I do not know where my great, great, great Grandfather, William McHenry was born or who his parents were.  I do know that he passed away at a boarding house in Vandalia, Illinois on the third of February, 1835.

The next day Senator Davidson rose to announce to the Senate, the death  (which had
occurred since the adjournment the evening before) of his friend Major McHenry.  In the Journal of the Senate of the 9th General Assembly his address on behalf of his colleague stated in part, “He now sleeps with his fathers.  In the death of my much lamented colleague, Illinois had lost one of her earliest and most devoted friends,” and he concluded, “And Sir, he died as he has lived, in the service of his country.”

The following day Senator Edwards proposed a resolution that told of the adventurous pioneer and gallant ranger that for years had fought against ruthless Indian invasions.  He also related how much he was endeared to a numerous circle of mourning friends.  On February 7th 1835, the House eulogy was printed in the Illinois Advocate and in part reads: “Sir, he was among the most prominent of those bold and enterprising pioneers of whom we speak so much, and of whom we are sometimes disposed to think, perhaps too lightly; who first disputed the mastery over these fair plains and their un-subdued forests, with the ferocious beast of prey, and still more ferocious savage.  He was among the first to scatter far and wide the seeds of civilization over this fair portion of the fairest of thee earth; and to risk his life in battle his health by exposure, and toil, that the present inhabitants of Illinois may plant their farms in peace, and garner up their bountiful harvests in safety.”

William McHenry, of Scot-Irish descent, was born October 3, 1771.  In the late 1790’s in
Logan County Kentucky he married Hannah Ruth Blackford, who was born in 1772.  Hannah’s
place of birth and parents, like William’s, are still being researched.  To this union nine children
were born, John, George, Henry H., William Jr., Martin G., Lucinda, Mary Jane, Elizabeth, and another son who may have been killed by Indians.

We do not know were William spent his childhood or became a young man. The area the
McHenry’s settled in was primarily bounty land country and was settled by Revolutionary War
veterans from the Virginia and the Carolina’s.  It might be that William’s family came from one of these areas.  We do know in the in the late 1790’s William and his brother Daniel resided in
Kentucky.  The brothers held title to numerous land holdings in both Kentucky and Illinois.

In 1794 William joined Wayne Anthony’s Cornstalk Militia and served as a Private.  The name
of “Cornstalk” was given this unit because many of the young men, who could not afford guns,
drilled with cornstalks as their weapons.  The soldiers furnished their own guns, horses and
equipment.  In Price’s Battalion of Mounted Volunteers he held the rank of Lieutenant and
participated at the battle of Fallen Timbers. This is the rank he held when he moved to Illinois.

In the book, “Portraits and Biographical Album of Henry County, Illinois” there is a biography of George McHenry, William’s second son.  It states in this book the family came to Illinois
Territory from Henderson County Kentucky, in 1810.  They located in White County.   It claims
at the time there was but five white families residing in the county before the McHenry’s arrival.

William McHenry’s family settled on the edge of the prairie on a major trail between Vincenees,
Indiana and US Saline’s, Illinois Territory.  In both Kentucky and Illinois the procedure was for a resident to be appointed to lay roads.  William was appointed to view and mark a road between Carmi & the US Salines; in 1825 he was commissioned to lay out the Carmi-Vandalia road and in 31 the road between Carmi and Albion.

The US Salines was an area of approximately ten by thirteen miles.  This was a salt spring that
was like white gold to the early settlers.  It was a labor-intensive operation and required huge
amounts of fuel to produce the salt.  Over a thousand men worked the springs to prepare the
brine and furnish the fuel.  The fuel supply around the springs soon stripped the vast woods.
Eventually new furnaces had to be set up farther away from the springs and wells.  The brine was sent to them in hollowed out trees.  This was thought to be the first pipelines in the country.  The white settlers preferred to settle on the land and raise profitable crops, thus requiring slaves to keep the salines in operation.

A blockhouse was converted from a mill on the trail between Vincennes, Indiana Territory and
the US Salines in the Illinois Territory.  William McHenry delivered a letter to the territorial
Governor William Henry Harrison of Indiana Territory. The settlers had heard of an Indian War. Eleven tribes were rumored to join the Shawonese in this action.  They asked for information the Governor might have in order they could prepare for the danger.  Out of forty-two or more families fifteen had elected to stay at the fort. William McHenry, his brother Daniel and nine other gentlemen, signed the letter. The Shawonese in the letter were the great leader Tecumseh and his half-brother Tenskatawa, called the Shawnee Prophet.

 In June and July 1811 there was reason for alarm in Illinois.  Several murders and kidnapping had occurred and many horses stolen.  In September 1811 the Illinois Territorial Governor, Ninian Edwards, appointed William McHenry Captain of the Militia. The 4th Regiment was formed and he and the twelve men who served under him daily searched a range of twenty to fifty miles in search of possible Indian troubles.  Raids continued to plague their area.  William was transferred to the 3rd Regiment, the Rifle Battalion and on the 18th of June 1812 war was declared between this country and Great Briton. This year also brought the attack of the Kickapoo/Pottawtomie Village, which was fought at the head of Peoria Lake.  Though on a bluff, the approach was made through swamp covered with tall grasses.  The governor himself and the troops found themselves mired down.  A foot pursuit ensued and several Indians were killed and the rest fleeing.  The village was fired and horses taken.  Apparently the raid did not do any good and Indian raids continued and the next year sixteen whites were killed or taken prisoner.  1814 was a time the Indians continued their attacks with renewed ferocity.  An act was passed to promote retaliation offering a large reward for the killing of an Indian.  It was a time of terror.

