Samuel Henry

SAMUEL HENRY, Merchant, Gadsden, was born in Sevier County, East Tenn., July 17, 1825, and is a son of Samuel and Margaret (Bryan) Henry.

The senior Mr. Henry was born in the same county in 1788, and his wife in 1798. They reared three children: Mary A., wife of A. G. Henry; John B., merchant and farmer; and the subject of this sketch. John B. was a soldier in the Confederate Army during the war, and the senior Mr. Henry, a farmer all his life by occupation, was with General Jackson in the War of 1812, and by him appointed collector of commissary, associated with Judge Porter. He died at Henry's Cross Roads, East Tenn., 1835. His widow died in 1845. They were both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The family came from Virginia into Tennessee away back in the early settlement of the latter State.

Colonel Herbert [see Ramsay's History of Tennessee], the maternal grandfather of our subject, was a distinguished Indian fighter during his days. He was a prominent farmer, and served many times in the Legislature of Tennessee.

Samuel Henry was reared on a farm, and received a West Point education. At the age of twenty-three years he entered mercantile business with his cousin, A. G. Henry, at Gunter's Landing, and was there until 1861. In April, 1861, he raised a company and went into the war, and was a member of the Ninth Alabama Infantry; and later became a member of the Eighth Alabama Cavalry, Clanton's Brigade. He left the service with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

In the spring of 1866, he located at Gadsden, where he has since been in the mercantile business. He was married in 1856 to Miss Charity E. Fennell, daughter of Dr. James W. Fennell.

Mr. Henry is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Honor.

Source: McCalley, Henry, Northern Alabama : historical and biographical.  Birmingham, AL: Smith & De Land, 1888, pp. 835.