DAVID H. HENRY.

A veteran of two wars, an enterprising farmer and breeder of fine stock and one of the reliable citizens of Woodson County, David H. Henry certainly merits mention among the leading men of this portion of the state. He was born in Tioga county, Pennsylvania, November 29, 1827, and has therefore passed the Psalmist's span of three score years and ten but is still actively concerned with the affairs of business life. His father, David Henry, Sr., was a native of New Hampshire and married Lucinda Ellis, who was born in Vermont. When a young man he removed to the Keystone state, where he followed farming and also worked at the millwright's trade. However, during the greater part of his residence in Pennsylvania he gave his undivided attention to agricultural pursuits. He passed away about 1845 and his wife died about 1841. They were the parents of seven children, but only two are now living—David H. and a sister.

Mr. Henry, of this review, was the youngest of the family. He was educated in the Wellsboro Academy, at Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, and was reared to the work of the farm, plowing and planting the fields in the early springtime, and harvesting the crops in the summer and autumn. He worked at home until after the inauguration of the Mexican war, when his patriotic spirit prompted his enlistment and he joined the army. He saw hard service under the command of General Winfield Scott and participated in five battles, being wounded in the knee at the engagement of San Juan de Ulloa. He was then sent to the hospital in New Orleans. The term of his service covered almost two years.

After his return home Mr. Henry made the acquaintance of Miss Harriet Fairchild, of Canada, who was then visiting in Pennsylvania, and on the 3d of June, 1852, they were married. After his father's death, Mr. Henry and his eldest brother purchased the old homestead, consisting of about one hundred and fifty acres of land, which he operated until 1854, when he sold his interest in the farm and removed to Illinois, purchasing there a small tract of land which he continued to cultivate until the sectional differences between the North and the South involved the country in civil war. He was a Mexican veteran in whose heart the fires of patriotism yet burned brightly. He could not stand to see the flag of his country assailed so when the first call for three year's men was made in 1861, he

went forth to do battle for the Union, enlisting in Company I, Twenty-third Illinois Infantry, with which he was sent to Lexington, Missouri. His command there met a body of the enemy by whom they were defeated and captured and then sent to Chicago for exchange. Subsequently, Mr. Henry was sent to the Eastern army and participated in a number of battles, including the engagements of Fisher Hill, Virginia, Cedar Creek, Cold Harbor and one year's service in front of Petersburg. He many times narrowly escaped being wounded or killed, on one occasion a minnie ball passing between the sole of his shoe and his foot. In August, 1865, he received an honorable discharge and returned to his home, again having made a creditable military record as a defender of his country.

Mr. Henry remained in Illinois until 1869, when he came with his family to Kansas, settling three miles northwest of where Piqua is now located and four miles south of Neosho Falls. He secured a homestead of eighty acres and purchased an additional eighty-acre tract, so that he now has a good farm of a quarter section. It is fine land and he is successfully engaged in general farming and stock-raising, making a specialty of Polled Angus and Galloway cattle, of which he has some very fine specimens. He has done not a little to improve the grade of stock raised in the community.

In 1874, Mr. Henry was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who died at the age of forty-seven years. Seven children were born to them and were left to mourn the loss of a devoted mother. These are Lewis R., at home: Celia, wife of W. S. Cape, of Missouri; Alice, at home; David L., who is living on a farm in this neighborhood; Lenora; Willamet, and Lucinda, wife of R. L. Dunton, of Neosho Falls. The family is one well known in this locality for the sterling worth of its individual members. Mr. Henry has served as justice of the peace in Neosho Falls township for about sixteen years, proving a most reliable officer as neither fear nor favor can deter him from the even handed administration of justice.

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