--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Family Group Record 0037 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Husband's Name John Henry (Reverend) Born: 1779 Place: North Carolina Died: 17 Sep 1872 Place: Center Point, Sevier, Arkansas Married: Place: North Carolina Married: 1824 Place: Hempstead County, Arkansas Spouse: Elizabeth (Betsy) Ward Father: Mother: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wife's Name Ann Alexander Born: 12 Nov 1786 Place: Lincoln County, North Carolina Died: 30 Nov 1823 Place: Hempstead County, Arkansas Father: John Alexander Mother: Mary (Price) Morisson (Morrison) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Children Five children identified --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Sex Name M John Henry (Reverend) junior Born: Place: Died: 30 Aug 1830 Place: Batesville, Arkansas Married: Place: Spouse: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Sex Name F Mary Caroline Henry Born: 18 May 1809 Place: Kentucky Died: 15 Sep 1846 Place: Pike County, Arkansas Married: 1826 Place: Hempstead County, Arkansas Spouse: Isham Prewitt Latimer --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Moved to Missouri --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Sex Name M James Henry Born: 14 Nov 1810 Place: Bellevue, Washington, Missouri Died: 26 Mar 1895 Place: Married: Place: Arkansas Spouse: Mahala (Mahalee-Mahalie) Emily Shook --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Sex Name M William Henry Born: 14 Mar 1814 Place: Bellevue, Washington, Missouri Died: 08 Aug 1861 Place: buried ... Pike County, Arkansas Married: Place: Arkansas Spouse: Martha Ann Ward --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Moved to Arkansas in 1817 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Sex Name F Lucetta Henry Born: Abt 1822 Place: Hempstead County, Arkansas Died: Place: Married: Place: Arkansas Spouse: John Washington Green --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources of Information: Family Group Record: Rev. John Henry & Ann Alexander, Nora Garrett, Newkirk, Oklahoma (27 May 1993); Census Records: Hempstead County, Arkansas 1830, 1840; Pike County, Arkansas 1840, 1850; Sevier County, Arkansas 1850; Tombstones, inscriptions of: Center Point Cemetery, Howard County, Arkansas (Rev. John Henry, Mary Caroline Latimer); Pleasant Grove Cemetery, Pike County, Arkansas (William Henry); "The Crowe Family" by Reverend John Finley Crowe (about 1855); Howard County Heritage, Howard County (Arkansas) Heritage Club, 1988, page 277-278: The Arkansas Gazette, December 23, 1823, Volume IV, No. 53, Whole No. 207, page 3, column 3. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Died. In Hempstead county on the 30th ult. Mrs. Ann Henry, wife of the Rev. John Henry. The Arkansas Gazette, December 23, 1823, Volume IV, No. 53, Whole No. 207, page 3, column 3. (William Woodruff, Printer to the Territory, and publisher of the Laws of the United States, Little Rock, Arkansas Terrtiory). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Finley Crowe, Hanover, Indiana: "... John Alexander ... emigrated to Pennsylvania where he married. He had (five) children by his first wife, his second wife was Mary Price ... Until the death of Mr. Alexander about the year 1800, they lived in Lincoln county, (North Carolina). He left a family of four sons and six daughters. The sons were Alexander, John, James and Reese, the daughters, Violet, Jane, Elizabeth, Ann, Esther and Elvira ... Ann married John Henry in North Carolina. They first moved to Bellevue and afterwards to Arkansas. Brother Henry was a man of ardent piety and was licensed as a preacher in the Methodist Church and although he continued to labor as a local preacher he seemed to be extensively useful. He probably is still living in Hempstead County, Arkansas. His eldest son John was also a preacher in the same connection, a young man of great promise, but he died young. His mother (Ann) also died a comparatively young woman leaving five or six children. "The Crowe Family" by Reverend John Finley Crowe, DD, Presbyterian Minister, Founder of Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana (about 1855). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- William B. Nance, of Alabama Township, Nevada County, Ark., ... was married to Mrs. Caroline Edmundson, widow of William D. Edmundson, and daughter of James and Mahalie Henry, natives of the State of Missouri. James Henry moved to this country and State in 1818, and his father was the first Methodist preacher who came to Arkansas, and one of the pioneers of Hempstead County. Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, Nevada County, Arkansas, 1890, page 579-580. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter XXIV. A Pioneer Church. (Revs. John Henry, J. Reed, Salmon Ruggles, and others.) The Missouri Conference was organized in 1816 ... (and William Stevenson was appointed to the Hot Springs Circuit) ... which included all the country from the Arkansas River to the Louisiana line ... (and) this was all in the Missouri Territory, as the Arkanasas Territory was organized in 1819. In 1817 William Stevenson and John Harris were appointed to (the) Hot Springs Circuit ... Largely through the influence of Stevenson there came from Bellevue, Missouri a colony of Methodists who settled in 1818, and the next few years on Mound Prairie, a very fertile district five miles northwest of Washington, in Hempstead County. A company of them crossed the Arkansas River where Little Rock is now; but there were no settlers there then, only one or two huts. They brought their families with them, also live stock, some farm implements and tools, to plant a settlement in the wilderness. They fearded God, and