Secrest, Henry

Born: 1806-1810 Kentucky

Died: 1866-09-20 Indiana

Henry Secrest was a farmer, attorney, state representative, and Democrat. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1826. In 1827, he was tried for sending and accepting a challenge to fight a duel, but was ultimately only convicted of carrying concealed weapons. In 1827 he married Sally Ann McNary, with whom he eventually had at least two children. By 1850, he was living in Greencastle in Putnam County, Indiana, working as an attorney, and owned $1,000 in real estate. From 1851 to 1852, he served in the Indiana General Assembly as a member of the Indiana Senate. He was a member of the Putnam County Agricultural Society at least as early as 1853. In 1858 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Indiana's Seventh Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. By 1860, he lived in Cloverdale Township in Putnam County, where he continued working as an attorney.

Jesse W. Weik, Weik's History of Putnam County Indiana (Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen, 1910), 56, 148-49; Indiana Marriages, 1802-1892, 26 April 1827, Putnam County (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2005) ; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Greencastle, Putnam County, IN, 501; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Putnam County, IN, 18; The Indiana Press (Greencastle), 21 August 1858, 2:4; Seymour Times (IN), 2 December 1858, 3:1; William S. Holman, The Constitutional Convention of Indiana of 1850-'51 (Washington: Gibson Bros., 1886), 16; Evansville Journal (IN), 29 September 1866, 4:1.