John R. Henry Bio. Henderson Co., TX

Athens Weekly Review
Aug. 2, 1901
John R. Henry

The subject of this sketch came to Texas in 1842. He was then about
eight years old, being now 63 years of age. He has lived in Anderson and
Henderson counties during all this time. He landed in Anderson county
first on the spot where old Kickapoo now stands. His father once owned
all of the land where the old town stood. He bought it soon after
arriving in Texas; built him a little cabin home on it and after living
there several years, a land shark came along and persuaded him that he
had no title and he bought and paid for it again. The family consisted
then of his father, mother, and himself. He is truly and old settler,
when we come to think that Kickapoo after that grew to be a flourishing
little town, before the war being the main trading point for people as
far as 10 and 15 miles distant, the town itself being hoary with many
years. Now there are only a few houses lift to mark the spot where once
was a bustling business village. John Henry has lived to see it rise,
flourish and decay.
R. R. Powers, one of the first commissioners of Henderson county, was his
nearest neighbor, who lived just north of south boundary line of Anderson
county, on what was afterwards known as the McMillon old place, a
distance, John says, of 10 miles, but we know to be about 5 or 6. John
says the first time he remembers of having ridden on horseback was when
Buck Higgins came to his father's house. Higgins persuaded his father to
allow the boy to go home with him and he rode behind him to Rawlin. None
but the old settlers can remember Buck Higgins, who was once a familiar
figure in our county, who moved West and finally died 25 years ago in
Kaufman county.
After living two or three years at the old Kickapoo place they moved out
further on Caddo creek and remained there until 1860 or 61. John's
father named Coon creek and Mine creek. Caddo was then named by the
Indians. It is interesting to hear John tell the incidents from whence
Mine and Coon creeks got their names. He says while the family were
living in the neighborhood of Mine creek some 10 miles southeast from
Athens, his father found what he took to be evidences of a mine where
gold or silver had been discovered and worked in early days by Mexicans.
He discovered several places there he took to be old deserted mines. His
father became so much interested in the project of discovering and
working the precious metal of some kind that he prepared himself and took
a trip to Mexico on horseback through the wild wilderness, with no chart
or guide, in search of a Mexican that he heard could tell all about the
mines. He was gone several months and he and his mother were left alone
in the wilderness in a little log cabin. Provisions in the meantime gave
out. They had no meat. They had, however, old Beave (man's faithful
companion) and an old shot gun. Late one night he and his mother heard
old Beave barking. He was afraid to go where he was until next morning
about daylight. When he got there faithful old Beave was lying at the
root of the tree, giving an occasional bark to let John know where he was.
John looked up high into a sweet gum tree and saw the bulk of something,
he didn't know what. He says it looked like a bar and his heart nearly
jumped out at his mouth, he was so badly scared. His first thought was
to go back home.
The next thought, however, was we have no meat. I will shoot, and bang!
went the gun, and down fell the biggest coon that he ever saw. Beave
took hold of him and shook him around a while and dropped him. He was
dead. John, a ten-year old boy gathered, up his treasure and started
home, but Beave refused to go, remained at the tree and continued to bark,
so that his attention was attracted again to the tree, looking up again
he saw a large bulk of something in the green leaves. He shot at it and
down came another coon as large as the first. John and Beave sped
homeward with the trophies, related the incident to his mother, and from
this incident, what we now know as Coon Creek, got its name. The coons
furnished meat for the family for several weeks until the return of his
father. He found no Mexican but proceeded to work the mines himself,
built furnaces and dreamed of gold and silver for several years, but his
efforts all proved abortive. The signs of the old furnaces built by his
father may now be seen in Kendrick Knight's farm. From that day till
this the little creek has gone by the name of "Mine Creek."
John says his father died believing there was gold and silver somewhere
near there, and that is the long ago mines had been successfully worked
there. While John does not go so far as his father, still he says he
would not be surprised if there was gold or silver there or some other
kind of precious metal.
When he first came to Anderson county the nearest grist mill was away
over across the Neches, near Larissa, then there was no bridge or other
way to cross the river. His father would ride to the river on horseback,
hitch, take his sack of corn on his shoulder, walk across on a foot log
and carry it on his back the balance of the way, some seven miles.
Afterwards, Isam Mosely, the Bakers, Millers, McKeelors, old man Butler,
Peter Garland and others came in and settled in the neighborhood, all of
whom lived there long enough to raise families and themselves become old
settlers.
John says the first baby cradle he ever saw in his life was half of a
hollow log, split open and fastened up at both ends with a piece of plank
cut in a rainbow shape of make the rockers. He says he never heard of or
dreamt that there was anything like a store bought bedstead till long
after he came to Texas. He says so far as he knows people never got
sick and never needed doctors. In fact, the first time he heard of a
doctor he asked so many questions about him, as to how he looked, etc.,
that his mother had to threaten to whip him to make him hush.
He says that bear meat was the main dish always on the table, that his
father had killed many of them on Mine, Caddo and Coon creeks. He says
he remembers well on one occasion when his mother had dried turkey breast
strung on canes from ten to twelve feet long. This was the most
delicious tasted meat that was ever placed on the table. There was no
such thing as a hog in the country, never saw one until he was a great
big boy.
He never saw any newspapers in those days. In fact, there were no mail
routes through this country. When they heard from their friends in the
old states some one traveling through always brought the word.
John was one of the first to go to the war in 1861 in Captain A. T.
Rainey's company, served in the army most of the time and made a good
soldier. He married near Pine Grove in the county in the family of one
of our old and honored citizens, Esau Thompson. His wife now lives with
him in Athens. He has three sons, Willie, Ben and Edgar, all living in
Athens and good substantial citizens, upright and honorable.
The writer wishes to add his own testimonial to the moral worth of John
Henry. He has known him thirty years. John, has never done anything
low or dirty. He is a clean man and a man whose word is always his
bound. As a friend, he will do to rely on and trust under any
circumstances. That he is now getting old, may his last days be his
happiest days. He has certainly borne the heat and burden of the day,
blazed the way of civilization with unerring hand, that today we enjoy
the blessings of his and other's good works as pioneers of the great
state. Uneducated he made it possible for us to have a good school in
every hamlet by helping to found our government on a solid foundation.
Young man! Stand with uncovered heads when the old pioneers pass. We owe
to him more than we can ever pay.

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