religious worship came with them. The same year they organized a society and built a church. It was built of hewed pine logs and was in size about twenty-eight by thirty feet. A door in one side faced the pulpit and (a) large fireplace with (a) chimney at one end of the house. The Negro slaves worshiped in the same congregation and enjoyed all the religious privileges of the whites. This was the first Methodist church in Arkansas and was called Mount Moriah. Within a year this site was abandoned, and a new church was built near the old site, about a mile away. I think difficulty about a deed to the land was the cause. It was practically the same church, but the name was changed to "Henry's Chapel," which name it bore for fifty years. It was on Mound Prairie (not Mount Prairie). It is abandoned now, but the site out to be determined and a mounument with proper inscription be erected there. The centennial of Methodist history is near at hand. Let this be done, and let there be a great gathering of Methodists from all the State to commerate the occasion and give glory to God. Of Rev. John Henry, the leader of this devoted colony, let me speak somewhat. He was born in North Carolina in (1779). He was reared in a Presbyterian home by parents who worshiped God. He established a family altar in his own home. He lived for a while near Columbia, Tenn., then a few years in Missouri. He was licensed to preach before 1810, and elected to deacon's orders before coming to Arkansas. He labored much in preaching the gospel, a local preacher indeed, but a chief factor in establishing Methodism among the incoming Colonists, who peopled the State. He lived to the advanced age of ninety-three years, and died in Center Point, September 17, 1872. This was the first Methodist Church built in Arkansas, built indeed before Arkansas Territory was organized. Some of the names of these pioneers have been preserved. Rev. John Henry, Rev. J. Reed, Rev. Salmon Ruggles, James Alexander, Reece Alexander, Rev. Gilbert Clark, and the circuit preachers, William Stevenson and John Harris, probably made their headquarters among them while they traversed the country hundreds of miles in every direction. It was not only a colony of Methodists, but largely of Methodist preachers. The Church flourished, and soon produced and licensed many more, such as Thomas Tennant, John Henry, Jr., Lemuel Wakely, John Props, John Carr, Louis Props, Benjamin Bland, Daniel Shook, Nathan Shook, Rice Shook, Gilbert Alexander, and others. A son of John Henry, Mr. James Henry, married Mahalee Shook. Their son, H.B. Henry, is a member of the West Texas Conference, and his daughter, Miss Willie May Henry, is a deaconess of Crossett. She is the great-granddaughter of the founder of the first Methodist Church in Arkansas ... Lest We Forget, or Character Gems Gleaned From South Arkansas, Rev. J.H. Riggin, D.D., Rev. W.F. Evans, collaborator; (Pine Bluff, Ark.): Norton-Vail Printing Company, (no date), reprinted from an original edition, private library of Mary Woodward Lewis, Magnolia, Arkansas; Southern Historical Press, 1978, page 72-73, (revised & edited). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pike County, Arkansas Census 1850 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Schedule 1. Free inhabitants in Brewer Township in the County of Pike, State of Arkansas enumerated by me, on the 8th day of November, 1850. William H. Preston, Ass't Marshal. 128-128 Isham P. Latimer 44 m Saddler Kentucky Mary A.J. Latimer 36 f South Carolina John A. Latimer 17 m Farmer Arkansas Merica J. Latimer 16 f Arkansas James M.C. Latimer 14 m Arkansas Isham P. Latimer 13 m Arkansas Lafayette F. Latimer 11 m Arkansas Lousette E. Latimer 9 f Arkansas William R. Latimer 7 m Arkansas Washington P. Latimer 5 m Arkansas Charles C. Latimer 1 m Arkansas Nancy Meers 12 f Georgia William F. Meers 10 m Georgia Mary A.E. Meers 8 f Georgia Sarah E. Meers 5 f Georgia Isham P. Latimer and Mary A.J. (unknown) Meers married, 02 Jan 1849, Montgomery County, Arkansas Deed Book A (1845-1849), page 148. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sevier County, Arkansas Census 1850 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Schedule 1. Free inhabitants in Blue Bayou Township in the County of Sevier, State of Arkansas enumerated by me on the 18th & 19th day of Noember, 1850. H.G. Rind, Ass't Marshal. 353-353 William Henry 36 m Farmer Missouri Martha Henry 33 f Missouri Jasper Henry 13 m Arkansas William Henry 11 m Arkansas Margret Henry 8 f Arkansas Emily Henry 5 f Arkansas Lucetta Henry 4 f Arkansas James Henry 1 m Arkansas --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Schedule 1. Free inhabitants in Blue Bayou Township in the County of Sevier, State of Arkansas enumerated by me on the 19th day of November, 1850. H.G. Rind, Ass't Marshal. 366-366 John Henry 71 m Mth preacher North Carolina Elizabeth Henry 46 f Kentucky Samuel Henry 21 m Farmer Arkansas Greene Henry 18 m Farmer Arkansas Littleton Henry 16 m Farmer Arkansas Martha E. Henry 12 f Arkansas Sarah Henry 7 f Arkansas --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Schedule 1. Free inhabitants in Blue Bayou Township in the County of Sevier, State of Arkansas enumerated by me on the 19th & 20th day of November, 1850. H.G. Rind, Ass't Marshal. 369-369 Washington Greene 30 m Arkansas Lucetta Greene 28 f Arkansas John Greene 8 m Arkansas Ann E. Greene 7 f Arkansas Margret Greene 6 f Arkansas William B. Greene 4 m Arkansas Benjamin Greene 2 m Arkansas National Archives Microfilm Publication, Microcopy T-432: Arkansas, Sevier County, Roll 30. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Update 03.08.00 David Kelley 2000 FGR-0037.HTM ---------------------------------------------------------------------------