adhered to the Presbyterian faith and Patrick Henry's to the Episcopalian. It is gratifying to know that from the earliest records both branches were Protestant. Both were Whigs of the Revolution of 1776, and in different fields acted well their parts in that great struggle for human right, and both lived long enough to prove that liberty was no mere dream of the enthusiast, but the most real and substantial of all political and domestic good. May their posterity possess equal love and veneration for their country's liberties, and may they transmit these attributes of patriotic character to their posterity without blot or blemish. Dr. John F. Henry says: '' Before the removal of my father's family to Kentucky they resided in the immediate neighborhood of Patrick Henry, the orator of the Revolution, whom he knew and greatly admired. I have repeatedly heard him say that he had talked with Mr. Henry about the families, and they had found that there was a relationship, but they had not traced it to a definite source. As both families were from the same locality in Scotland, they concluded that they had a common ancestor far back in the distant twilight of the past. Doubtless we are independent branches of a common root, but what matters it? Old Patrick could not impart his genius to his own sons and daughters; then why should we desire to boast of being kin?

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     "I am proud to trace my lineage to the humble pastor of the Cub Creek Church of Charlotte. Were we to rely on the Winston name, so common in our family, we could only cousin with the wife of the 'Forest Born Demosthenes,' as Byron called him, and of her I never heard any thing remarkable. The perpetuation of the same names in different families, like similar words in cognate languages, shows identity of origin, though the links of the lineage may have been long forgotten.

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     "At the Baltimore convention which nominated Bell and Everett for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency in 1860, my brother, Gustavus A. Henry, a delegate, was said by some ardent admirer to be a grandson of Patrick Henry, and, notwithstanding he assured the gentleman that the claim was unfounded, it was so reported by the papers. For political purposes he might be a grandson, for in eloquence he is the equal of Patrick Henry if not his superior."

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      At an advanced age, when most men were seeking in domestic comfort the easy enjoyments of declining life, General Henry went forth as Major General of the First Division of Kentucky Militia under Gov. Shelby to fight the battles of his country. He had the confidence and sincere friendship of Gov. Shelby and of General William Henry Harrison. Five of his sons were in the same war, and proved that for devotion to country, for gallantry and proud bearing, and true patriotism, they were indeed worthy sons of a noble father, whose bright name was ever a passport for them to honor and renown.

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     On the declaration of war in 1812 General Henry, being General of the Militia, was consulted, but for some reason not now known did not take his place in the field until the summer of 1813, when Governor Shelby, determining to march at the head of three or four thousand mounted volunteers to aid General Harrison in the invasion of Canada, tendered General Henry the second place in command, with the rank of Major General, commanding the first division of the army. The third place was offered to General Joe Desha, then a member of Congress, and afterward Governor of Kentucky.

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     General Henry had been a candidate for the legislature at a recent election and had sustained a defeat, attributable to the overwhelming efforts of the Johnsons, and this appointment was under the circumstances peculiarly gratifying and , soothing to his wounded pride. He selected as members of his staff his eldest son, Robert Pryor Henry, afterward member of Congress from the Christian County District; Matthews Flournoy, father of Mrs. Robert J. Ward, of Louisville; and Thomas C. Flournoy, afterward of Arkansas, who was his private secretary.

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     General Henry served throughout the campaign with great gallantry. Of the five sons who were with him, three also served throughout the war, viz., Robert P., on the staff of his father; Dr. John F., as surgeon ; and William, as Lieutenant in the 28th Regiment of U. S. Regulars. General Henry was engaged in the battle of the Thames, and for his distinguished services he received the commendation of the commanding General (Harrison) and the thanks of Congress.

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     On his return from Canada he was attacked by army, or Canada, fever, as it was called, and prostrated by a long illness from which he never fully recovered.

