How Henry County Received Its Name

HENRY, DODGE, SAUNDERS

Posted By: Pat Ryan White (email)
Date: 2/24/2012 at 10:46:08

HENRY COUNTY, IOWA

HOW IT RECEIVED ITS NAME.

Ex-Gov. Alvin Saunders, of Nebraska, Tells of the Part He Played in the Christening.

Special to the Chicago Record:
OMAHA, Neb., Jan. 27 - Alvin Saunders, Nebraska’s war governor and ex-senator to the United States, talks interestingly of pioneer days in Iowa as well. He was one of the early residents of Springfield, Ill., and of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where he is well known by many citizens. The venerable statesman, in a reminiscent mood, told your correspondent how Henry County, Iowa, of which Mount Pleasant is the seat, received its name.

“I went over to an old settler’s reunion at my old home in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, last August, in order to tell the people there how their county happened to be named as it is,” said the governor. “I found that, had I remained in Mount Pleasant, or returned to it after retiring from the governorship of Nebraska, I would have been the oldest inhabitant of all the 20,000 who live in Henry County.

“The people over at Mount Pleasant were laboring under the impression that Henry County was named after Henry Dodge. I told them they were entirely mistaken and that it was named after Col. James D. Henry, one of the heroes of the Blackhawk War in Illinois, and I also told them of the part I played in having it so named.

“It was shortly after I had removed to Mount Pleasant, and the people were divided into two factions over the question. One group, who came from Ohio, wanted it called Hyland County, after their own home county, and the others stood up for the name of Henry. I joined the Henry party and did what I could for its success, writing letters to members of the legislature on behalf of the farmers in the vicinity, asking them to call the county Henry County. So it was called Henry County, although the Hyland people long clung to their favorite name; to this very day it is often called Hy-Henry County.”

[Mt. Pleasant Daily News, Wednesday, January 29, 1896, page 1]