Mrs. S. M. HENRY, widow of the late J. F. HENRY, was born in 1813 in Sevier County, Tenn., where she was reared. She is the second of nine children of Allen and Elizabeth (McSPADDEN) BRYAN. Her father had five children by a former wife, Elizabeth HUBBARD. He represented Sevier County several years, and was a prominent farmer and citizen. Our subject’s mother was born of Irish stock, while her husband had Scotch blood mixed with the same origin.
Mrs. HENRY was married in 1831. MR. HENRY was a son of Samuel and Elizabeth HENRY, the former a prominent farmer and citizen of Blount County, born in Virginia, but a resident of Tennessee since childhood. Both were of Irish origin. Our subject’s husband was a self-made man, educated by reading and study at home. He began for himself when of age, and at twenty-two married, and engaged at Louisville in merchandising for seventeen years. He then purchased and moved to a farm north of Knoxville, and lived there five years, when he moved back to Mrs. HENRY’s present home. He was State senator from the Blount County District from 1843 to 1850, and from the Knox County District from 1851 to 1852. He was candidate for re-election when sickness compelled him to resign. He made a splendid record as president of the Senate, one term, and was reported to be a natural politician and one of the best financiers in Tennessee, as was evidenced by his ease in gaining wealth and his invariable success. He was a remarkable reader and close student.
Their only child is Elizabeth J., formerly Mrs. JACKSON, but after her husband’s death, about 1862, became Mrs. Dr. J. A. BOND. Mrs. HENRY, now seventy-three years old, has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, since her sixteenth year. Her husband was a professed Christian, but a member of no denomination. He died October 26, 1884. He was an able major in the State militia for many years.
Source: Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of from Twenty-Five to Thirty Counties of East Tennessee. Chicago: Goodspeed, 1887.