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    These pages might be swelled to volumes in commemorating the noble virtues of General William Henry. No man ever lived who to a greater extent possessed the confidence and trust of his neighbors, whether political friends or foes. The day on which he started on Gov. Shelby's Canadian campaign there must have been five hundred persons present at his country house to bid him an affectionate farewell. Hard as was the struggle to him, he gently and courageously supported the drooping spirits of the wife whom he was leaving full of anxieties. When the command came to move, he turned to the garden about their home with manly graceful strides, and she, leaning upon the arm of her soldier husband, accompanied him, convulsed with struggling emotions of regret and patriotism. The crowd followed them to the little gateway and looked on in sympathetic silence. They walked back and forth along the familiar path under a grape arbpr for nearly an hour before her feelings could be brought to approach composure. Then, leading her to the doorway of their home, he took leave and was off and away. The picture of this parting is recorded as a vivid memory by those who witnessed it, among them one of his sons. General Henry's son, Patrick, says: '' The events of the War of 1812 are deeply impressed on my memory ; how the soldiers suffered for the want of blankets, and how our government was too poor to furnish them. I remember most vividly how my mother robbed her beds to supply the needy soldiers as they marched by on the way to the frontier, destitute of any protection against snow and ice. Yes, well do I remember it, for I shivered with cold many a night in that long winter; but, while I mourned the necessity for it, I blessed my noble mother for her lofty patriotism. Still, I trust if our country is ever engaged in another war it will not need private contributions to sustain its cause and protect its soldiers. During the war, when my father was in the army, I was post-boy once a week to bring tidings from him and my brothers, Robert P., Matthews Winston, William, John Flournoy, and Thomas, who, though not all with my father, were all in the tented field, and I will never forget the anxiety depicted on my mother's careworn face as she stood watching my return. Oh! what joy I felt when I was the happy bearer of a letter to her and witnessed her thankful eyes and hands raised to heaven in praise for the mercy granted to her absent ones preserved in health and safety. I remember full well how much opposed she was to my father entering the army; how she urged that he had sons old enough to take his place; that he had surely already rendered his share of service to sustain the institutions of his country, etc. His reply to her was that he was at the head of the military of the State, and that Gov. Shelby had again and again written urgent requests to him, asserting in one of his letters that he himself would not go without my father. Gen. Adair, who was also an aid to Gov. Shelby, united his influence to the Governor's, and my father added, even if he desired to remain in the ease and security of home, there was no good reason why he should do so when his country needed him. I remember well how his eye flashed as he exclaimed, 'My country calls me, and I must go.' He appointed my uncle, Matthews Flournoy, and my brother, Robert P. Henry, his aids, and throughout the campaign endured intense hardships and fatigue with manly courage. His children to the latest generation may well be proud of his high virtue and patriotic character."

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     Persevering with indomitable energy, General Henry was reaching a condition of competence when an unfortunate security debt swept every thing away, including every negro except the family cook. This did not break his resolution, and he was enabled afterward to rear his children in comparative comfort and give them good educations. He told them that he desired and expected to give to each, besides an education, a horse, saddle and bridle, and three thousand dollars in land or negroes. This he was enabled to do with this exception, viz., that those who chose a classical education and a profession had to be charged with the expense of obtaining these in the general distribution. General Henry enjoined upon his children not to endorse or go security for others, and thus to put the halter around their necks as he had done about his. He impressed upon them that honesty, industry, and economy were the chief supports of character, and that a good education was necessary to adorn and beautify it, and a high and honorable bearing to sustain it. Rallying from this disaster through sheer pluck, he was met with another even more distressing. Every winter he was away from home attending the Legislature at Frankfort, and on one cold winter day his large two-story barn, filled to overflowing with timothy and hay in the upper portion and crowded with stock in the stalls below, burned to the ground. There was between the barns a large threshing floor filled to the top with corn. The stables, cribs, and barns were closely locked up. About midnight the dreadful cry of fire was heard. His sons, Thomas, Daniel, and Patrick, were at home and sprang up at the terrible sound. The latter says, "the whole air seemed on fire, it was so light. The negroes thought the day of judgment had come. We quickly donned our clothes and dashed to the scene, in our alarm seeing nothing but the towering flames leaping through the roof, it seemed to the skies. We ran and stumbled over fences, stumps, and every thing in the way. Well do I remember the falls and bruises I received, for tokens of them lingered with me for many a long day. When we reached it the most appalling sight I had ever witnessed met my dilated eyes. The horses were wildly dashing about the stable in an agony of alarm, for the doors being locked they could not escape if they would. Cyrus, a negro man, risked his life to release them, but just as he had opened a door a huge mass of hay fell burning in the doorway and blocked the passage. The poor beasts had all but one fallen in terror and pain when the doorway was cleared. This one fell at the door, but rose again and dashed away, knocking down fences and every obstruction till it reached the furthest boundary of the place. Next morning he was found, dreadfully burned, and reluctantly we felt compelled to kill him to relieve his suffering. For weeks the smoke continued from the smouldering carcasses of the burned horses, till finally the blackness of ashes rested on the spot to mark where the fearful scene was enacted, the recollection of which will never leave me."