A petition, which was signed by William McHenry, was circulated in 1812 asking that Illinois be
made a second-class territory.  White males that were twenty-one years of age or older, and
who paid taxes and had lived in the territory for one year would be able to vote.  Congress
granted the petition.  Illinois wanted statehood but the population requirement was for 40,000
citizens.  The census in 1818 showed the territory short of the needed number of people but
Congress affirmed statehood anyway.  William McHenry was a delegate to the State
Constitutional Convention and elected to the House of the First Session of the First General
Assembly.

William was in Carmi for the voting on July 6, 1818.  The voting was done by voice (viva voce
voting), each man told the sheriff his vote and then the sheriff announced it publicly and recorded it.  This saved an embarrassing situation if you could not read or write. The fifteen men who framed the Constitution used in part the constitution of the nearby state of Ohio, which prohibited slavery.  Voting was delayed for a second reading and the part prohibiting slavery was changed. The new part was rewritten which prevented the introduction of future servitude and reserved the right to use slaves at the salines for one year. Willis Hargrave and William McHenry voted against making this change.  They were the two men that signed the original Constitution of Illinois from White County.
Click here to view the Illinois Constitution~Use the back button on your browser to return!
William was a popular man and well known because of his military service.  His military service included three major Indian conflicts, The Battle of Fallen Timber, The War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War. He was elected and served in the House or Senate for all but two terms.  He was serving in the Senate at the time of his death.

In February 1832 Black Hawk and his Prophet White Cloud representing the Sauk’s & Foxes
met with the Pottowatomies and Ottawas at Indiantown, (near Peoria) and tried to organize the
nations to save them from further encroachments by the whites. The Black Hawk war began in
April.  By May, once again William McHenry was enlisted as Captain in the Illinois Militia.  The Federal Government listed him as a Major in charge of a Spy Brigade in the Mounted Volunteers and he and his men were mustered in at Dixon. A large crowd gathered in Carmi to see the soldiers off and listen to Major McHenry’s address.  He told the wives, mothers, and friends to “be of good cheer; there was nothing more noble than to give a life to one’s country.”

Black hawk by now was rather peaceful and just wanted to farm the land.  The greater part of
the two month search was for the elusive Black Hawk.  There was some justification for anxiety
on the part of whites; Black Hawk was known to be still in the employ of the British in Canada.
His Indians had been very aggressive and he had never signed a treaty unlike the other tribes.
William’s spies accompanied by some Indian guides covered many miles to find if Black Hawk
had moved from their last reported location.  This was his last action.  He became ill in late July
and with others who were sick was ordered behind lines.  There was a great deal of sickness,
probably from bad water and inadequate food.  William McHenry was mustered out nearly
sixty-one years old on the 14th of august 1832.  On the 27th of August Black Hawk
surrendered, and on the 6th William McHenry had again been elected to the Illinois Senate.

There is much about William McHenry's life we do not know.  There are years that what he did or where he was is unknown.  There was a problem between him and his son William Junior. We do know he filed a lawsuit asking for payment for a loan and in it he stated he did not know where William Jr. was living.

  William McHenry had not yet been home for two years before his death.  In the book “Lincoln’sPreparation for Greatness”, Senator Paul Simon mentions that William’s wife was suing him for non-support at the time of his death.  In 1804 he deeded personal property “with love and affection” to three of his children, John, George and Lucinda.  After his death his heirs were ordered by the court to pay their mother Hannah a sum of eight dollars a year each.  He
apparently was against slavery, and voted against it, but among his estate were a woman, three
children, one boy and one man. He had slaves but we do not know where they lived.  After his
death, his children purchased them, and we do not have any information on what happened to
them.

It was an end of an era in Illinois when William McHenry died; there was no threat of Indian
reprisals.  The frontier was changing.  The early pioneers were no longer very active in politics.
There was a shift in population and once again the General Assembly voted to move the capital,
this time to Springfield.

William McHenry did not have the pleasure of knowing the County of McHenry was named for
him.  This certainly would have been an honor for a proud man, who loved people and politics.
And the house eulogy concluded, “But it has been his lot to die as he lived, in the service of his
country.”

 The search for my family history continues and has been a fascinating and interesting time.  I have found that according to different versions there is a conflict in some information and dates, and even first names. This happens when history that is taken from memories. The order of births may also be incorrect.  I lived for sometime with my Grandparents, on the McHenry family farm in Henry County I heard many stories of family long gone.  I am thankful for the information I have been able to obtain from many sources.  They include,” Portraits and Biographical Album of Henry County, Illinois”, “Lincoln’s Preparation for Greatness” by Paul Simon, the White County Archives, “The History of Henry County, Its Taxpayers and Voters”, and Nancy Lee Grau’s wonderful book, “William McHenry -Soldier,Statesman,Frontiersman".  There are many web sites that have been a valuable tool, I urge anyone seeking additional information to use this source for research.                                            Donna Buechler
 

Return to McHenry County~ ILTrails