John Henry

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Family Group Record                 0037
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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:         
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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)
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Children                 Five children identified
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 1. Sex Name
     M  John Henry (Reverend) junior
        Born:                   Place: 
        Died:    30 Aug 1830    Place: Batesville, Arkansas
        Married:                Place: 
        Spouse:  
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 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
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                             Moved to Missouri
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 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
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 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
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                         Moved to Arkansas in 1817
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 5. Sex Name
     F  Lucetta Henry
        Born:       Abt 1822    Place: Hempstead County, Arkansas
        Died:                   Place: 
        Married:                Place: Arkansas
        Spouse:  John Washington Green
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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.
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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).
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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).
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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.
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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).
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                     Pike County, Arkansas Census 1850
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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.
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                    Sevier County, Arkansas Census 1850
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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
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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
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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.
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Update 03.08.00              David Kelley 2000                 FGR-0037.HTM
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