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     The strangest part of this incident was the arrival of General Henry the next day. The distance from Frankfort was twenty-one or twenty-two miles. There was no telegraph, nor any other means of rapid communication. Much to the surprise of every one, he said that the night before he had supped with friends out of Frankfort, and, returning late, his thoughts, as he crossed the high hill back of Frankfort, naturally turned to the loved ones at home, and, raising his eyes in that direction, he saw the brilliant light just where he believed his farm to be. At once he became uneasy, though friends tried to laugh him out of it, and with this burden upon his mind he retired, only to roll and toss in his bed the remainder of the night. The following morning he arose, convinced that some calamity had befallen him, and, as soon as the House of Representatives met, he asked leave of absence, and at once set out for home, reaching there in time to see the ruins of the barn. The blow was a heavy one. His circumstances had always been cramped, his family was large and increasing, and its members the subject of his daily anxiety. Five thousand dollars would not cover the loss, and this was a very large sum in those days. To increase his misfortune, suspicion of incendiarism rested upon two of his own trusted negroes. So satisfied was he eventually of their guilt, that for fear they might fire his dwelling also they were sent to New Orleans without recommendations, and were sold for about $200 apiece — a great loss to him in service and in value.

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     At the close of the War of 1812, while her husband was still in a very dangerous condition from army fever, Mrs. Henry, from excessive fatigue and anxiety, sickened, and on the 21st of November, 1813, died. Her son, Dr. John F. Henry, says of her: "A noble and a true Christian woman, a devoted wife and mother, to whose tender and gentle guidance I owe more than I can express."

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     The next year General Henry's only surviving daughter, Patsy Caroline, died at the age of sixteen, and the household thus being broken up, General Henry sold his fine farm at Cherry Spring, and during his protracted convalescence made his home in Georgetown, living alternately with his sons, Robert P. and Matthews W. During this period he was appointed by President Madison principal assessor for the third district of Kentucky, and spent two or three years in discharging the duties of that office.

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     About the termination of this arrangement, in 1816, he married Miss Hester L. Clarke, sister of the Hon. Cary L. Clarke, of Georgetown. She was about forty years of age, and in the year 1818, much to the surprise of every one, presented her husband with a son, James C. Henry, who died, unmarried, August 25, 1847. The "Old Lady," as the elder boys called her, died in Hopkinsville, February, 1852, a few years after the death of her son. It was the request of Mrs. Hester L. Clarke Henry that, instead of being interred in a burying-ground, she should be put under the shadow of the Episcopal Church, of which she was an ardent disciple. Thirty years after, in 1882, this church property being sold for private uses, her body was removed by Mrs. Cornelia V. Henry, nd the remains found surprisingly preserved, the bones perfect, the skeleton whole, the hair unimpaired, and the skin on the scalp intact. A black silk bonnet and dress which had been put upon the remains were in perfect condition. The whole was readily lifted by the velvet lining of the coffin and placed in a new one.  General Henry spent the remainder of his life in great retirement on his farm in Christian County, ten miles west of Hopkinsville.

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     He died on the 23d of November, 1824, from the physical complications brought on by army exposure, aged sixty-three years, seven months, and eleven days. His remains were interred near his late residence in the family burying-ground of his brother Daniel, ten miles west of Hopkinsville and one mile from the Newstead Presbyterian Church.

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     About 1853 or 1854 General Henry's son, Major Gustavus A. Henry, in connection with his brothers, Robert P. and Patrick, prompted by filial affection, placed suitable walls and slabs around and in the consecrated spot, that it might be preserved from ruin. The remains of his brother Daniel and of his sons, William and Thomas, rest by his side. This hallowed spot is west of the road leading from Hopkinsville, Ky., to Lindsay's Mill, upon a hill about one mile from the road. A plain marble slab marks his resting-place, and a few words of affection are the only eulogy there recorded of this good man. Some of his descendants (in 1897) furnished the means to repair and improve these memorials.

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     General William Henry was the progenitor of a numerous family of sons, daughters, and grandchildren. His example in all that was honorable, excellent, and pious among men should be followed with credit by his numerous progeny. He was a model of truth and honesty. His influence in his neighborhood and county and wherever he was known was unbounded. He was upright in all his dealings, the true and steadfast friend of the widow and the orphan. Poverty did not feel itself despised in his presence, but with confidence looked up to this sincere man of benevolence. In all the relations of life he was a model. It was a proud boast of his that no descendant need ever be ashamed to tell his name, for wherever he was known that would furnish the best passport to the confidence and affection of the people. Nor was this a mere idle boast, for he had not an enemy and never injured man or mortal. In every thing he was actuated by the highest and most honorable principles. He was as sincere and true as he was genuinely honest and veracious. His form and person were com-manding.  He was six feet two inches in height, and as straight as an arrow. As an orator, he was born in the '' prodigality of nature;" he possessed an easy flow of elocution and that touching pathos in expression which finds its way so readily to the heart. There was a pure and holy atmosphere floating around him which dis-armed prejudice and suspicion while it established confidence and a firm belief in the integrity of the man. It is a melancholy fact that so many of General and Mrs. Henry's beloved children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren repose in death's embrace at great distances from their loved farms and burial-places. Some there are in and about Hopkinsville, Ky., some at Louisville, some at Clarksville, Tenn., some in Clinton, some in Brandon, Miss., some in Missouri, some in Illinois, some in Iowa, some in California, and even the islands of the sea hold those in whose veins their life blood once flowed. But God's will is our will.

