JAMES EDWARD MCHENRY



James Edward McHenry was born in Missouri on 1 September 1835, a son of Mr. and Mrs. James McHenry who were both natives of Ireland. He was reared near St. Louis, Missouri.
At a very young age he was employed with the Kennedy, Frost, and Todd Fur Company [aka Frost, Stoddard and Company] who were Indian traders at that time and claimed to own Dakota Territory, arriving in the Sioux City, Iowa on a steam boat from St. Louis, Missouri.
James was one of the founders of Vermillion, Clay County, Dakota Territory. After arriving in Vermillion, and although there was a hotel building there, he built the first frame house and built and opened the first general store. During the time he resided in Dakota Territory he was a member of the first legislature of the Territory which probably influenced the naming of the new 1873 Dakota Territory County.
Between 1860 and 1865 he left Vermillion and went to Nebraska.
There are references that James served in the Civil War; that he joined at the outbreak of the war and served through the battle of Vicksburg. This writer could not confirm through current records as there were several in the war with his name. One reference indicated he served as wagon master for Civil War Generals Logan, Grant, and McPherson. He was appointed chief wagon master under General John A. Logan, in the Third Division of the Thirteenth Army Corps, and later served in the Sixth division under General McArthur, of Chicago, receiving his discharge in April, 1865.
In 1865, in Nebraska, he married Mary Frances Jones from Ellicottville, Cattaraugus County, New York. This marriage produced eight children. Their first born, Charlotte, died as an infant; James T. (1867), Ella (1870), Catherine (1871), Mary (1877), Rose (1877), Thomas (1879), and Edward (1882).
Prior to 1868 the family was back in Vermillion and it was then that he built the Bloomingdale Flour Mill, the first flour mill in the area. He was also involved with a sawmill in Vermillion and in Brule City in addition to being a legislator.
By 1879 the family was back in Nebraska, where he built the Plainview Roller Mills.
By 1920 James and Mary were living in Denison, Crawford County, Iowa in the home of their daughter, Catherine McHenry Flynn.
James Edward died on 17 May 1922 in Iowa and is buried at Saint Johns Cemetery in Jackson, Dakota County, Nebraska. Mary died shortly after on 14 September 1922 and is buried with James.
Sources:
1. Several newspaper articles.
2. North Dakota: Counties, Towns and People, by Joseph L. Gavett.
3. Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Nebraska, 1913.