McHenry, Henry

Born: 1802 Kentucky

Died: 1881-12-24 Menard County, Illinois

Flourished: Menard County, Illinois

McHenry was an early settler of Clary's Grove and New Salem, Illinois, coming to the area as early as 1826. He became well acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln represented him in legal cases at least nine times. In 1850, McHenry was farming near Petersburg, Illinois, and owned real estate valued at $1,200. By 1860, McHenry owned and operated a brick hotel on the public square in Petersburg. He owned real estate valued at $5,800 and personal estate of $1,000.

Gravestone, Rose Hill Cemetery, Petersburg, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Menard County, IL, 267; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Menard County, IL, 336; The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1879), 285; For McHenry's cases, search, "McHenry, Henry," under Participants, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; Interviews of Henry McHenry, 29 May 1865, and 1866, Douglas O. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, eds., Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements About Abraham Lincoln (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 14-16, 534.