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     General William Henry seems to have stamped his strong and energetic character upon his numerous offspring. Their love of civil and religious liberty came from their long line of Protestant ancestors, on both paternal and maternal sides, who came to America that they might enjoy unmolested their precious birthrights. Thank heaven there is not a drop of the blood of their descendants tainted with the narrow and permeating spirit of the Roman Catholic religion, and to the Great Ruler is the solemn prayer offered .that there never will be.

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   General William Henry, in the select company of friends, or among those congregated about his happy fireside, was wont to talk for hours of the Revolution, of the Indian wars of Kentucky, and of the "late war," as that of 1812 was called. He had a jovial and cheerful disposition, and on these occasions would blend the humorous and the grave in his anecdotes in a rich and captivating strain, embodying many romantic incidents connected with these stirring times.

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     He was economical and industrious, but far more devoted to family distinction and the high and honorable bearing of a gentleman than to the acquisition of wealth. It may be said, without the slightest imputation of vanity, that for good looks, integrity, and honesty, and, above all, for morality and true devotion to country, the Henry family has been unsurpassed through many generations.

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   Patrick Henry says of his father: "Though he was not a teetotaler, he was strictly a temperance man, and was not addicted to any vice or evil habit. I have a very distinct recollection of his joining the old Presbyterian Church at Cherry Spring, in Scott County, Ky., and of his going 'to duty' the first time, as he called it. He prefaced it by a few remarks of deep feeling, showing what he considered his duty to be to his maker, guide, and protector through the many trying scenes of his life. It was a deeply solemn occasion. My mother had been a member of the same church for many years, and both died in the same faith.

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   "My father's second wife was an Episcopalian, and in the course of time he often at night read the book of Common Prayer at family service, whether from convenience or preference I do not know, but probably to please the 'old lady,' as we boys called her, really out of respect for her. As a speaker he ranked very high, and was remarkable for his clear and lucid exposition of the subject in hand. He spoke with deep feeling and lofty grandeur of manner, and, when he chose to persuade, few were more successful, and few could resist his eloquence."

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     Dr. John F. Henry, General Henry's fifth son, wrote of him: "So active and enterprising a man, and one so exemplary in all the relations of life, should at least be known to his descendants, and therefore I desire to perpetuate his memory, at least for a generation or two of those who come after him. His father dying only six years after his birth, and leaving a very small estate, my father early felt life's responsibilities. When I think of the poverty in which he commenced life, his limited education, and the indomitable resolution with which he met and overcame difficulties, rising constantly in the estimation of all good men, until so wise and brave and patriotic a man as Gov. Isaac Shelby conferred on him the commission of a Major General, and assigned him a command second only to his own, I am led to admire the manly qualities he displayed, and at the same time to acknowledge with shame that none of his sons, distinguished and honorable as some of them are, have done as much correspondingly to elevate themselves or their families as did their noble and estimable father. He was one of the most amiable of men, strictly honest in all his transactions, and just to each one of his children, giving to each the kind of education he desired, and dealing out his favors with an equal hand. 'I have understood that he was an efficient and eloquent public speaker, and that John Breckinridge, the Attorney General of President Jefferson, had urged him to study law, but the cares and responsibilities of a large family and his unfained diffidence prevented his embarking in a new career.

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     "In height Gen. William Henry was six feet one or two inches, straight as an arrow, and well proportioned. His bearing, erect in the vigor of manhood, became somewhat bent as the infirmities of age pressed upon him. He had blue gray eyes, Roman nose, with an exceedingly amiable cast of countenance. In conversation he was fluent and fond of anecdotes. Honorable and generous, not easily provoked, but brave, he bore no malice. His honesty was above suspicion. With very slender advantages in early youth, he acquired a distinction many, if not most, of his descendants might be proud to attain. He was unostentatious, unpretending, a true Christian, reverencing and worshiping his Maker and Saviour. At peace with all men and respected by everyone, he passed away almost unconsciously, so gentle were the last flickerings of his life. He left a good name, unstained by a single act of dishonor, and this was esteemed by his children a far richer legacy than honor or place, houses or lands could have been without it."

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     The children of William and Elizabeth Julia Henry were: Elizabeth Julia (died in infancy), Robert Pryor, Matthews Winston, William, John Flournoy, Thomas, Daniel, Benjamin Franklin (who died young), Patsy Caroline (who died before womanhood), Patrick, Gustavus Adolphus, Eliza (who died in infancy), and Lucretia (who died in infancy).

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     In his second marriage with Hester L. Clarke William Henry had one child, James C. Henry, who died unmarried.