Pioneers of Marion County by Wm. Wm. M. Donnel, 1872

George Henry

George Henry, who now lives near Knoxville, was originally from Pennsylvania. First moved from that State to Ohio, from Ohio to Missouri, and from thence to Lake Prairie, in the fall of 1842. Here, in company with Jas. Carnilius and another whose name is not remembered, they took claims and erected three cabins. But not being permitted to make permanent settlement, they returned to Missouri and remained till the spring following. Finding that the cabins had been destroyed by dragoons, Mr. Henry took a claim in what is now the northwest corner of Indian township. This was near Wm. Carlisle's, whose family cleared a small patch of land in the timber; on which they planted some corn and potatoes. But towards fall provisions ran short, and Mr. Henry started to mill in September, leaving but little for his family to subsist on during his absence, expecting to return in a week. Having no money to purchase grain or provisions with, he hoped to obtain some due him on the way to Keosauqua, where he intended to get his milling done. But being disappointed in getting the money, he tried to get some grain on credit, and after traveling three or four miles from Keosauqua for this purpose, was again disappointed. There was now no other shift but to look for work, and if he could get it to do, earn the means to buy his breadstuff. Luckily he obtained a job of making rails, and his employer kindly furnished him a house to live in and food till he should finish the job. The contract was made on Saturday evening, and will any one censure Mr. Henry for going to work next morning? With thoughts of his family at home in almost destitute condition, and really in danger of suffering ere he should be able to return to them with food, could he have spent the day more religiously than he did? So Mr. H. went to work on Sunday morning, and by Tuesday evening made six hundred rails, for which he received seventy-five cents per hundred, in an order to the mill, and this secured a little flour and few bushels of meal at fifty cents per bushel.

Having secured these articles, Mr. Henry set out for home with all possible haste. After going six miles, he was overtaken by a violent storm of wind and rain. He was near a house when the storm came upon him; so he concluded to go no farther, but unhitched his horses, put them into an enclosure near at hand, and took shelter in his wagon. In this frail shelter he passed the dark tempestuous night alone. Next morning, on going to look for his team he found the dead timber thickly strewn over the pasture, prostrated by the storm, and his horses luckily, and we might add miraculously, uninjured.

Mr. Henry now proceeded on his way, and being too eager to reach home to carefully regard the strength of his horses, they failed within twenty miles of their journey's end. He then went to a house near by to get some feed for them and for himself, and obtained some shelled corn; but the house could afford nothing in the way of human food but milk. He, however, made an arrangement with the family by furnishing a sufficient quantity of meal for mush, and they all supped jointly and heartily on a mess of mush and milk. By next morning the horses were refreshed for a renewal of the journey, and our hero reached home in safety, to find his family reduced to nothing but potatoes for a diet.

Just before Christmas, '43, Mr. Henry and a son of Noah Whitlatch, took two loads of flour barrels to Keosauqua. The weather was cold and stormy when they started, and a deep snow had fallen the day before. When they reached the Des Moines river, a little below Talley's ford, they found it frozen over strong enough, they supposed, to bear them and their teams, and drove on. It proved to be a dangerous venture. The ice bent under the weight of their wagons so much that the water gushed up in jets. But once started it would be as dangerous to return as to go on, and the safest plan was to make all possible speed, and they succeeded in reaching the opposite shore. On their return they found the ice gone, and had to ferry their wagons over on a canoe, and swim their teams.